For Olugbenga Ashafa, It’s 70 Years of Gratitude

In a country where anniversaries typically pass in a blur of forgettable tributes, the 70th birthday of Senator Olugbenga Ashafa landed like a gentle hymn of gratitude: measured, sincere, and strangely moving. At the centre of it all stood a man not drawn to noise, but to purpose.

President Bola Tinubu, himself no stranger to the trenches of public life, joined other dignitaries in celebrating Ashafa’s milestone. The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, lauded his “exemplary life of service,” reminding all that longevity matters more when it has been lived for others.

Her words echoed what many in Lagos East, and indeed across Nigeria’s policy corridors, have long believed: Ashafa is the kind of public servant who gives institutions their dignity.

Born in the alleys of Lagos Island in 1955, he climbed with quiet intensity, first through Christ Church Cathedral School, then CMS Grammar, before crossing oceans to earn degrees in Biological Sciences and Public Health from Morgan State University and the University of Tennessee, respectively.

From land reform in Lagos to legislative contributions in the Senate, his work has often been about systems. As Senator, he was the engine behind bills that reshaped urban transport.

As MD of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), he’s brought technocratic calm to a sector that has seen too little of it. And always, there is the consistent hum of his loyalty to Tinubu’s larger vision: first in campaign trenches, later in policy design.

Ashafa is not of the flamboyant political mould. But in a nation that often confuses noise for progress, his restraint is a kind of music.

At 70, he offers no grandstanding, just the steady drumbeat of continuity. The President’s celebration was more than a formality. It was a nod to endurance, to discretion, to the quiet work of nation-building. Gratitude, after all, is the proper anthem for such a man.

His 70th  birthday celebrations and book launch at Harbour Point Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Tuesday, July 22, were very successful. The event had in attendance the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu and former governors, Babatunde Raji Fashola and  Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and many other leading politicians in Nigeria.