Abiodun Christine Olujimi (born 25 December 1958) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

politician, who served as senator representing Ekiti South senatorial district from 2015 to 2023 and was minority leader of the

Nigerian Senate The Senate is the upper chamber of Nigeria's bicameral legislature, the National Assembly. The National Assembly (popularly referred to as NASS) is the nation's legislature and has the power to make laws, as summarized in chapter one, sectio ...

. She was a board member of

Nigerian Communications Commission The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is the independent regulatory authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. The NCC was created under Decree number 75 by the Federal Military Government of Ibrahim Babangida in Nigeria on 2 ...

. She previously served as deputy governor of Ekiti State from November 2005 until her impeachment in October 2006.

Early life and education

Abiodun Christine Olujimi was born in

Omuo Omuo-Ekiti is an ancient town in the eastern part of Ekiti State in western Nigeria, and the seat of the Ekiti-East local government. Being inside Yorubaland, its population and that of Ekiti State are mainly the Yoruba It is located on the bord ...

Ekiti, Ekiti state, Her education started in Our Lady of Apostles in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...

Oyo State Oyo is a States of Nigeria, state in South West (Nigeria), southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the List of Nigerian cities by population, third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo ...

and then proceeded to

Nigerian Institute of Journalism The Nigerian Institute of Journalism is a Nigerian monotechnic located in Ikeja, Lagos State. The institute is a diploma awarding monotechnic established in 1963 by the International Press Institute and became fully operational in 1971. The ins ...

to obtain a Diploma in 1976. Biodun Olujimi also bagged degrees in

Political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and a Postgraduate degree in Public Relations and Marketing from the

University of Abuja The University of Abuja or Yakubu Gowon University is a federal university located in Abuja, Nigeria. It was established in January 1988 (under Decree No. 110 of 1992 as amended) as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and ...

Career

Biodun's started her career as broadcaster and journalist. During her career as a journalist, she worked with the

Nigerian Tribune The ''Nigerian Tribune'' is an English-language newspaper published in Ibadan, Nigeria. Established in 1949 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, it is the oldest privately-owned Nigerian newspaper still in circulation. During the colonial period, the Nige ...

, Nigerian Posts and Telecommunication,

Nigerian Television Authority The Nigerian Television Authority or NTA is a Nigerian government-owned and partly commercial broadcast station. Originally known as Nigerian Television (NTV), it was inaugurated in 1977 with a monopoly on national television broadcasting, after ...

, the Delta Steel Company, Ovwian Aladja, Reflex Concept, DBN Television and was the Manager of DBN TV from 1993 to 1997.

Politics

She joined her husband in politics in 1997 as the National Publicity Secretary of the extinct NCPN, she moved to

All Progressive Congress The All Progressives Congress (APC) is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Nigeria, along with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Founded on 6 February 2013 from a merger of Nigeria's three largest opposition parties, th ...

(APC) after the extinction of her former party, and still became the National Publicity Secretary in APC. In 2002, she joined Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and this was the beginning of her great achievements in politics. 2003 was the year she was appointed the Special Assistant to the Executive Governor of

Ekiti State Ekiti () is a state in southwestern Nigeria, bordered to the North by Kwara State for 61 km, to the Northeast by Kogi State for 92 km, to the South and Southeast by Ondo State, and to the West by Osun State for 84 km. Named for the Ekiti ...

, from there she was elected to the Federal House of Assembly. She became the Deputy Governor of Ekiti State with Governor

Ayo Fayose Peter Ayodele Fayose (; born 15 November 1960) is a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Ekiti State from 2003 to 2006, and again from 2014 to 2018. Early life Fayose grew up in Oyo State where he attended Olivet Baptist High School, ...

in 2005. Olujimi attained other great heights in politics; from being the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in her state to a Director of Women Affairs. In 2015, she contested for a Senatorial seat and won, and became a senator representing the Ekiti South constituency in the National Assembly under the Peoples Democratic Party. The Peoples Democratic Party, Ekiti State chapter appointed her as the state party leader in November 2018 to strengthen the state party in preparation for the 2019 elections. In the 2019 General Elections, she initially lost her seat for representing Ekiti South to the APC candidate Prince Adedayo Clement Adeyeye However, the State Assembly Election Tribunal and the Appeal Court later declared her winner of the Ekiti South Senatorial District. Consequently, she was sworn into the

by the Senate President on 14 November 2019. In 2020, Olujimi was involved in a verbal war with the former Governor of Ekiti state Ayodele Fayose, where she accused him of manipulating the electoral process at the Ekiti state PDP ward congress. On 22 March 2021 senator Abiodun Olujimi narrated how she escaped being shot at during the violence that erupted at the House of Assembly bye-election for Ekiti East Constituency 1. The bye-election was to fill in the vacant position of Juwa Adegbuyi, a representative of the constituency who died in February.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olujimi, Abiodun University of Abuja alumni Ekiti State politicians Peoples Democratic Party (Nigeria) politicians 1958 births Living people Women members of the Senate (Nigeria) Members of the Senate (Nigeria) from Ekiti State Senators of the 8th National Assembly (Nigeria) Senators of the 9th National Assembly (Nigeria)