Babatunde Raji Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, and former governor of Lagos State, 54, June 28. Born in Lagos, he attended Birch Freeman High school Lagos; Igbobi College Lagos; and University of Benin, Edo State. He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, 1988. His legal career of over one and a half decades, commenced in the law Firm of Sofunde, Osakwe, Ogundipe and Belgore, where he cut his legal teeth as a litigator over such wide-ranging areas of specialisation 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 all of which he has come to acquire appreciable expertise and vast experience. He was Chief of Staff to his predecessor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Fashola had during his tenure as Chief of Staff also dubbed as the Honourable Commissioner to the Governor’s office. He was the first person to hold both offices simultaneously. He was elected governor of Lagos State in 2007 and was re-elected in 2011. On November 11 2015, he was appointed minister by President Muhammadu Buhari.

—  Jul 03, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT