- Lagos State’s gubernatorial election is heating up as candidates vie for the top job, with little attention paid to their deputies.
- Nairametrics profiles Islamiyat Oyefusi, the Labour Party’s deputy governorship candidate, highlighting her qualifications, experience, and political achievements.
- Oyefusi plans to implement governance frameworks, modernize legal institutions, and support marginalized groups if she and her principal are elected to office.
The gubernatorial election taking place in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial hub, has reached a fever pitch for who will become the next governor of the state.
Each governorship candidate has demonstrated how their background and experience qualify them for the job, however, many do not appear to know who their deputies are or how their skills will complement those of the governorship candidate.
Nairametrics profiles Princess Islamiyat Oyefusi, the Labour Party’s Deputy Governorship candidate for Lagos State. Get to know her academic, professional, and political background, as well as her plans for the state if elected.
Her background: Islamiyat Oyefusi grew up in Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria. Her father, the late Oba Salaudeen Afolabi Oyefusi, was a former monarch of the Ikorodu Kingdom.
Princess holds an MBA in International Business from the University of Hull and a law degree with Merits from Aberdeen Law School. She is also a Prince2 Project Management Practitioner and a member of the Chartered Institute of Governance in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Professional experience: She has over 25 years of Board and Public sector experience developing governance frameworks and managing multi-million dollar projects. She is currently the Governance Partner for TLGPPartnetship.
Islamiat is an honorary member of the West Africa Women Association (WAWA). She has been a strong advocate for women’s equality and right working with various legal NGOs such as Lawyers Without Borders, and serving on the boards of various NGOs such as SoulLifters, and Global Girl Child Development.
Political career and achievement: Although she left the PDP in 2022, she had a close working relationship with Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour in 2019 while he was the Lagos West candidate, and she was the senatorial candidate for Lagos East.
Her grassroots campaign in all 245 wards of important markets, associations, and groups in the 20 LGAs of Lagos served as a demonstration of her contribution to the current pre-election campaign.
Additionally, she organized significant mobilization efforts to inform women and groups about the Labour Party’s agenda for Lagos State and among IBILE Lagosians.
Plans on creating a Lagos that works: According to Princess Islamiyat, if their party wins, she and her principal will create an open government where, “Every Naira of Lagos state will work for Lagosians. A government that listens to people, a government where you are not afraid to speak because we are here to serve and not to be served”.
- Implementing governance frameworks
According to her, “I will use my core skills and experience to implement governance frameworks that ensure the achievements of the goals of our Lagos government, development policies and frameworks that provide an effective and efficient civil services and government institutions.
- Modernization of legal frameworks
Modernisation of the legal frameworks and institutions to ensure expediting judiciary activities within a reasonable and acceptable timeline and creation of legal institutions and, where necessary, create laws that strengthen and progress our society, not retard it, if not to protect us from others but from ourselves.
- Independence of the judiciary
Ensure that the judiciary institution of the state becomes truly independent, monitored, and regulated. Ensure that the 35% proportionally representative for women is signed into law in the state within 100 days.
- Support to widows, single parents and people with disabilities
If the party wins, she hopes to implement a support program for widows and set up and manage the campaign councils in the 20 LGAs in Lagos state.
According to her, “We will ensure that a department is created that supports widows, single parents, and people with disabilities.
