Busayo Oyedoyin: The 18-Year-Old Aiming To Be Britains Future Decision-Maker

Busayo Oyedoyin, an 18-year-old British-Nigerian youth politician from Hackney, London, whose passion for helping others has led her to meet: The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

With her hard work, passion, and resilience, Busayo has had opportunities to work with ITV London, speak at the House of Commons and has become a major influencer in UK youth politics.

Her focus:

She believes in a humanitarian way.

Busayo first became politically involved at the age of 17, after the pain of losing friends and the thought of child-less parents, ending youth violence became her main focus.

The British-Nigerian pursued this career believing youth violence is affecting our whole generation, as many youths are being fatally stabbed. 

Her enthusiasm stems from anger and frustration, after being in a community where people were dying and nothing was being resolved. She states, ‘if nobody is listening or doing anything about it I will make them listen by being passionate in everything I do.’

Her come up:

Busayo began to be noticed when she organised a meeting in the House of Lords with the London Youth MPs, whilst actively trying to change the issue of youth violence. Once her speech in the House of Commons sparked a viral conversation, Busayo had been featured on BBC London; that is when she truly became recognised as a powerful, female young person in politics.

Although headstrong, Busayo admits to having questioned herself in her political journey. She admits to being affected by others’ opinions as she once believed her voice was not being heard. She persevered and now believes that ‘small change is better than no change’.

Trials and Tribulations:

Busayo is proof that with stardom comes tribulations.

When interviewed with ITV, the introduction of the viral speech was used, where she said the words:

“Nah big man ting big up London big up Hackney yeah yeah” after saying the phrase “Thank you, Mr Speaker, thank you”.

This 10-second clip of her speech was spread all over Twitter and Instagram along with rude and hateful comments.

Busayo had intentionally decided to speak in slang to show that young people who speak in slang do deserve a seat at the table in such a prestigious historically white male-dominated space.

However, she was grateful for this experience as she had several young people supporting her on social media and decided to refocus on the positive thoughts and her identity.

Busayo admits to two things which have limited her success: self-doubt and imposter syndrome. If being the youngest person in the room isn’t challenging enough, imagine that room filled with powerful leaders who have the resources to make a change in society, it can be hard to imagine your voice being heard.

Advice:

Busayo’s most successful youtube post reached 73.9K views which resonated with all demographics: old, young, politicians and even parents. This renowned speech has also led to many opportunities and she is still in disbelief that huge media companies have found her speech so impactful. The video came about when she felt young people’s voices were not being heard. She felt furious at the public approach and how there was so much being said about ‘stop and search’, but nothing tackling the deep-rooted problem of knife crime.

She believes her faith, as a Christian, has played a big part in her political journey. She aspires to live like Jesus Christ himself and see people the way he did too.

Busayo leaves us with advice:

‘Believe you are the most ‘don out there’Always have your ‘why’ at the forefront of your mind.’ ‘Never underestimate the impact and power that you have because you are powerful, your voice, your actions, your moves and everything you do is powerful.’

Olakitan Delano