One of the amazons of Igbominaland and an ‘Iron Lady’ in politics is Yeye Otunba Funmilayo Olaseinde. She combines brain and audacity to succeed in whatever she decided upon. Funmilayo Olaseinde was born to Mr. and Mrs. Olaseinde on October 7, 1969. She is in the class of those which luck in their stars made them to be born with silver spoon. She attended Staff School, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) for her primary education and Our Lady Girls High School, Ile-Ife for her secondary school education. For her tertiary education, she started from the famous Yaba College of Technology, Lagos where she obtained OND in General Arts. She later gained admission to the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma where she studied Public Administration and obtained her Bachelor’s degree.
Henry W. Beecher said: “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith”. So Funmilayo takes her tomorrow’s handle with fate when she dabbled into the murky water of politics in Osun State. Again, the luck in her star also situated her in the right place and at the right time, she met with the right calibre of men who are “making things to happen” at the right time.
When she won the Chairmanship election for the Ifedayo Local Government in Osun State and her subsequent election into the Osun State House of Assembly as one of the Honourable Members under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2003 general elections it was the combined forces of fate and luck that worked the magic or ‘the miracle’ in her favour.
Though politics run high in her blood, yet she refused to hand off what she also knows how to do best i.e. Painting and Tailoring and Fashion Designing. She is a Seamstress to the core. She has prepared herself for the political battle and leadership ahead of her peers when she was exploring her influence at the corridors of power to attract developmental projects to her ora-Igbomina community. It was on record that through her effort, a General Hospital was built in Ora-Igbomina by the Osun State Government. She impacted positively on the people at the grassroots and her grassroots connection was a blessing to her when she was voted massively during the elections.
Hon. Funmilayo Olaseinde while she was the Executive Chairman of Ifedayo Local Government in Osun State scored many firsts because her administration was the first to tar roads in Ifedayo Local Government. She believed that motorable road net-working would bring developments to the Local Government Area. Her prudency was put into test when according to her: “I saved money for two years before I could tar the first road and that time to tar a kilometre of road that time cost N8m. She went further. “When we came in, the allocation to the local government was N3 million, gradually it was increased to about N6 million and the maximum we received before we left office was N11 million and I was paying about N8 million salary monthly, so if I did not save, there was no way I could do anything and I saved bout N70 million in two years just to tar good roads”.
Pointing at her other achievements when she was the Ifedayo Local Government boss, Yeye (Otunba) Funmilayo Olaseinde told Igbomina Today that she built Vocational Centres for Women, constructed 25 Health Centres, sunk boreholes, bought commercial busses for the NURTW members on government assisted programme, construction of motor parks, establishment of two area offices one at Ora-Igbomina and the other at Oyi Araromi, bought about 50 motorcycles for the youths as her own contribution to empower them and setting up the Kebimapalu Cooperative Society to assist artisans financially”.
Given another chance, Honourable Funmilyo Olaseinde said she would serve her people again any moment and anywhere her people might need her.
