NIRAN AKINNIYI, (MNIS) – HIS PROFILE

SURV. NIRAN AKINNIYI, (MNIS), CHAIRMAN, ILE-OLUJI/OKEIGBO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, ONDO STATE.

Niran Akinniyi

Living with a philosophy of life based on Yoruba proverb that “Money can only buy you a bed, it cannot buy you sleep”, Surveyor Niran Akinniyi started his political career from his school days as he played leadership roles as school prefect both in the primary and secondary schools. While at the UNN (Enugu Campus) – a predominantly Ibo students population, Niran contested and won election in 1980/81 as the P.R.O. of the Survey Students Association (SSA). He repeated the same feat and got elected as the President of the SSA in 1981/82.

In 1989/92, Niran was a youth activist in the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) at Okeigbo, when he first showed interest in becoming the Chairman of the then newly created Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government. He later became a founding member and frontline leader of the Congress for National Consensus (CNC) which contested the 1997 council elections and won in the local government area.

Surv. Akinniyi was also a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1998. After the 1999 general elections and assumption of office of late chief Adebayo Adefarati as Governor of Ondo State in May 1999, Akinniyi was appointed in September 1999 to the Ondo State Capital and Urban Development Authority (CUDA) first as Part-Time Board Chairman and later in January 2002 as Executive Chairman. In that capacity, he initiated the Ore Urban Development Project (OUDP) and the Ondo State Community Based Urban Development Projects (OSCBUDP). The Phase 1 of the OUDP was a thirty million Naira (N30m) private sector financed multi facility project with more than 44 building components.

In 2003, Akinniyi voluntarily resigned his position as executive chairman of CUDA to contest the membership of Ondo State House of Assembly on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). After those elections, he retreated to his professional practice until when he was invited by the then Chairman of Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government and persuaded by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leadership, to serve as the Secretary to Local Government (SLG), a position he reluctantly accepted. Three months after, he again voluntarily resigned as SLG due to irreconcilable differences based on public interest.

In 2005/2006, he was actively involved in the founding of ACD and later the Action Congress (AC) in Ondo State. However, when the final decision on the political platform for Dr. Olusegun Mimiko was taken, he swiftly joined other progressives in Ondo State to found the Labour Party (LP), the platform on which Dr. Olusegun Mimiko contested and won the 2007 election as Ondo State Governor.

Surv. Akinniyi was leader of the Okeigbo Chapter of the Labour Party. In June 2009, four months into his administration, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko appointed Akinniyi as Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government. In that capacity, within one year, Akinniyi constructed:

24 lock-up shops at Odolua Market in Ile-Oluji

15 lock-up shops and 40 open stalls at Bamikemo market

Office of Special Adviser to the Governor on Projects, ile-Oluji

Modern Motor Park at Oloruntele, Okeigbo

Information and Communication Centre at Surulere, Okeigbo

Ayegbaju – Market road, Okeigbo with drainage

Celestial road, Olorunsogo, Okeigbo with drainage

A borehole at Lipanu, Ile-Oluji

250 kilometres of rural roads (bulldozed and graded)

rural road revolution1

He also provided 26 laptops (and training) for topmost political functionaries and management staff. Within the same period too, Akinniyi financially assisted 55 physically challenged citizens of Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government on the occasion of the 55^th birthday celebration of Mr. Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, on 3^rd October, 2009 to the tune of N600,000.00. He had also distributed N2m to 1,000 students of the local government at N2,000 each as Book Allowances while about 250 very aged and poor persons receive monthly stipends from the LG.

As a Surveyor and member of the Boundary Committees at the Community, Local and State levels, Niran had made great contributions to the development of his hometown, his local government area and his state in the last twenty years. He had personally assisted many people from his immediate and larger constituencies with many survey and mapping consultancy services without any financial or other considerations whatsoever..

In 2002, during the final funeral rites for and in memory of his late mother, Akinniyi inaugurated a 15-Bed Female Ward at the Comprehensive Health Centre, Okeigbo.

Niran Akiniyi is a full member of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS) and a member of the Association of Practicing Surveyors of Nigeria (APSN) and was registered by the Surveyors Registration Council of Nigeria (SURCON) as a surveyor since 1989.

As a member of NIS, Akinniyi at various times, held the positions of State PRO (1990-1994); State Secretary (1994-1996); State Council Representative (1997-1998); Member, Editorial Board of the NIS Newsletter (1998-2000) and National Assistant Secretary General (1998-2000) – the first and only time an Ondo State indigene would be in the NIS national EXCO since inception.

Born about 52years ago, Akinniyi has attended numerous national and international conferences and is married to his childhood heartthrob, Ranti, and they are blessed with good children.