Abiola Ajimobi

Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi
Governor of Oyo State
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 May 2011
Preceded by	Christopher Alao-Akala
Senator for Oyo South
In office May 2003 – May 2007
Preceded by	Peter Olawuyi
Succeeded by	Kamorudeen Adekunle Adedibu
Personal details
Born	(1949-12-16) 16 December 1949 Oja'ba, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
Political party	All Progressives Congress (APC)

Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi (born 16 December 1949) is a Yoruba Nigerian politician from Oyo State in south-western Nigeria. He was formerly the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company a subsidiary of Shell Petroleum, Nigeria. He left the oil sector in 2002 after 26 years, and was elected in 2003 as a Senator of the Republic of Nigeria representing Oyo South Senatorial District on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). After one term in the senate, he contested in 2007 for the governorship of Oyo state under the banner of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP), a bid which he lost. He recontested again in the April 2011 elections under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and was elected Governor of Oyo State in a closely contested vote.

Early life

Abiola Ajimobi was born on 16 December 1949 to the Ajimobi of Ibadan at Oja'ba, Ibadan. His was a political family. His grandfather was Sobaloju of Ibadan Land (a chief in the royal court of Ibadan). His uncle, Hon. N.A. Ajimobi was minister of works and transport in the Western Region. His father, Pa Ajimobi, was also an Honourable member of the House of Assembly in the Old Western region. He started his education at Saint Patricks Primary School, Oke-Padre in Ibadan. He completed his primary education at Ibadan City Council Primary School, Aperin. His secondary education was at Lagelu Grammar School. As a high school student he was active in athletics, table tennis, and football including serving as the school's games prefect.

His university education was in the United States of America. He studied Business Administration and Finance at the State University New York, in Buffalo, New York graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree. His MBA was in Operations Research and Marketing with a concentration in Finance at the Governor’s State University, Park Forest, Illinois. As a result of his academic credentials and excellent performance at the New York Insurance examinations, he was engaged in Buffalo, New York as a state certified underwriter, by Equitable Life Assurance Corporation, which was then the 2nd largest Insurance Company in America.

Professional career

He returned to Nigeria in 1977 and joined Management and Industrial Consulting firm as a Senior Consultant. He thereafter worked briefly with Modulor Group (an architectural firm) as the Finance and Admin Controller, before joining Nestle Foods PLC. as the Operations Controller and later as Marketing Controller. In 1979, he joined National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company as the Consumer Products Manager. He was the youngest Manager to occupy such a sensitive position. His performance quickly earned him promotion to the level of Divisional Manager within one and a half years. Thus becoming the youngest Divisional Manager to be thus appointed.

He was later promoted to head a newly created Corporate Credit division reporting directly to the Managing director. As a top flyer in the company and based on his problem solving ability he was deployed to Ibadan Business District as the Area Manager to ensure the repositioning of the company's entire activities in the area. The Company and the district experienced landmark achievements in its modern retail network resulting. In 1987 he built the company’s first 3 in 1 and the largest petrol station retail outlet in Nigeria. The district office built during his tenure still stands out today in Jericho, Ibadan.

In 1987, based on a worldwide international strategic positioning of the lubricants business desired by Shell International Oil Company, he was appointed the Lubricants Manager. He successfully built a new Lubricant division which became the most profitable business of the company and the largest contributor to the corporate profit. Having completed the strategic repositioning of the Lubricants department, he was moved to manage another troubled business arm- the aviation department. By 1993, he had acquired broad exposure in virtually all the marketing arms of the company. As part of the grooming programme he was posted on an international assignment to Shell International storage company of Togo, serving the whole of West Africa as Chief Executive. He also was the Operations Director of Shell Marketing Company in Togo covering some West African countries.

He returned to Nigeria in 1995 and was appointed in 1996 as Oil Sales Manager in 1998. He was appointed to the board of the company as Executive director- Marketing, a position he held before his appointment on February 2001, as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company. As Managing Director he substantially improved the profitability of the company and the shareholders fortune. In 2003, he voluntarily retired after 26 years of service in the Oil industry.

In his successful professional career spanning a period of over three decades, Abiola Ajimobi was quick witted and positively impacted on the businesses and people he interacted with.

Personal life

In 1980, he married Florence Ajimobi and they have five children.

Political career

In 2003 he became a Senator of the Republic of Nigeria. He was a principal officer in the Senate, serving as the Deputy Minority leader of the Senate.

During his senate days, in 2005, he established the first and the largest FREE VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTER, in Oyo State. This Center has been recognized and certified both as a partner and training center by the Industrial Training Fund of the Federal Government.

In 2007 he contested the gubernatorial election under the umbrella of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) but lost the election bid. He contested again in 2011 under the All Progressive Congress and was elected in a keenly contested election.

As the incumbent, he contested for a second term in an election that took place on April 11 2015. He contested under the All Progressive Congress for a second time against 2 of his predecessors in office, Christopher Alao Akala and Rasheed Ladoja and was listed by The Punch Newspaper as one of the 4 candidates contesting in the election. He was declared the winner of the Oyo State gubernatorial election by the Independent Electoral Commission.

Trivia

Senator Ajimobi's election victory in the 2011 Gubernatorial elections in Oyo State rose to No. 8 on the trending topics list on Twitter.com on Wednesday 27 April 2011.