Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu (born 25 June 1965) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

politician who has served as the governor of Lagos State since 2019. Sanwo-Olu became governor under the platform of the

All Progressives Congress The All Progressives Congress (APC) is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Nigeria, along with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Founded on 6 February 2013 from a merger of Nigeria's three largest opposition parties, t ...

after winning the APC gubernatorial primaries against then-incumbent governor,

Akinwunmi Ambode Akinwunmi Ambode (; born 14 June 1963) is a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Lagos State from 2015 to 2019. He was a civil servant for 27 years and a financial consultant before running for public office. Ambode ran for office of ...

who had fallen out of favour with his alleged political sponsor. He is a graduate of the

University of Lagos The University of Lagos (UNILAG) is a Public university, public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria, which was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the education in Nigeria#First generation universities, first generation universities in ...

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degree, Master's degrees in management and finance, Master of B ...

Lagos Business School Lagos Business School (LBS) is the graduate business school of Pan-Atlantic University and is owned by the Pan-Atlantic University Foundation (PAUF), a non-profit foundation registered in Nigeria. LBS was founded by three professionals - Juan Ma ...

and the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

. Before his

gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

ambition, he was the managing director and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Lagos State Property Development Corporation (LSPDC).

Education

Sanwo-Olu briefly attended Government Demonstration School, Gbaja Surulere before moving to Ijebu-Ife Grammar School, Ogun State to complete his secondary education. He has a BSc in Surveying and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from the

. He is an alumnus of the

, the

and the

. He is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Training and Development (NITAD).

Career

Banking

Sanwo-Olu was the treasurer at the former Lead Merchant Bank from 1994 to 1997, after which he moved to the

United Bank for Africa United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) is a multinational pan-African financial services group headquartered in Lagos Island, Lagos and known as Africa’s Global Bank. It has subsidiaries in 20 African countries and offices in London, Paris and New ...

as the head of foreign money market. He then proceeded to First Inland Bank, Plc (now First City Monument Bank) as a deputy general manager and divisional head. He later became the chairman of Baywatch Group Limited and First Class Group Limited.

Public service

Sanwo-Olu began his political career in 2003, when he was appointed a special adviser on corporate matters to the then deputy governor of Lagos State, Femi Pedro. He was later made the acting Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget until 2007, when he was appointed as the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry by Governor

Bola Tinubu Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu (born 29 March 1952) is a Nigerian politician serving as the 16th and current president of Nigeria since 2023. He previously served as the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and senator for Lagos ...

. After the General Elections of 2007, Sanwo-Olu was appointed Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions by Governor

Babatunde Fashola Babatunde Raji Fashola ( ; born 28 June 1963) is a Nigerian lawyer and politician who served as the federal minister of Works and Housing of Nigeria from 2019 to 2023. He was the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (Nigeria), minister of Pow ...

. Sanwo-Olu was made Managing Director/CEO of the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) by Governor

in 2016. Some of his notable public sector achievements include the supervision of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) privatisation projects. He set up and was the pioneer board chairman of Lagos Security Trust Fund. The LAGBUS System and the Control & Command Centre in Alausa

Ikeja Ikeja is the List of capitals of states of Nigeria, capital city of Lagos State in southwestern Nigeria. Its population, as of the 2006 census, is 313,196. Prior to the emergence of military rule in the early 1980s, Ikeja was a well planned, cl ...

were subsequently established under his directives.

Politics

On 16 September 2018, Sanwo-Olu formally declared his intention to run for the office of the governor of Lagos State under the platform of the

(APC) making him a major contender to the incumbent governor

. His declaration attracted endorsements from major stakeholders in Lagos State politics, including the famous in-house political group, Lagos chapter of the

, the Governor's Advisory Council and members of the

Lagos State House of Assembly The Lagos State House of Assembly is the state legislature of Lagos State. It is situated along Governor's Avenue in the state capital, Ikeja. The House of Assembly is currently under the All Progressives Congress political party which is the cur ...

. This would lead to the withdrawal of Obafemi Hamzat, who had also declared interest to contest the position. Sanwo-Olu won the Lagos gubernatorial primaries of the All Progressives Congress on 2 October 2018. At the APC flag-off campaign rally held on 8 January 2019, Governor

, and several other political parties pledged their support for the candidacy of Sanwo-Olu. In a landslide victory over his main opponent,

Jimi Agbaje Olujimi Kolawole Agbaje (), popularly known as Jimi Agbaje; (born 2 March 1957), is a Nigerian politician who has unsuccessfully contested for the governor of Lagos State for four consecutive times, between 2007 and 2019. Early life Jimi Agbaj ...

, Sanwo-Olu was elected to the office of governor of

Lagos State Lagos State (, ) is a States of Nigeria, state in South West, Nigeria. Of the 36 States of Nigeria, Nigerian states, Lagos is the second List of Nigerian states by population, most populous state but the List of Nigerian states by area, smallest ...

at the 2019 Lagos State gubernatorial election held on 9 March 2019. He was sworn in as the 15th governor of Lagos State at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) Lagos Island on Wednesday 29 May 2019. He has been working on different development activities, one of which is massive road construction in major areas across the state. In 2020, Sanwo-Olu asked that the statue of

Fela Kuti Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerians, Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre t ...

that was erected by

be removed from Allen Avenue in

, to ease the situation of traffic in that area. He commissioned the Oshodi - Abule-Egba BRT Lane amongst other projects in 2020. He was reelected governor under the umbrella of the

(APC) during the 2023 Lagos State gubernatorial election held on 18 March defeating Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP) who came first runner up and AbdulAzeez Olajide ‘Jandor’ Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who came second runner up in a deeply violent and

hate speech Hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as ...

charged election that fuelled ethnic tensions. The re-election of Sanwo-Olu was contested by both Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP) and Olajide Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They alleged that Sanwo-Olu's deputy, Obafemi Hamzat was unqualified to contest the election because, according to them, he had renounced his Nigerian citizenship, and that Sanwo-Olu presented a forged high school certificate. On Monday, 25 September 2023, the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal threw out both Jandor's and Rhodes-Vivour's petitions and affirmed Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat as duly elected governor and deputy governor of Lagos State.

Awards

Sanwo-Olu has obtained a variety of awards in his career, some of which include: * Platinum award from the Lagos State Public Service Club. * 2009 Best in Human Capital Development award from the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). * Merit award from the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria. *Merit award from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management in Nigeria (CIPMN). * Merit Award from the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN). *LSDPC Impactful Leadership and Recognition Award. * Media Nite-Out Award for Best Governor of the Year (2020). * Special Guest of Honour awarded b
Ikoyi Club 1938 Table Tennis
(2025).

Personal life

Sanwo-Olu is married to Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanwo-Olu, Babajide Politicians from Lagos 1965 births Living people Yoruba politicians University of Lagos alumni Governors of Lagos State Harvard Kennedy School alumni Alumni of London Business School All Progressives Congress politicians People from Lagos State Nigerian Pentecostals Lagos Business School alumni