Babatunde Fashola Profile

Real Name	Babatunde Raji Fashola
Age/Date of Birth	57 years (2020), 28th June, 1963
Occupation	Businessman and Politician
State of Origin	Lagos, Nigeria
Political Party	APC
Spouse	Abimbola Fashola

Babatunde Raji Fashola is a Nigerian politician and lawyer. He is the current Federal Minister of Works and Housing and also a former Governor of Lagos State who served two terms (2007-2015). Fashola was born on 28 June, 1963, in Lagos.

Educational Background

Fashola attended Birch Freeman High School Lagos and Igbobi College, Lagos. He went on to study Law at the University of Benin and graduated with an LL.B. Honours in 1987. He then went to Nigeria Law School and was called to the Nigerian Bar as a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in November, 1988.

Career

As a lawyer, Fashola worked in the law firm of Sofunde, Osakwe, Ogundipe, and Belgore handling wide range of cases such as intellectual property (registration of trade marks), commercial law, covering general contracts, company activities, mergers, acquisitions, right issues, ownership of shares and equity of corporations, as well as land disputes, criminal law and chieftaincy matters. In 2004, he became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria being the first member of the 1998 Law School graduates to attain the position and the second from the University of Benin, Faculty of Law graduate.

Politically, he was appointed Chief of Staff to his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. At the same time, he was an Honourable Commissioner to the Governor’s Office. Before and during his appointment, he served the state in various capacities which include:

• Secretary of the Lands Sub-Committee of the Transitional Work Groups (1999).
• Member of the panel of Enquiry into allocation of houses on the Mobolaji Johnson Housing Scheme at Lekki (2000)
• Member of the State Tenders Board (2002– 2006)
• Member of Lagos State Executive Council (2002-2006)
• Member of the State Security Council (2002-2006)
• Member of the State Treasury Boar (2002-2006)
• Chairman Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of Asset distribution among Local Government.

On May 29, 2007, he was sworn in as the Executive Governor of Lagos State under the Action Congress now All Progressive Congress and pursued some reforms in the state which saw some levels of development in the state. However, he was accused of mishandling tax payers’ money mainly on the then, ongoing mega city project. Nevertheless, in 2011, he was sworn in again for a second tenure.

After leaving office in 2015, Fashola was appointed Minister of Power, Works and Housing and in 2019, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, appointed him as the Minister of Works and Housing.

He is also a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), International Bar Association (IBA), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) and Notary Public of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He is also a patron of the Law Students Association of the University of Benin.

Fashola Awards and Recognition

• International Association of Public Transport (UITP) Award, 2011
• Man of the Year Award, The Guardian, 2009
• Man of the Year Award, The Sun, 2009
• Peace Award, Yatzhak Rabin Centre for African Development Governor of the Decade, 2009
• Award of Excellence in Leadership, Martin Luther King Jnr Foundation, 2010
• Man of the Year Award, The Champion, 2010
• Man of the Year Award, The City People, 2011
• The Corporate Governance Award, Governing Council of the Institute of Directors, 2012
• Most Labour-friendly Governor’s Award, Lagos Zonal Council of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), 2012
• Governor of the Year (International Revenue Generation), Newswatch Awards, 2014
• The Governor of the Year (Internal Security), Newswatch Awards, 2014
• Governor of the Year (Health), Newswatch Awards, 2014
• One of the 100 Top Global Thinkers for 2013, Lo Spazio della Politica (LSDP), 2014
• Recipient of the Stephen J. Solarz Award of the International Crisis Group of 2015
• Minister of the Year, City People Magazine, 2017
• Man of the Year, Silverbird Awards, 2017
• Award of Excellence, Hallmark of Labour Foundation
• Distinguished Alumnus Award by the University of Benin Alumni Association
• Platinum Award by Lagos State Public Service Club.

Personal Life

In 1993, Fashola got married to his wife Mrs. Abimbola Fashola and they have two children.