Wale Edun is sick, presidency finally admits

The Presidency finally admitted that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, battling health conditions, voluntarily resigned.

This was contained in a press release signed by the Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), Mr Bayo Onanuga, on Tuesday via his X handle, delivering his resignation and stating a deterioration in his health condition.

Edun, who clocked 70 on Monday and has battled recent ill health, dropped his resignation letter on his birthday, extending his gratitude to the president for the opportunity to serve the country.

“On Tuesday, before the Office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation announced his departure from the cabinet, Edun paid a valedictory visit to the president at the villa. He held an hour-long discussion with the president and then left to focus on his private businesses.”

The erstwhile minister whose resignation was announced yesterday, 21st April, 2026, with one other serving minister under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, were both appointed in 2023, where he served for a period of 32 months after he was sworn in.

Sometime last year, rumour has it that Wale Edun suffered a stroke and was flown abroad for treatment, but the presidency has debunked claims about the minister.

It was said that he is recovering in his Abuja residence due to a brief illness and is being attended to by Nigerian doctors.

In his earlier career, he was an economist and banker who later served as the commissioner of finance in the current president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabinet when he was the governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2004.

Wale’s professional life started at Chase Merchant Bank (later Continental) in Lagos, which saw him through the World Bank in September 1986, giving him the assignment on economic and financial packages for several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This experience led him to co-found Investment Banking & Trust Company Limited (now Stanbic IBTC) in 1989, serve as executive director in 1994, and later found Denham Management Limited, which has since become the Chapelhill Denham Group.