Rotimi Adebari

Rotimi Adebari (* 1964 in Okeodan , Ogun , Nigeria ) is an Irish - Nigerian politician . The Mayor of Port Laoise is Ireland's first black mayor.

After his conversion from Islam to Christianity , Adebari came under family pressure in Nigeria, which was marked by religious conflicts. In 2000, he fled to Ireland with his wife and two children, where he applied for asylum because of religious persecution . Subsequent allegations that he had already worked in the London Underground at the end of the 1990s did not, as he claimed and as the Irish asylum law stipulates, go directly from Nigeria to Ireland, he denied. The asylum application in Ireland was refused due to a lack of evidence of personal persecution; but since his third son had since been born in Ireland, the family received a residence permit.

The family moved to Port Laoise, County Laois . At the Dublin City University completed a master Adebari into intercultural studies. In 2004 he was elected as an independent member of the Port Laoise City Council. In 2007 he was elected mayor with six votes from MPs from the Fine Gael and Sinn Féin parties as well as an independent MP. The move was widely received as a sign of Ireland's transition to an immigrant society. Adebari himself emphasized that Ireland was an equal opportunity country. In the 2011 elections for Dáil Éireann , Adebari, who now has Irish nationality , ran as an independent candidate, but was not elected.

Web links

Election of Town Mayor Makes History ( February 7, 2012 memento on the Internet Archive ) on the Laois County Council website

Remarks

↑ Shane Phelan, Eimear Ni Bhraonain: Candidate rejects claims he lied to stay in Ireland . In: Irish Independent , February 7, 2011; All hail the Chieftain . In: Irish Independent , August 25, 2007.
↑ Shane Phelan, Eimear Ni Bhraonain: Candidate rejects claims he lied to stay in Ireland . In: Irish Independent , February 7, 2011.
↑ Shawn Pogatchnik: Ireland Gets Its First Black Mayor . In: The Associated Press , June 28, 2007.
↑ Shawn Pogatchnik: Ireland Gets Its First Black Mayor . In: The Associated Press , June 28, 2007; Ireland elects first black mayor . In: BBC News , June 28, 2007.
↑ Ireland elects its first black mayor . In: RTE News , June 28, 2007.

personal data
SURNAME	Adebari, Rotimi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Irish-Nigerian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	1964
PLACE OF BIRTH	Okeodan , Ogun , Nigeria

[Independent-1] Shane Phelan, Eimear Ni Bhraonain: Candidate rejects claims he lied to stay in Ireland . In: Irish Independent , February 7, 2011; All hail the Chieftain . In: Irish Independent , August 25, 2007.

[2] Shane Phelan, Eimear Ni Bhraonain: Candidate rejects claims he lied to stay in Ireland . In: Irish Independent , February 7, 2011.

[3] Shawn Pogatchnik: Ireland Gets Its First Black Mayor . In: The Associated Press , June 28, 2007.

[4] Shawn Pogatchnik: Ireland Gets Its First Black Mayor . In: The Associated Press , June 28, 2007; Ireland elects first black mayor . In: BBC News , June 28, 2007.

[5] Ireland elects its first black mayor . In: RTE News , June 28, 2007.