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Bello University Zaria for Architectural Professional Training. He graduated in 1973.Chief Tom Ikimi is the Founder and Principal Partner of the Architectural Firm Tomikimi Design Company since 1977. The firm has successfully executed notable projects inside and outside Nigeria.
He was a member of the Constituent Assembly 1988/89 and he was elected the first National Chairman of the National Republican Convention Party (NRC) in July 1990. He served in this capacity for a little over two years. As National Chairman, he and his colleagues successfully established the Party nationwide and they won democratic free and fair elections which enabled the installation of the NRC Governments in over 200 of the then 589 Local Government Areas in the Country. The Party also established 16 State Governments under NRC Governors in 16 of the 30 States that existed in the Federation in 1991. He led the vigorous and painstaking preparation of his Party to contest the Presidential Elections in 1992 but all that effort was interrupted by the surprise dissolution of the Party leadership of both Parties in October 1992 by the Military Government. Following the complications arising from the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Elections, he was a member of the National Committee that prepared the peace plan which produced the Interim National Government led by Chief Earnest Shonekan in August 1993. Chief Tom Ikimi was appointed Special Adviser to the Head of State, Commander-in-Chief, General Sani Abacha in February 1994. He became Foreign Affairs Minister in March 1995 and retained the portfolio until the Federal Executive Council became dissolved on 8 July 1998. In 1999 Chief Tom Ikimi was a Foundation Member of the APP All Peoples Party and a member of its Board of Trustees. The Party performance in that year General Election was impressive and if it were sustained the emergence of two strong political Parties providing balanced alternative options for all Nigerians would have been guaranteed and achieved by now. However, greed and lack of foresight on the part of the corps of APP Governors and of the Executive Leadership of the Party destroyed the prospects. In the build up to the 2003 General Elections Chief Ikimi was persuaded by forces internal to his home State Edo State to join the PDP Peoples Democratic Party. His performance as the Party Chairman of its Electoral Committee, in conducting the Party Presidential primaries for the 2003 Elections remains legendary. The PDP won the elections which gave an open cheque to General Olusegun Obasanjo to preside virtually as he wanted over the affairs of Nigeria for another four years. Chief Ikimi was one of the many prominent Nigerian politicians deregistered from the PDP by General Olusegun Obasanjo and his cronies, in a strange and unusual process designed to eliminate any opposition within the Party. It later became clear to all that the process was designed essentially to facilitate the self succession plan of President Obasanjo. In the circumstance Chief Tom Ikimi collaborated with some trusted friends to form the MRDD Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy. This was a rallying platform through which the self succession plan of General Obasanjo was foiled. Side by side these struggles, Chief Tom Ikimi together with Chief Ayo Opadokun facilitated the registration of The Action Congress (AC) in 2006. The Action Congress is the current true Voice of the Opposition in Country. Chief Tom Ikimi, one of the foundation leaders of the Action Congress and specifically the Party South-South geopolitical zone leader, led the Party to victory in 2007 general elections in Edo State. Edo State is today in the firm grip of the Action Congress |
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