He would sneak into Gbagada estate from a big hole in the wall that demarcated Gbagada from Pedro and into the primary school where we played Sunday football
We used to pray for him not to come cos he was lethal.
He will take the ball and dribble the whole field and score over and over again and we will say, Oya Sean Penn go and sit down.
Then I lost touch. Years passed, over 15 years I suppose.
Then I saw his poster. He wanted to be a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly
On that Sunday football field, Wise Ken was the only one who showed any affinity to politics through his elder brother
Sean Penn had gone into banking and had done Prudent, Sky Bank and Heritage Bank
It was at Heritage that I stumbled on him for a brief second and after that nothing
Then one day, I saw a news report and it had a pic and they wrote Oluwaseun Osiyemi, Commissioner for Transport
I didn’t look too carefully cos in this cabinet it was only Toke Benson that I knew and much much later Tokunbo Wahab the rest were faceless
Then I looked closer and screamed – Sean Pennnnnnn. Sean Penn na Commisoner o
I quickly wrote an article about him in my thisday column and said ohhh see person wey I dey kick for football field ooo
He reached out and we had a good laugh
Seun is the Commissioner of Transport with about 9 agencies under his ministry including the famous LASTMA, Lamata, and LBSL to mention a few
Under his care, his Ministry have worked very assiduously with Mr Governor to deliver on the Rail vision of the administration
The blue line which is fully electric and which runs from Marina to Mile 2, is a case in point.
With the Red and Green lines, the rail system has moved over 6 million people in less than three years, according to my independent research
One thing you cannot take away from the Lagos system, is its ability to identify super talent and deploy them
If you look across the whole spectrum of the Lagos state Governance structure, you will find a wide spectre of talent running key Ministeries and strategic parastatals
From Tokunbo Wahab who is simply one of the most brilliant so far, to my egbon Ayo Subair who can easily be named the most successful sub-national Revenue chief to the recent Olusola Faleye who is already repairing a lot of damage at the LBIC, you will concede that the system despite its atrophic nature is expert in pulling out the very best and allowing them to go to work under the guidance of the overall vision
Suen sits very sweetly into this vortex as he was pulled out of a very successful run in private business which had seen him play very succinctly in Hospitality, Real Estate and oil&Gas and into governance.
He has brought the discipline and doggedness plus his Pedro/bariga street smarts, into governance and this shows in the way he has moved under Gov Sanwoolu to deliver on His Excellency’s vision.
Ran into him the other night at a nice watering hole in Ikoyi where a lot of strategic people meet to unwind and I ran to hug him and said – Seun where are you? LASTMA caught me last week and he retorted, ” You dey craze wetin you do.
Seun represents the now and also stands like a bridge between the recent shift towards developmental leadership and the future where technology is expected to drive vision as we move Lagos into a new era of massive engagement with its people and the rest of the world
Sean Penn, na wa o
Thanks, bro.
Duke of Shomolu
Last modified: May 7, 2026
