A 34-year-old native of Benue State in Nigeria, Austin Chenge, has joined the race for the Michigan State governorship seat in the United States.
Chenge is expected to contest for the ticket of the Republican Party with US Representative, Lamar Smith, to be the Party’s candidate in the election scheduled to hold in 2022.
Head, Media and Public Relations, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abdul-Rahman Balogun, who disclosed this in a statement, said Chenge was popular locally for designing the popular tricycle, called Wazobia tricycle, in 2016.
The tricycle, according to him, was designed to improve the lives of peasant farmers all over Africa.
The statement said, “Chenge is a Law graduate from the University of Birmingham, England. Since the year 2018, he has been serving with the US military as a specialist. He is decorated with the Achievement Medal as a Distinguished Honour Graduate with a Culmulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 99.8% and for exceptional performance while on active duty.
“Austin has always stunned critics by achieving what others consider impossible. A graduate of the School of Law at the University of Birmingham England, Austin raised over $200,000 in funding for his first startup, Holla@Me/Holla.com (now sold) in England and soon expanded to San Jose in California.
“He created Waving in a social networking environment in 2011, a concept later seen on Facebook’ Wave. In 2016, his tricycle design (termed Wazobia tricycle) aimed at improving the lives of peasant farmers, made history in the West African nation of Nigeria as the first designed, engineered and manufactured by a person of Nigerian descent.
“Since 2018, he has served as a Specialist in the US Army, where he has been decorated with an Army Achievement Medal as Distinguished Honor Graduate with a CGPA of 99.8% and for exceptional performance while on Active duty.
“As of March, 2020, Austin became the first Republican Candidate for Governor of Michigan, for the 2022 election.”
