About Yeside
Thirty-five years running the system. Now seeking to represent the people it serves.
Her story
She did not learn about Amuwo Odofin during a campaign.
Yeside Kafayat Ilesanmi has spent her working life in the service of Lagos State. She began as a classroom teacher, rose to vice principal, and retired in 2025 as a Director in the Lagos State Ministry of Education, Education District V, after thirty-five years in the state civil service.
Education District V covers Amuwo Odofin. For years, the schools of this constituency, their staffing, their conditions and their shortfalls, sat within her direct responsibility. She did not learn about Amuwo Odofin during a campaign.
Rooted in Amuwo Odofin
A Lagosian of Lagos Island origin with family ties to Amuwo Odofin, she has lived in the constituency for over forty years.
A record of organising
Within the Peoples Democratic Party she served as youth leader, woman leader, executive committee member and treasurer. She was part of the organising leadership behind the party’s House of Representatives victories in Amuwo Odofin in 2011 and 2015, and its Lagos State House of Assembly victory in Amuwo Odofin Constituency II in 2015.
Today she contests under the Allied Peoples Movement, the platform of the opposition alliance, in the 2027 general elections.
Career
From the classroom to the director's office.
- Lagos State service
Classroom teacher
Began her career in a Lagos State classroom.
Vice principal
Director, Education District V
Lagos State Ministry of Education, Level 17. The district covers Amuwo-Odofin, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Ojo and Badagry.
- 2025
Retired
After thirty-five years in the state civil service.
- 2027
Candidate, House of Representatives
Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency, Allied Peoples Movement.
Why I am contesting
I did not come to politics late. I came to the ballot late.
For thirty-five years I was answerable to a file, a schedule and an audit. I intend to be answerable to you in the same way.
Yeside Kafayat Ilesanmi
What I have seen
I joined the Lagos State civil service as a classroom teacher and left it as a Director. In between I watched the same problems arrive every year, and I watched decisions about this constituency get taken by people who had never stood in one of its classrooms or waited in one of its clinics.
I also watched what happens when the paperwork is done properly and the money reaches where it was meant to go. It works. That is the part people forget. The system is not broken beyond use. It is badly attended.
Why now
I have spent years building campaigns for other people. In 2011 and 2015 I helped win this seat for this constituency. I know what it costs to knock on the doors, and I know what usually happens afterwards, which is less than was promised.
I retired in 2025. I am not contesting to begin a career. I am contesting because I have thirty-five years of knowing how government actually moves, and I would rather spend that knowledge here than keep it to myself.
What I believe representation is
Representation is not attendance in Abuja. It is being the person who asks the question about Amuwo-Odofin that nobody else in the chamber will ask, and then coming home and telling you what the answer was.
For thirty-five years I was answerable to a file, a schedule and an audit. I intend to be answerable to you in the same way.
Gallery
Yeside Ilesanmi
