ABIODUN Victor Olumuyiwa

||Captain, GCI Football Team (1959/1960)||

||School Prefect||

Victor Olumuyiwa Abiodun-Roy was born in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State in 1942. He entered Government College Ibadan on September 6, 1956 from Upper Emmanuel Primary School; Ado Ekiti.

Forty-eight privileged and adjudged worthy boys began an educational journey that earned him a West African School Certificate and Higher School Certificate in 1961 and 1963 respectively.

An all round sportsman, he represented House and School in Cricket (mosquito); Athletics (senior team); Swimming (senior team). He was the sole representative of GCI in the first Nigerian Swimming Gala Competition in 1963 at Eleyele Police Swimming Pool Ibadan. It was in Football that he distinguished himself most. He played in the school Mosquito and 1st XI winning colours every year. He was the captain of the school mosquito XI 1959 in Form Ill, the School 1st XI 1963 in Upper Six and the House Captain. He was both Carr House and School Prefect.

An active member of the African Liberation Movement, the Literary and Debating Society, Geographical Society and Dramatic Society where he acted a dual role in his final year in Shakespeare’s Macbeth directed by DJ Bullock (of blessed memory) as both “Sergeant” and “Fool”. He was also the President of the Scripture Union and Vice Captain Swimming. He won speech contests and Inter- School debates in 1963.

Victor obtained BA Hons, English and Philosophy from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, 1974. Post Graduate Diploma in French, University of Besancon, France 1975, Post Graduate Diploma, Advertising Writing (DAW) from the celebrated Watford College of Arts and Graphics, Watford, England 1982. He is the first GCI and one of the few Watford-trained copywriters in Nigeria.

He worked in West African Examination Council (WAEC) Yaba, 1964 January — April, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Lagos, 1964 May to 1969 September and taught in primary and secondary schools at various times. He also worked as a Nigerian Foreign Affairs Officer in Lagos and France briefly and was posted to Islamabad in Pakistan in 1976, an offer he never took up. He resigned to carve another career path in advertising in 1977 and has created a niche for himself there. He is currently soldiering on as an Advertising Executive — Head of VOA Communicates, his own company.

He worked in Lintas Limited Lagos rising to Copy Group Head 1980, Oricom Nigeria Limited with dual responsibility as Creative Director and Managing Director 1986/1988 and OBM as Creative Consultant/Director 1990/1996.

A full member of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Victor is adjudged by industry watchers as one of the best and most creative ten Nigerian copywriters of all time. He has won many advertising awards and garlands and received rave reviews for advertisements he originated for Gulder in 1993, Cadbury’s Dadawa Cubes, Volkswagen series of cars in the 80s and many others. He consults for numerous Advertising Agencies and Marketing Outfits Pan Nigeria. He has been cited in two different publications of Nigeria’s “Who is Who”.

At home in Nigeria and abroad, Victor has led and participated in many advertising and marketing seminars and workshops — in particular the very first Advertising Seminar in Nigeria in 1977, the celebrated Marketing Seminar in Pentad Hotel London 1982 and various lectures and marketing workshops at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka 1984/1986. He has also been a member of various committees of AAAN (Triple AN) particularly the Educational and Membership committees through the 80s and 90s where he delivered many lectures to Advertising and Marketing Students and Practitioners in Lagos, Enugu and Abuja.

He is a faculty member of TYCOON Consult, a management consultancy and Cook House, a brand building and marketing outfit. He was briefly the Editor of a newspaper — The Prom in 2015 and has edited many magazines on the Nigerian Market through the 70s, 80s and 90s — Nigerian Beauty Guide, Tourism in Nigeria, Builders of Nigeria etc.

Victor has been actively involved in his 1956 Class activities since the 70s and 80s which led to the donation of money to the School Library at the 25th Anniversary of the Class in 1981 and execution of various projects and donations in 2006 during the 50” Anniversary of the Class — the gate got a face lift, its environment was landscaped, planted with flowers and maintained yearly until recently due to the drastic depletion of the Class by death.

He is the Coordinator, arrowhead and rallying point of the Class. An Ex-Officio member of the National body since 2009 during the 80th Anniversary Celebration when he participated very actively in the Mosuro (1964) led AGM Planning Committee which scored a remarkable financial success from which successive Annual Planning Committees of the AGM have taken a cue. An active member of the Ideas Group led by Olutunde Oni 1954 who has assisted in the publication of articles by GCI contributors. For upwards of eight years he has actively participated at the AGM.

Victor is an active and financial member of the Lagos Branch of GCIOBA hosted and presented a paper on Advertising in Nation building and also assisted and guided many classes in their 50th Anniversary Celebrations. Victor Abiodun has helped to create awareness for the Restoration Project and the GCI Foundation through Advertising Ads and Direct Mail. Some of the artworks were donated to the Foundation as his humble contribution. The Video production of GCI Restoration was jointly handled by Adeoye Roluga and Victor Abiodun some years back.

Married to Titilayo Irene Abiodun an edueationist, he is blessed with 3 children - 2 men and a lady and triplets as grand children. Victor enjoys reading all kinds of literature and analyzing social issues, writing poems. swimming and watching football on TV.

Victor Olumuyiwa Abiodun is today being honoured with the rare and prestigious 2018 GCIOBA National merit Award for his commitment and passion for GCIOBA and his numerous contributions to GCI’s restoration.