A Nigerian-born Democrat, Oye Owolewa, who has been elected as a shadow United States Representative out of the District of Columbia is the first congressman from the West African nation in the history.
ABC 7 News had announced Owolewa’s victory via its Twitter handle early Wednesday morning.
“Democrat Oye Owolewa will be elected as a shadow U.S. Representative out of the District of Columbia,” ABC 7 news Tweeted.
About nine Nigerian-Americans contested in the US 2020 elections for different political offices at the federal, state and local levels.
Following his victory, Owolewa who is to represent Washington DC, becomes first Nigerian-American to be elected as a US (Shadow) Representatives.
Owolewa clinched the seat with 164,026 votes which represent 82.84% of total votes against Joyce Robinson-Paul, who had 18,600 votes, and Sohaer Syed with 15,372 votes.
These are what you need to know about the newly elected Nigerian-US Congressman:
- Oye Owolewa from Kwara, holds a doctor of philosophy (PhD) degree in Pharmacy from the Northeastern University, Boston.
- His parents, born and raised in Nigeria, raised him with two (2) guiding principles, a value in community service and an early exposure to science. This exposure became a love for science, culminating in him achieving a Doctorate of Pharmacy.
- In 2018, Oye was elected commissioner of his neighbourhood in Southeast DC. In this position, he served as the medium between the community and the local government.
- Oye worked to bring resources to the underserved by advising DC lawmakers based on continued community feedback.
- Some of Oye’s most notable achievements were increasing science enrichment programs in Southeast elementary schools, adding traffic safety measures and helping bring a Senior Day Center to the neighbourhood.
- As commissioner, Oye learned the value of being an advocate and community resource.
- Oye has dedicated his energy to educate and advocate for DC statehood and equality.
- He participated in the historic March 2019 lobby day, resulting in a majority of the House of Representatives supporting DC Statehood for the first time in American history.
- Soon after, Oye took his efforts to Annapolis where he joined the effort to end big money’s impact on our lawmaking. DC’s as close as it’s ever been to being a state and Oye is here to finish the fight.