Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji (born July 22, 1934 in Ijebu Ode

Ijebu Ode

Ijebu Ode is a Local Government Area and city located in south-western Nigeria, close to the A121 highway. The city is located 110 km by road north-east of Lagos; it is within 100 km of the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern part of Ogun State and possesses a warm tropical climate.With an...

, Ogun State

Ogun State

Ogun State is a state in South-western Nigeria. It borders Lagos State to the South, Oyo and Osun states to the North, Ondo State to the east and the republic of Benin to the west. Abeokuta is the capital and largest city in the state...

) is a Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n career diplomat and politician who was the Special Representative of the General Secretary with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone

United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone from 1999 to 2005. It was created by the United Nations Security Council in October 1999 to help with the implementation of the Lomé Peace Accord, an agreement intended to end the Sierra Leonean...

 (UNAMSIL) from November 19, 1999 to July 16, 2003. Later he was Foreign Minister of Nigeria

Foreign Minister of Nigeria

The Nigerian foreign ministry is a statutory body created to handle the external push of Nigeria's domestic vision and ideals; it is headed by the Foreign Minister of Nigeria. As of late its mission has geared towards increasing awareness about Nigeria's economic potential...

 from July 2003 to June 2006, then Internal Affairs Minister from 21 June 2006 to May 2007.

Diplomatic career

Adeniji has a degree in History. He joined the Nigerian Foreign Service in July 1960. He served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nigerian embassies in Washington, D.C., Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Accra, Ghana.
He retired from service in 1991 after serving as the Director-General of the ministry of foreign affairs. For five years he was the Nigerian Ambassador to France.

He was the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

 (MINURCA). The mission was responsible for providing security in Bangui

Bangui

-Law and government:Bangui is an autonomous commune of the Central African Republic. With an area of 67 km², it is by far the smallest high-level administrative division of the CAR in area but the highest in population...

 and for coordinating the legislative and presidential elections held in 1998 and 1999.
He was then appointed the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative for Sierra Leone and Head of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).

Later career

He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in July 2003.

Beginning in early March 2008, he was heading negotiations in Kenya related to that country's political crisis, following the departure of the previous head negotiator, Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

.