Nigerian-born, Adeoye Yakubu Owolewa, was sworn in as a shadow United States Representative on on Sat, Jan 2, 2021. He was the Democratic nominee for the District of Columbia. This is historic as he is the very first Nigerian to ever occupy the position. He assumed office on January 3, 2021. His current term ends on January 3, 2023.
The United States Representative posts are held by elected or appointed government officials from subnational polities of the United States that lack congressional vote. Therefore, they are not seated in chamber of Congress. Also, the U.S. government do not recognize them as an actual member of the House of Representatives neither do they pay them.Furthermore, these officials are not allowed to vote either in full floor votes or in committee. They also have their offices in the John A. Wilson Building, rather than in the Senate office buildings. What they do is seek for their subnational polity to gain voting rights in Congress.Here are some interesting facts about Owolewa.ALSO READ: Meet Nigerian-Born Adewale Adeyemo, Prospective U.S Deputy Treasury Secretary- His father hails from Omu Aran in Kwara State and his mother is from Ibadan in Oyo State, they met in the United States and had a family
- The 30 year-old is the 4th of five children
- Owolewa is the grandson of Chief (Mrs.) Phoebe C. Ajayi-Obe SAN. His grandmother is the 1st Female SAN from the old Eastern region and the second female legal practitioner in Nigeria to be conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate.
- He grew up in Boston, attended Boston Latin School and graduated in 2008.
- The Nigerian-American earned a Doctorate of Pharmacy from Northeastern University, Boston and moved to Washington, DC to begin practicing.
- 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.
- In 2018, Oye was elected commissioner of his neighborhood in Southeast DC. As an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner of District 8E01, he served as the medium between the community and the local government.
