Two Americans with Nigerian
descent, Oye Owolewa, Esther Agbaje, and Nnamdi Chukwuocha have emerged
victorious in the US elections held on Tuesday.
While Agbaje won a House of
Representatives seat in Minnesota, Owolewa was declared winner of the shadow
election in the District of Columbia (DC).
During elections, voters of
the District of Columbia elect a shadow representative who is recognised as
equivalent to US representatives by the District of Columbia, but the US
government does not recognise the individual as an actual member of the House
of Representatives.
Owolewa scored a total of
164,026 votes, which represents 82.84 per cent of the total votes cast to beat
his distant rival who polled 18,600 votes representing 9.25 percent.
Owolewa from Kwara State,
who holds a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Pharmacy from the
North-Eastern University, Boston, contested on the platform of the Democratic
Party as a ‘shadow’ (non-voting) House of Representatives member out of the
District of Columbia (DC).
Owolewa is the first
Nigerian-American to be elected to US congress.
The Nigerian-born democrat
took to Instagram to express gratitude to his friends, family and D.C.
residents, for their support.
“Good morning. Looks like
WE DID IT!!! I want to thank everyone, from family and close friends to DC
residents. Because of your contributions and sacrifices, I stand before you as
America’s first Nigerian American congressman. In this role, I’m going to fight
for DC statehood and bring our values to the lawmaking process. While today is
day for some celebration, the hard work also follows. Again, thanks so much for
everything. I wouldn’t be here without you all,” he wrote.
Nnamdi Chukwuocha won
re-election as a member of Delaware House of Representatives from District 1.
As a Democrat without an
opponent, he won 100 per cent of the votes with 7,640.
Chukwuocha was elected to
represent District 1 in the Delaware House of Representatives in 2018.
With a bachelor’s degree in
history and a master’s degree in social work from Delaware State University, he
has several years of experience in local politics in the state.
He once served on the
Wilmington City Council as President Pro Tempore and Chair of the Education,
Youth and Families Committee.
In 2019, he was a member of
the Corrections Committee, the Education Committee, the Health & Human
Development Committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee as a US Army veteran and
Vice-Chair of the Transportation/Land Use and Infrastructure Committee
He is part of the spoken
word duo “Twin Poets” which was appointed as the State of Delaware 17th Poets
Laureate.
On her part, Agbaje won by
a landslide, scoring a total of 17,396 votes, which represents 74.7 per cent of
the total ballots cast.
Her closest rival, Alan
Shilepsky, a nominee for the Republican Party, scored 4,126 votes, which
represents 17.7 per cent of the total votes cast.
She will represent district
59B in the 134 member house on the democratic farmer Labor Party, an affiliate
of the Democratic Party.
Abaje was born in St. Paul,
the state capital of Minnesota, to Nigerian immigrant parents.
She attended George
Washington University, DC, with a first degree in political science.
She holds a master’s degree
in public administration from the University of Pennsylvania, and a law degree
from Harvard University.
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