By Isqil Najim
On June 4, 2026, the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) conferred its highest honour on Engr. Oliyide Priscillia Feyi (Nee Da-Costa) along with other distinguished engineers in Abuja.
For Engr Oliyide, however, the journey is one of services, quietly built over more than a decade of work inside the Lagos State Local Government system where she contributes immensely to the electrification of Lagos cities.
In a profession that is male dominated as Engineering, this is an impressive feat. the more women in Engineering rise to the top, the more the country build up its pool of human capacity.
For over a decade, Feyi has been part of the reasons dozens of streets in Lagos State enjoy light at night. A road here, a drainage line there, a court building rebuilt, a street that used to go dark at seven and now doesn’t.
Feyi came up through the polytechnic system a path many Nigerian engineering has often looked past because of its long journey, even though it has quietly trained some of the country’s most hands-on, site-tested engineers.
It started with a National Diploma in Electrical Engineering from Federal Polytechnic Ilaro in 1991, followed by a Higher National Diploma at Yaba College of Technology in 1997. Fifteen years into her career, with a body of fieldwork already behind her, she went back to school again earning a Postgraduate Diploma in Electrical Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in 2012. With this, she became a COREN-registered Engineer.
Feyi joined the Lagos State Local Government system in 2014, and unlike many engineers who pass through and move on, she stayed long enough to leave a project record across four different local government areas in one of Africa’s most demanding cities to build in.
What sets her apart isn’t just the staying power. It’s the range. She’s an electrical engineer by training, specializing in power systems, but in local government her work has stretched into road construction and drainage too. It’s unusual to find one engineer signing off on a streetlight installation and a road resurfacing job in the same week, but that’s been the shape of her career.
In Ojo, she delivered road construction on Sariyu, Erinle, Goriola, and Mosafejo Streets, pairing the Goriola and Mosafejo roads with solar-powered streetlights — because a finished road that goes dark at night is only half a job.
In Ikorodu, the scope grew. Covered drainage went in on Arowolo Street and at Ayangburen Market Sabo. Roads were built on Molupa, Ayanra, and Shofolayan Streets, plus resurfacing on Isikalu Street, with solar streetlights following on Shofolayan Street. She also oversaw the rehabilitation of the Ikorodu Local Government Administration Building — the kind of project that doesn’t show up in a resident’s daily commute, but keeps the local government itself running.
At Lagos Island East LCDA, the streetlights multiplied across a community that had gone without adequate lighting for a long time: Tokunbo, Evans, Griffit, Swamp, Atiko, Anikantamo, Adams/Agbole Etti, Thomas, Oil Mill, Rica Street, and Upper Campos Streets all got solar lighting. Alongside that came covered drainage on Hawley and Pike Streets, a solar-powered borehole at Itafaji Street, a perimeter fence and landscaping at Lagos Island East Nursery and Primary School, the remodeling of Modupeola House on Freeman Street, and the reconstruction of the Customary Court and Multi-Agencies Building, also on Freeman Street.
At Ajeromi-Ifelodun, her current posting, and one of Lagos’s most densely populated, hardest-to-build-in LGAs — she’s delivered roads with drainage and solar streetlights on Salami and Ashibejoye Streets in Ajegunle, resurfacing and lighting on Ago-Hausa Street, and the construction of the Ajeromi-Ifelodun Customary Court, plus solar streetlights at the Government Secretariat. Still in progress: a Primary Health Centre at Akere and the rehabilitation of the Secretariat’s administrative building.
There’s a pattern running through every one of these postings, and it’s worth pausing on: almost every streetlight she’s installed is solar-powered.
Anyone who’s lived with Nigeria’s grid reliability knows why. A streetlight wired to an unreliable grid is, in practice, a streetlight that works sometimes. Solar sidesteps that problem entirely — and it sidesteps something else too: the budget cycles and political turnover that usually decide what infrastructure survives in local government. A solar streetlight doesn’t need next year’s budget to keep working. It just needs sunlight.
beyond her professional activities, Engr Feyi is active member of Nigerian Society of Engineers and many other professional Bodies where she volunteer her knowledge and time to nurture the next generation of engineers.
Engr. Oliyide Priscillia Feyi (Nee Da-Costa), FNSE, is married and raising three daughters. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, cooking, and keeping to a healthy lifestyle.
With more than a decade spent lighting streets, covering drains, paving roads, and rebuilding courts across some of Lagos’s least-served communities, Engr Oliyide is just starting and there is no stopping her from building on the Fellowship achievement.
Hers is a journey built on showing up, project after project, LGA after LGA,, The kind of engineering that doesn’t make headlines but holds a city together. The Fellowship is the profession’s way of saying, “congratulations, Engr. Feyi for your services. The reward for hard work is more works.