A former Deputy Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly and a current Consultant to the Ogun Sate Government on Power - Otunba Olusegun Bolanle Gbeleyi has thrown his hat in the ring to become the Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District in the National Assembly in 2019.
OBG as he is fondly called, a former Diasporian is no greenhorn to politics in Nigeria. He is the son of late Hon (Chief) E. A. O. Gbeleyi, the Otun Oba of Igbesaland; the 2nd Igbesa politician to be elected into the House of Representatives in Lagos 1964-1966 representing Egbado South Federal Constituency. His late father was also the Junior Federal Minister for Labour & Parliamentary Secretary for Labour under the Sir Tafawa Balewa Government before the first military coup of January 1966.
Otunba Olusegun Bolanle Gbeleyi
Otunba Olusegun Bolanle Gbeleyi
He has twenty years experience of active party politics and represented Ado-Odo/Ota II State Constituency, aka Ado-Odo/Igbesa in the Ogun State House of Assembly from 1999 to 2003 as a flagbearer of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
While he was Deputy Speaker, in September 2000, at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Conference held in London and Edinburgh as part of the official delegation representing Nigeria, Rt Hon (Otunba) Gbeleyi presented a strong case for Nigeria’s debt relief to sustain its nascent democracy, and moved the motion which was unanimously adopted for implementation by the Commonwealth.
In 2011, he was made a member of Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s policy drafting committee on Local and Chieftancy Affairs. This committee recommended the creation of more Local Governments which gave birth to the additional 37 Local Council Development Authority (LCDAs).
In 2016, he was appointed as a Consultant to the Ogun State Government on Power. He is in charge of the Independent Power Plant (IPP) project being carried out by Sholep Energy Ltd to generate 5MW of Solar power for the use of Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia and its environs on a "pay as u go" basis.
Hon Gbeleyi is also the head of a five man monitoring committee supervising the reconstruction of Atan-Agbara road with a fly-over. He has also been assigned by the Governor to coordinate the World Bank project on new power line routes of 203 km and five new sub stations in Ogun State by TCN.
Gbeleyi was born in Ibadan on 11th October, 1962 and is married with 3 children. He launched the first Nigerian tabloid - 'The Socialite' in the United Kingdom in August 1989.