Akin Babalola Kamar Odunsi is a

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

businessman who was elected Senator for the Ogun West constituency of

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to th ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

in the April 2011 to May 2015 national elections. He ran on the

Action Congress of Nigeria The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), formerly known as Action Congress (AC), was a Nigerian political party formed via the merger of a faction of Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several othe ...

(ACN) platform.

Background

Chief Kamardeen Akinola Babalola Odunsi (KABO) attended the CMS Grammar School, Bariga, then the

University of Lagos The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in th ...

where he obtained a BA degree in 1972. He went on to the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the 38th-most populous municipality in Illinois. It ...

, United States, graduating with an MS in advertising in July 1973. He worked with Vince Cullers Advertising in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

before returning to Nigeria in 1974 to join Grant Advertising, later moving to Admark Advertising where he became the first Nigerian Chief Executive in 1976. In 1978 Odunsi co-founded Rosabel Advertising and was the agency's Managing Director until 1997 when he became the Executive Chairman. He held various positions with the Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria, becoming President of the association from 1989 to 1992. Odunsi retired as Executive Chairman of Rosabel Leo Burnett in 2003.

Political career

Odunsi was selected as the 2011 Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate for Ogun West Senatorial District. He was aged about 60 when he ran for election. He promised to revive projects to improve primary health care when elected, and to establish programs to encourage start-up businesses. Odunsi polled 61,382 votes in the April 2011 elections, and was declared the winner. Runners up were Babatunde Fadun of the PDP with 59,949 votes and Waliu O. Taiwo of the PPN with 45,246 votes. In December 2014, he was selected by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to fly the parties flag in the 2015 gubernatorial elections for Ogun state, Nigeria.

References

Living people Yoruba politicians Members of the Senate (Nigeria) People from Ogun State University of Lagos alumni Gies College of Business alumni CMS Grammar School, Lagos alumni Yoruba businesspeople 20th-century Nigerian businesspeople Nigerian expatriates in the United States Year of birth missing (living people) {{Nigeria-politician-stub