Bimbo Daramola

Abimbola Oluwafemi Daramola (born 9 November 1967) is a Nigerian politician and a trained engineer, who has been a legislator in the House of Representatives, representing Ekiti North Federal Constituency, Ekiti State, South- West Nigeria since 2011. He does his work through equitable representation, lawmaking and oversight functions as demanded of him by law.

Early Life

Bimbo Daramola was born in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, the fourth child of five (all boys) children of Francis Adebayo Daramola, a former Chairman (Mayor) of Oye Local Government Area from 1991 to 1993, when Oye Local Government Area was under Ondo State, out of which Ekiti State was carved in 1996 by the military government of Nigeria then headed by late General Sani Abacha. His mother's name is Joan Taiwo Daramola (now late), a retired Head Teacher - Secondary School Principal and Primary School Headmistress. His father was also an educationist, a profession which took him across the length and breath of the then Ondo State. Daramola experienced a travelling lifestyle while growing up as a result of the peripatetic nature of his parents' professional calling.

Education

Daramola started his formal education at Emmanuel Anglican Primary School, Ado-Ekiti, (where his late mother, Mrs. Joan Taiwo Daramola was then a teacher). The occupational mobility or (labor mobility) of Daramola's parents required that the then very young Bimbo Daramola move with them whenever and wherever they were posted to. He was then transferred to St. Joseph Primary School, Aramoko-Ekiti in 1973 when his father was posted from the famous Christ's School, Ado-Ekiti to Aramoko District Commercial Secondary School, ADICO, Aramoko Ekiti [1]. In 1978, Daramola returned to Ado-Ekiti as a student of Christ's School, having sat for and passed the highly competitive entrance examination into the school founded by Archdeacon Henry Dallimore.[2] Upon completion of his secondary education at Christ's School, he had a one-year stint at Ado Grammar School where he had to resit for West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) when there was delay in the release of the results of his first attempt by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC], the body charged with the responsibility to conduct the examinations. He went ahead to study Geology in 1984 at the then Ondo State University (OSUA), Ado Ekiti, then University of Ado Ekiti, (UNAD) and now known as Ekiti State University.

He graduated in 1989 and was thereafter posted to Kaduna State, North West Nigeria, where he observed his one-year mandatory National Youth Service Corps, a national scheme created in a bid to reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country after the Nigerian Civil War that took place from 1967 to 1970. His place of primary assignment during the NYSC scheme was Water Survey (Nig) Ltd, a subsidiary of Water Survey (UK), an international geophysics and hydrology consultant outfit with extensive activities in Nigeria since 1960s, and Botswana. He proceeded to the University of Ilorin to bag a masters degree in Business Administration, (MBA) in 1995.

Career

Daramola has a professional career path that took him across various fields of human endeavour.

Geology

Having trained as a geologist, Bimbo Daramola's career took off when Water Survey (Nig.) Limited offered him permanent employment four months into the NYSC scheme in Kaduna. He soon became the crew leader of a geophysical team on the World Bank sponsored boreholes project in Kaduna State and team leader on such projects as: World Bank Assisted 20 villages shallow aquifer study in Kaduna State, 77 communities rural water supply scheme for Enugu/Anambra States in conjunction with DHV Consultants, Holland. His team won award for siting the best borehole in the most difficult clay-laden areas in Kaduna State (Birnin Gwari Area), as well as the 17 communities shallow aquifer in Osun State and the water supply for Faru Village, Sokoto.

The multifarious projects undertaken as a geologist in Kaduna offered him extensive professional experience, geographical exposures, practical field knowledge of all aspects of borehole siting, and water prospecting and sourcing. He resigned from Water Surveys (Nig) Ltd in 1993 to pursue a career in an entirely different field from his professional background.

Banking

In 1993, Daramola took an appointment as Assistant Officer with Savannah Bank, formerly one of Nigeria's foremost banks before its license was withdrawn in February 2002 and restored in February 2009 after protracted legal battles. He specialized in research work on the strategic planning for the attainment of organization goals and corporate management with emphasis on marketing communications. Savannah Bank it was where his communications skills were sharpened due to the liaison roles that his various designations attracted.

Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing Communications

After Savannah Bank where he had garnered competencies in marketing communications, Bimbo Daramola went on to co-found and became the Deputy Managing Director of Rucie Communications, a marketing communications outfit. One of the major projects the company produced and executed was an epic documentary, which chronicled the life, times and works of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, titled “From Prison to Presidency,” which brought tears to the eyes of the retired Army General when he saw it. The documentary took Daramola and his team three years 1999 – 2002, as they traveled the world to capture different perspective of the two-time former President. Daramola always attributes the success of the project to the embrace Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Turaki Adamawa, accorded him by accepting to be the project's Grand Patron. The project is the first official electronic biography about any Nigerian President. Daramola firmly believes the project remains one of Nigeria's best documentary as regards standard and he once challenged "anybody to produce a documentary about anybody that will match that standard."

Bimbo Daramola is also the Chief Executive Officer of The Bridge Concepts Nigeria Limited, a marketing, research, public relations/mass communications, publishing and below-the-line advertising outfit. The company achieved a feat when it researched, compiled, solved and published “JAMB Q&A: A Publication of Past Questions and Answers 1983 – 2004.” The book (first of its kind in Nigeria) consists of over 12,500 questions solved in most practical and learning-friendly ways, and complete with CD-ROM. The Bridge Concepts also conceptualized and designed the logo for the 18th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2003, CHOGM 2013 Abuja, which was held from 5th-8th December, 2003, and chaired by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Politics

Campus Politics

Bimbo Daramola had his first political engagement with campus politics when he was an undergraduate; he contested for the Presidency of the National Association of Geological and Mining Students (NAGAMS), Ondo State University Chapter and won. He was re-elected a year after for the second year running.

National Politics

His interest in politics in the larger society was piqued in 1998 when he had interactions with politicians in the build up to the 1999 General Elections which signaled Nigeria's return to democratic rule away from military dictatorship. In his bid to promote environmental protection during election periods, Daramola, under the aegis of his company The Bridge Concepts, came up with the idea of mobile billboard campaign strategy. He met politicians across party divides to sell the idea to them to discourage massive use of posters and handbills that would leave the environment defaced.

In 1998, he met with a team of Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organization (BATCO) which was then responsible for campaign coordination of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who was contesting for the governorship seat of Lagos State under the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD). In an interview granted to City People Magazine, he said the team was more enthusiastic about conventional posters, a gesture he was "unhappy" about.

Daramola also took his mobile billboard proposal to the campaign team of then yet-to-be-elected President Olusegun Obasanjo who was the presidential aspirant of People's Democratic Party (PDP). The team accepted his proposal, co-opted him into the team by association, he became a member of PDP. He participated in the 1999 and 2003 elections, in the mobilization and publicity arm of the Presidential campaign traversing all the 36 states of the country, including Abuja. Daramola rationalized his membership of Action Congress of Nigeria in the following quotes in an interview he granted a national newspaper: "By year two, Obasanjo had introduced me to Atiku Abubakar when I was shooting a documentary of his lifetime from prison to presidency, and up to now I challenge anybody to produce a documentary about anybody that will match that standard. It was a major event in May 29, 2002. Obasanjo watched the documentary and broke down crying. So that documentary brought me very close to Atiku. To be honest, Atiku is a good man; I have no apology for that. After that, fight broke out between Obasanjo and Atiku and because I was privy to a number of things, I felt that Obasanjo was getting high-handed. At some point, I gave a note to the late ADC (aide-de-camp) to Obasanjo. I told him that if Nigerians don’t want Atiku, why would Obasanjo be the one to condemn him? I dumped Obasanjo and went to join Atiku, and because the platform was not available for him in the PDP, we began to prepare a platform for him to run and we went from one party name to another until we arrived at Action Congress (AC). When Atiku decided to go back to PDP, I said no; I don’t think this is the right thing to do, and since then I have remained in ACN."

In 2011, he was nominated by ACN to contest the seat of his Ekiti North 1 (Oye-Ikole Local Govt. Areas) Federal Constituency, which he won.