BY GBENGA OKE

The Iyana Itire axis of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Lagos presents quite a sight: a business cluster of a kind with varied office equipment, furniture etc on sales or repairs. This cluster, certainly, may not be overtly removed from JKK Nigeria Limited or Cutler Hammer, two businesses owned by Chief Agboola Odeyemi, FCA, a man many describe as being of varied but interesting parts : brief but rich, humble, detribalised and a caring father figure many look up to. He turns 75  on April 4, 2014, having lived a truly rich and a fulfilled life.

As the Obasewa of Ile-Ife and former President of Ife Development Board (IDB), his efforts towards repositioning the ancient town industrially made him commission   the Obasewa Shopping Pavilion/business cluster in Ife with about 52 shops. The cluster employs over 100 people.

Odeyemi who is always asking, ‘ where are our own  technicians, where are our artisans,’  says our human capital development and planning, must include commercial farming which will employ several youths in processing clusters that include cassava processing, oil palm processing and cocoa processing.

Born in Ile-Ife on April 4, 1939, he started his career at Saint Peter and Paul Catholic School Ile-Ife and later trained as Higher Elementary Teacher as St Leo’s College Abeokuta between 1956 and 1959.
Between 1965 and 1966, he was on Sandwich course in Accounting at the College of Commerce and Technology, Wednsebury, Staffordshire England where he won the Rubbery Own Prize for the Most Distinguished Student of the year and outstanding performance of the year respectively.

Odeyemi, a distinguished chartered accountant, today sits atop several companies which include : JKN Limited and JAO Investment Company where he is the Chairman and Chief Executive. He is also a Board member of Emzor Pharmaceuticals, Kinley Securities Ltd and Cuttler Hammer Nigeria Limited.

He has also served on Board of a number of  companies. He was the Chairman of Ecobank Nigeria Ltd between September 2006 and March 2010, Chairman Refuge Insurance Company Limited and Obafemi Awolowo University Investment Company between January 2007 and December 2012. He was also Director of OASIS Insurance Plc, Multimalt Limited, Sowsco Well Services Limited and Kajola Integrated Investment Company Ltd.

In addition, he served in various capacities which include being past President Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, past President of NACCIMA, past Chairman of Nigerian Accounting Standards Board between 1990-1995 and past President, Ife Development Board between 1995-2004.

A  technocrat, he has played major role both within Nigeria and outside which include member of the National Political Reform Conference between February – July 2005, member of the National Privatisation Council (Bureau of Public Enterprise) between October 2004-October 2006, member of the committee on the Assessment and Monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals between June 2005 -October 2006 and founding member of the Governing Board of UNESCO Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He was conferred with the honour of Member of the Order of Federal Republic, (MFR) in 2005. He  also bagged the Osun State Government  Distinguished Merit Award for Philanthropy and Community Development in 2007  while  his community in Ife gave him the Distinguished Merit Award in 2008.

He was a recipient of  a Merit Award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria in 2005;  Doctor of Science in Business Administration (Honoris Causa) from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife in 2007; a special award by the Federation of Construction Industry for his contribution to the infrastructural development in Nigeria in 2009 and appointed member of the Council of Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Osun State in 2009.

He became the Patron of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Osun State Council in August 2010 while the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers Foundation in October 2011 appointed him its Patron.
As part of his philanthropic gestures, Odeyemi donated a building of antiquities to the Institute of Cultural Studies in Obafemi Awolowo University  while he played a significant role in the linkages that led to securing the financial sponsorship of the Leventis family for the completion of the Natural History Museum.

He is a regular contributor to the promotion of evangelism. He remains active at his original family church, St Paul Anglican Church, Ayegbaju in Ile-Ife where he was installed as the Ekerin Ijo in 2004 and  the Balogun of the church on  February 23, 2014.