Blessing "Yemi" Mobolade: International Student, Ministry Leader, and Mayor

Childhood in Nigeria

Born on February 12, 1979 to two bi-vocational pastors, Blessing “Yemi” Mobolade grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. Mobolade’s early days were spent engrossed in Yoruba culture as his father worked in finance for ExxonMobil—a job that often took him far from home—while his mother worked as a high school teacher. 

While this meant that his parents were often gone, Blessing was still raised in a positive environment along with his three siblings—one older brother and two younger sisters. 

From seventh to tenth grade, Mobolade served as a cadet at the Nigerian Naval Academy, which instilled in him a love for leadership.

Moving to the United States

In August 1996, when Mobolade was seventeen, he moved to the United States to take part in an undergraduate program at Bethel University in Mishawaka, Indiana. Separated from his home, family, culture, and everything else he had known, the transition from Nigeria to the United States was a difficult one. 

Transitioning as an international Student 

Having to find his way in a new culture, integrate into it while not losing his own culture and past, and make new connections without any of his previous ones was no easy thing to accomplish. This internal struggle worsened as classmates mocked and bullied him for his accent as he worked to adapt to an unfamiliar culture. His first year in college was especially difficult in comparison to those which would follow. 

Often alone and struggling during this period, Mobolade’s life was a far cry from what it would eventually become. This period of time was also the one where Mobolade found himself questioning his faith the most, almost walking away at one point before turning back to it with new-found certainty, this crisis ultimately strengthening his faith.

Time in Indiana

After this, Mobolade’s experience of the United States improved—the initial culture shock and isolation slowly faded away as his connections to both the country and the people around him strengthened and grew. His nature as an international student began to become an actively positive thing, as he began to find ways to integrate his own Nigerian heritage into his life in America.

It was during his time in Indiana that he also met the woman who would later become his wife, Abbey—an ICU nurse and nursing educator. After finishing his time at Bethel University, he proceeded to receive his master's degree in management and leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University's online MBA program, becoming an IWU graduate in 2006. 

Heading West

At the age of thirty, Mobolade discovered he had three autoimmune diseases, but he chose to embrace this fact as a blessing rather than a curse. The ways in which his world was turned upside-down during this period led him to want to move further west with his family. 

Mobolade's education post-IWU included studying at the A. W. Tozer Theological Seminary at Simpson University in California. Blessing and Abbey have also had three children over the course of their marriage.

Colorado Springs Cafes

In 2010, Mobolade and his family settled in the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado. After moving there, Mobolade proceeded to co-found The Wild Goose Meeting House and Good Neighbors Meeting House as cafes in downtown Colorado Springs in 2013 and 2017 respectively. Both served the community as much-needed public meeting spaces. While both were for-profit institutions, Mobolade hoped they would be responsible for a growth in community within Colorado Springs.

The goal for both of these cafes was to not only provide public spaces, but help come alongside and support other smaller local businesses. 

Ministry Work

Since moving to Colorado Springs, Mobolade has also founded a church within the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and was a ministry leader at the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs from 2015 to 2017. 

During this time, Mobolade also established COSILoveYou, a nonprofit organization focused on uniting over one hundred local churches for service within the community. 

Citizenship and First Political Office

Although he had first moved to the United States twenty years ago, Mobolade did not gain full United States citizenship until 2017—the same year that he became the Vice President of Business Retention and Expansion for the Colorado Springs Chamber. 

He served in this role for two years before being elected to the position of small business development manager in 2019. Although he had already positively impacted local culture prior to his time in government, gaining citizenship and entering into politics had increased his influence and effect exponentially. 

Further Political Positions

In this role, he established tools to assist entrepreneurs with starting a business, COSOpenForBiz and Permit Partner, and led many collaborative efforts across the community’s public and private sectors. During this period of time Mobolade also received several awards for his various achievements within Colorado Springs.

Mayoral Campaign

In 2022, Mobolade stepped down from the position of small business development manager as he began his independent mayoral campaign that April. 

Although running without the backing of any political party, Mobolade still managed to win the election, beating his rival by fourteen percent and becoming the first non-Republican and also first immigrant to become mayor of Colorado Springs. This was covered extensively in many news sources, immediately placing him even more fully in the center of public attention. 

Time in Office

On June 6th of last year, Mobolade was sworn in as the forty-second overall mayor of Colorado Springs. Through a strong connection to his own family and Nigerian culture as well as strong connections to those he has encountered in his academic and political careers and a strong understanding of the workings of American society on several layers, Mobolade seeks to change politics for the better. 

His current plan for 2024 includes working on the city’s infrastructure. He hopes to work with republicans, democrats, and other independent politicians in as united a manner as possible. An additional goal he has for 2024 is one thousand block parties - the communal isolation which has become increasingly prevalent in American culture being an issue of great importance to him.

The Future 

Mobolade's term in office will continue until 2027, after which he will have the chance to run once again. While there is no way to know what might happen, Mobolade has high hopes for the effect he can have on both Colorado Springs and other cities in Colorado. Additionally, his story serves as simply further proof of the values of an international education. 

Although his time in the United States began marked by difficulty, isolation, and uncertainty, he has persevered and flourished in the intervening time—using his identity as both a Nigerian and an American to benefit not just himself, but all those in his life.