* How He Has Cleaned Out Big Time
The tang of money is sweet like nectar; the common procurer of tastes and species of woodland butterflies. Thus a chap with money attains the visage of a charmed man. Gbolahan Lawal has caught the money bug. His designation and encounter with money functions for him as a procurer of people, plaudits and prestige just like it did for his predecessors in that ministry. Gbolahan’s romance with Lagos State government has seen three different administrations
There is money in the Housing Ministry, like his predecessors, is making the most of it within the ambits of the law, due process and professional ethics. Now in and around Lagos, Gbolahan is renowned and respected for his deep pocket and la vida loca lifestyle. Skilfully evasive, Gbolahan has been cleaning up since his path crossed that of Asiwaju.
His appointment as Asiwaju’s Police orderly was a game changer for the University of Port-Harcourt, Botany graduate. Gbolahan was one of those stern looking security aides standing neck-close to their principal, Tinubu, which he did religiously between 2001 and 2007 before he voluntarily retired from the Force in 2008 as a Superintendent of Police.
As a core Asiwaju devotee, fortune found him when his benefactor facilitated his upgrade and was appointed the Senior Special Assistant on Special Projects to the then Governor Babatunde Fashola, a position through which he same in contact with real riches as a result of mediating between Lagos State government and a quite number of agro-allied multinational companies with investment interests in the state.
It was to his credit that the activities of the Agriculture-based Youth Empowerment Scheme (Agric-YES) experienced some success. He would later be appointed as the state Commissioner of Agriculture and Cooperatives, lasting the entire second term of Fashola. While many other commissioners of that era received cold shoulders at the expiration of Fashola’s tenure in 2015 and fell out of favour with the incumbent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Gbolahan was one of the few on whom fate smiled and brought back, manning the Housing Ministry, adjudged one of the juiciest in Lagos.
His untiring drive to close the gap of housing deficit in Lagos might have been a challenging task; the opportunities in scaling the challenge is equally enriching for the Development expert whose penchant for learning has taken him to Harvard Kennedy School, World Bank Institute and other West-based institutes.
There is no gainsaying Gbolahan is extremely rich, too rich for his age perhaps but despite his intimidating wealth, he is very humble and supportive of his friends and family. Having been in government for over 17 years, it is indeed admirable of Gbolahan that he never lets his success get to his head; he remains impressively humble and devoted to his loved ones.