Caleb Olubolade was sacrificial and audacious leader in service

Former Minister of Special Duties, Caleb Omoniyi Olubolade, who died on May 11, 2025, at the age of 70, has been described as an altruistic and audacious leader. He was also seen by those close to him as a selfless and sacrificial leader. Olubode was a retired Navy Captain, former Military Administrator of Bayelsa State, […]

Former Minister of Special Duties, Caleb Omoniyi Olubolade, who died on May 11, 2025, at the age of 70, has been described as an altruistic and audacious leader. He was also seen by those close to him as a selfless and sacrificial leader.

Olubode was a retired Navy Captain, former Military Administrator of Bayelsa State, a minister during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, who combined the ministries of Special Duties, Federal Capital Territory, and Police Affairs.

During his 70th birthday celebration in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State, Governor Duoye Diri and his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, eulogised him.

Diri said: “I am compelled to break the protocol of my annual leave to send warm greetings to a selfless leader, the former Military Administrator of Bayelsa State, His Excellency, Navy Captain Caleb Omoniyi Olubolade (Rtd.), on the occasion of his 70th Birthday.

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“I extend my warmest felicitations to this highly disciplined and revered former Military Administrator on this milestone of attaining a platinum jubilee.”

On his part, Ewhrudjakpo said, “The Chief Operating Officer, COO, as I fondly call him, is a man of possibilities, integrity and character.

“His track record is distinguished, and Bayelsa is what it is today because he extinguished the appetite for greed and corruption to nurture a new Bayelsa of his era, even with the scarce resources.

“We are celebrating him because he is a sacrificial leader and one who we will refer to as an altruistic and audacious leader.”

Olubolade was born on 30 November 1954 at Ipoti-Ekiti, now in Ijero LGA of Ekiti State. He was commissioned into the Nigerian Navy in 1974, and attended courses including the Britannia Royal Naval College UK in 1975 and the Naval College of Engineering, India, in 1979.

On 9 June 1997, he was appointed military administrator of the newly created Bayelsa State by the military government of General Sani Abacha. As governor, on 4 May 1998, he established the Bayelsa State Council for Arts & Culture and laid the foundation for the development of the new capital city Yenagoa and other parts of the state.

Olubolade retired from the Nigerian Navy in 1999 at the start of the new democratic regime.

On two occasions, he sought to be governor of his native Ekiti State, first as an aspirant of the Action Congress (AC) in 2006 and in 2014 as a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspirant.

During the administration of Governor Segun Oni of Ekiti State, Olobolade was appointed chairman of the Ekiti State Project Monitoring Committee.