Although his 60th birthday, the diamond age calls for celebration, for His Excellency, Arc Yomi Awoniyi while longevity has its place, his joy will be in the positive evaluation of his years spent on earth surface vis-a-vis the three dimensions of life.
African-American civil rights leader and 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Martin Luther King Jr, famously analysed the triangle of life.
“The length of life, as we shall use it is not its duration, not its longevity. It is rather the push of life forward to its personal ends and ambitions. It is the inward concern for one’s personal welfare. The Breadth of life is the outward concern for the welfare of others. The Height of life is the upward reach towards God. These are the three dimensions of life and without the due development of all, no life becomes complete.
“Life at its best is a great triangle. At one angle stands the individual person, at the other angle stands other persons, and at the tip top stands God.
“Unless these three are concatenated, working harmoniously together in a single life, that life is incomplete”.
No one but Yomi Awoniyi has a better evaluation of his deeds to reflect his scoremarks in the triangle of life. However, in the words of President Olusegun Obasanjo, people are at liberty to judge others as they like, while alive or after death.
However he is judged now and hereafter, what is incontrovertible is the fact that Yomi Awoniyi is a hardworking, committed technocrat and politician, who at every given opportunity, has proved to be an achiever with huge interest in the growth of Kogi State and Nigeria in general. In his chosen careers, he has not only succeeded, he has also recorded landmark achievements and given much back to the society through his disposition to honest and objective contributions to intellectual discourse.
At the mention of Yomi Awoniyi, the name Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi comes to mind. The younger Awoniyi is one of the children of the foremost Yoruba bureaucrat who held forth in the first republic Nothern Nigeria government. Pa Awoniyi bestrode the nation’s political landscape like a colossus, helping to shape the fourth republic through his role in the formation, and ascendancy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, to power at the centre in 1999.
At his death, Pa Awoniyi (April 30, 1932 to November 28, 2007) was Chairman, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).
Beneath the curtains and the back halls of the intra-party drama that culminated in the exit of Pa Awoniyi from the PDP, the younger Awoniyi exemplified the sterling virtues of independence of choices entrenched in the family, when he chose to remain in the PDP fold. This was in spite of the ruthlessness of his father’s expulsion from the party deriving from his otherwise firm disposition to truth, fairness and justice.
Till date, Yomi Awoniyi is one rare Nigerian politician who insulated himself from the regular cross carpeting which has hallmarked our nascent democracy.
Yet the younger Awoniyi, replying to an interviewer’s question on the possibilities of stepping into father’s shoes had dismissed such prognosis with the popular stand that they did not wear the same size of shoes.
Abayomi Sunday Benjamin Awoniyi was born to the family of Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi of Mopa in Mopamuro local Government Area of Kogi State on September 4,1960.
Fondly known as Yomi, he attended Adeola Model School Offa, Kwara State where he obtained the First School Leaving Certificate in 1970.
In 1971 he enrolled at Government Secondary School, Okene (now Abdulazeez Atta Memorial College) for his secondary education. He later transferred to the famous Barewa College, Zaria where in 1976 he obtained the West African School Certificate in Division One.
From Barewa College Yomi proceeded to the School of Basic Studies at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and thereafter, was admitted to the Department of Architecture of the same University. He graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master of Science degree in Architecture in 1983. To cap this he proceeded to the prestigious University College, London and graduated with Master of Science degree in Urban Development Planning in 1984.
Upon completion of the mandatory National Youth Service Corps in 1985, Arc Abayomi Benjamin Awoniyi worked with Architects Group Practice in Lagos. In 1988 he became a member of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, NIA. That same year, he became a partner at a firm of Architects – Awoniyi Associates and to date has many residential and institutional building designs and construction to his credit.
He is a director of a number of companies including Boja Industries Limited – an industrial packaging and plastic manufacturing company located in Mopa, Mopamuro local government area, Candid Oil Services Limited, Bold Concepts Construction Company Limited and Howas Services Limited.
From the onset of this democratic dispensation in 1998/1999, Awoniyi has been actively involved in politics under the banner of the PDP. He contested for the senatorial seat of Kogi West Senatorial District but lost during the PDP Primaries held on December 2, 2006. He displayed uncommon sportsmanship by being the first to congratulate the winner. He went on to be an active supporter of the winner and participated robustly in ensuring a second term victory for the senator.
In 2000, he was appointed by the Federal Government, to the pioneer Board of the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority and was Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Board.
In 2005, he was appointed to the Management Board of the University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin and served on various committees of the Board.
In 2009, he was appointed to the Management Board of the Nigeria Stored Products Research Institute, Ilorin, Kwara State. He was Chairman of the Staff Welfare Development Committee of the Board until all Federal Government Boards were dissolved in October 2011.
Awoniyi was appointed Member of the Presidential Project Assessment Committee (PPAC) on March 4, 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan. The committee, a special one, was responsible for preparing an inventory of all on-going Federal Government Projects and looking into value for money issues. It was charged with the task of assessing the components of all projects with a view to fast tracking their delivery as envisioned in the underlining government objective and policy.
In 2011, he ran on a joint ticket with Captain Idris Wada for the governorship election in Kogi State as deputy governorship candidate of the PDP. Following the victory of the PDP in the election, together with Captain Idris Wada, the governor-elect, Awoniyi was sworn-in as the fourth deputy governor of Kogi State on January 27, 2012.
He held the office to the admiration of all Kogi indigenes at home and abroad through his charisma, good leadership and uncommon synergy with his boss. The Wada/Awoniyi joint ticket for re-election in the November 16, 2019 governorship election did not succeed. The official tenure of office ended on January 27, 2016.
To give bite to his philanthropic spirit, he founded the Yomi Awoniyi Organization which is involved in provision of scholarships to students in institutions of higher learning and making available micro credit facilities to small scale entrepreneurs.
In appreciation of his contribution to his community, in 2006, the Elulu of Mopaland, Oba Julius Joledo conferred on him the honourary title- Lisa of Mopa.
He is a member of a number of professional bodies including the Nigeria Institute of Architects, NIA; the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria, ARCON; and the Nigeria Institute of Management, NIM.
Awoniyi is married and blessed with three wonderful children.
His hobbies include reading management books and biographies, squash and badminton.
This is welcoming him into the club of sexagenarians and wishing him many anniversaries of this special day.
– Ralph Omololu Agbana writes for The Guardian
