H. Odein Ajumogobia is the Senior Partner in the leading corporate/commercial law firm of Ajumogobia & Okeke that he co-founded in January 1984.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCI.Arb UK, 1996), Mr Odein Ajumogobia with law degrees from the University of Lagos (LL.B Hons), and Harvard Law School (LL.M), was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2003, having been called to the Nigerian Bar in 1979.
For six years between 2001 and 2006 Mr Ajumogobia was a member of the Paris based ICC International Court of Arbitration and ICC International Commission on Arbitration.
After more than two decades as a busy private legal practitioner between 1980 and 2003, providing legal services to a broad range international business and Nigerian corporate entities and individuals, Mr Odein Ajumogobia entered public service, following his appointment as Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice between 2003 and 2007.
Mr Ajumogobia was appointed Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum) and Head of Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC (July 2007 to December 2008), and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources between January 2009 and April 2010 by the late President Umaru Musa Yar Adua GCFR.
He was appointed Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR on April 6, 2010 serving as President of the UN Security Council, where he is remembered for his eloquent statement in the debate on preventive diplomacy which he introduced in the Council. Mr Ajumogobia SAN served as Minister of Foreign Affairs until the dissolution of the Federal cabinet on May 29, 2011.
Mr Ajumogobia has received numerous honours and distinctions and is the recipient of the LL.D degree (Honorary Causa) from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology and the National award of Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR).
Mr Odein Ajumogobia is married to Awuneba Ajumogobia FCA. They have four children.
