Demola Seriki, Father Of Grammy-Nominated Singer And Nigeria’s Ambassador To Spain, Dies At 63
Demola Seriki, Nigerian diplomat and politician who served as the country’s ambassador to Spain has passed away at the age of 63.
A family statement said he died in Madrid, the capital of Spain, on Thursday, December 15, 2022. The statement did not state the cause of his death.
Born on November 30, 1959, in Lagos, Seriki began his career as a clerical officer in the Lagos City Council, City Hall, Lagos in 1978. Later he proceeded to New York where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in Accounting, Finance, and Management from the City University of New York.
After the completion of his degree in 1984, he became a teacher and counsellor at New York’s John F. Kennedy High School, Walton High School, and Springfield Gardens High School, teaching accounting and business mathematics until 1986. He joined Koskolowsky and Co as an assistant manager (audit) for a year before returning to Nigeria to join Equity and Trust Finance Company Limited.
Seriki was appointed chairman of the Lagos State Sports Council in 1992 and started the Perpetual Investment and Finance Company Limited (PIFCO) in 1993.
Seriki’s foray into politics began in 1992 when he ran as a senatorial candidate for the Lagos Central Senatorial District, on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention. In 1999, he was appointed a National Fund Raising Committee member in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the National elections and in 2003, he was the party’s flag bearer to the National Assembly, representing Lagos Island federal constituency.
He was appointed minister of State for Agriculture and Water Resources in 2007 and supervising Minister for Mines and Steel Development in 2008. He served as Minister of State for Defence in 2008 and Minister of State for Interior from 2009 to 2010.
In 2011, he resigned from the PDP to join the Action Congress of Nigeria. In January 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him Nigeria’s minister to Spain, a position he held until his death. He was also conferred with a National Honour by the president in October 2022.
Seriki met his wife, Oluremi in 1977 before he moved to the United States where they got married. He also married Wolilat Okoya, the sister of industrialist, Rasaq Okoya, who owns the Eleganza group of companies. Seriki’s daughter, Faridah “Kah-Lo” Seriki, was nominated for a Grammy Award for the song ‘Rinse and Repeat’ with British DJ, Riton in 2017.
