Dimeji Bankole

Ex-Speaker, Dimeji Bankole Dimeji Bankole on Saturday 6 March 2018, emerged as the governorship candidate of the (ADP) Action Democratic Party in Ogun State in advance of the Nigeria general elections in 2019.

An economist, Bankole is Chairman, Aspire Integrated Consultants Nigeria (since 2012) and Vice President, Africa House London (since 2016).

In 2011, Bankole was tried by Nigeria's anti-corruption agency and was cleared of all charges.

One week after his election, political opponents claimed that Bankole had not completed his National Youth Service Corps (N.Y.S.C) service, which is mandatory for all Nigerian university graduates under thirty years of age when they graduate, and called for his resignation over the issue. Bankole provided his N.Y.S.C discharge certificate, ending the rumour. On 22 June 2010 Bankole suspended 11 members of parliament indefinitely for disorderliness and fighting in the house.

Bankole was re-elected in April 2007. He considers his legislative interests to be those related to defence and finance.

In September 2007, a committee questioned Speaker Patricia Etteh about spending the sum of ₦628 million ($4.8m) on home renovation and automobiles. She denied wrongdoing, but many representatives were unhappy with her attempts to defend herself, blows were traded on the floor of the House, and Etteh had to be escorted from the chamber. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and many top PDP members continued to back her, but a large segment of the party, led by Lawan and including Bankole, called for her resignation. It was reported that Bankole, among multiple other contenders, hoped to succeed her as early as 5 October 2007.

During his tenure, the House of Representatives as a result of performance of its oversight function ensured that Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA's) returned unspent budgeted funds amounting to about 450 billion naira to the government treasury in 2007 while about 350 billion naira was again recovered in 2008. In total, the House of Representatives ensured the return of about 1 trillion naira unspent funds by MDA's as part of the annual budgetary process under Bankole's speakership. These were unprecedented in the history of oversight in Nigeria’s legislature. Up until then, MDA's did not return unspent funds. Also, the House of Representatives discovered that about 5 trillion Naira generated revenue were never remitted by MDA's for the past 5 years before investigation.

Bankole obtained a Master of Public Administration degree from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA in 2005. . In 2014, he became a Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA.

In 2002, Bankole was elected to the House of Representatives on the People's Democratic Party (PDP) ticket to represent the Abeokuta South Federal Constituency of Ogun State. He was Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Finance while Aminu Bello Masari was Speaker, (Farouk Lawan was Chairman of the committee) and was also previously Chairman of the House Committee on Land Transport. Other committees he has sat on are the panels on Defence, Internal Affairs and Banking, and Currency.

Previously, Bankole was a Director of Freight Agencies Nigeria Limited from 1995 until 1998, Executive Director of Operations of West African Aluminium Products Limited from 1998 until 2004, and Director of ASAP Limited from 2000 until 2003.

In 1991, Bankole passed D.A.B selection into Royal Military Academy Sandhurst while taking courses for military officers at Oxford University where he was in the Artillery Corps.

Newspaper Thisday identifies Bankole's education as such: Baptist Boys' High School, Abeokuta starting 1979; Albany College, London, England, starting 1985; University of Reading, Reading, England, starting 1989; University of Oxford's Officer Training College, Oxford, England, in 1991; and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, in 2005.

Sabur Oladimeji "Dimeji" Bankole (born 14 November 1969) is a Nigerian politician who served as the 9th Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria. Elected at the age of 37, Bankole is said to be the youngest Speaker in the history of the House and 2019 Ogun State gubernatorial election candidate under the platform of Action Democratic Party.

A Yoruba of aristocratic background, he was a businessman before being elected to the House. A Muslim Egba, Bankole was born in Abeokuta in what is now Ogun State on 14 November 1969. His parents are Alani Bankole, a businessman, former National Vice-Chairman and acting Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and holder of the chieftaincy titles of the Oluwo of Iporo Ake and the Seriki Jagunmolu of Egbaland, and one of his wives, Atinuke Bankole, who was herself the Ekerin Iyalode of Egbaland.