Femi Oluwole
Oluwole speaking at Birmingham's Bin-Brexit rally in 2018
Born (1990-03-17) 17 March 1990[1]
Darlington, County Durham, England
EducationYarm School
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham
EmployerOur Future Our Choice

Femi Oluwole (born 17 March 1990)[1][2] is a British political activist and co-founder of the pro-European Union advocacy group Our Future Our Choice (OFOC).[3] He has appeared as an activist and commentator on British television. He has written for The Independent, The Guardian and The Metro.

Early life and education

Oluwole was born in Darlington to Nigerian parents – a surgeon father and a paediatrician mother, who both immigrated to the United Kingdom in the 1980s.[4][5][6] He grew up in the West Midlands but as a child lived in several different places across the country, having once attended a school in Dundee.[7][8] He was privately educated at the Yarm School, and went on to study law and the French language at the University of Nottingham, while completing an Erasmus Programme year in France.[9]

Career

Oluwole has interned in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and human rights agencies. At the age of 27 he left his traineeship and moved into his parents' loft to become a campaigner against Brexit, telling the Evening Standard that he made the decision to quit 2 months before his traineeship ended because he was "frustrated that the pro-Remain argument was not being made effectively by mainstream politicians."[10] In pursuing this, Oluwole created the social media channel Our Future Our Choice in September 2017, which, with the collaboration of Will Dry and Lara Spirit,[11] who had launched an anti-Brexit student activism movement in universities, was incorporated as a company on 19 February 2018.[2][5][12][13] The group advocated a pro-EU message from a youth standpoint.[12][14] He supported the People's Vote campaign for a further referendum on EU membership.[15]

Oluwole regularly appeared in the media during the process of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.[16][17] Oluwole has written for The Independent,[18] The Guardian,[19] and the Metro,[20] and has appeared on Talkradio.[21]

In July 2019, Richard Tice, chair of the Brexit Party, threatened to sue Oluwole after he alleged that Leave.EU (an organisation Tice co-founded) was "overtly antisemitic".[22] Oluwole refused to apologise.[23][3]

References

  1. 1 2 "It would be pretty difficult for me to. 😅". Twitter. Femi Oluwole. 29 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Femi Oluwole". London: Companies House. 2019. Archived from the original on 10 June 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  3. 1 2 Gee, Harry (5 February 2020). "Femi Oluwole, the political maverick thinking outside Brexit box". France 24. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  4. ↑ Machell, Ben (18 August 2018). "Femi Oluwole interview: 'In just three years we will have a population that voted Remain'". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  5. 1 2 Toma, Costanza de (4 January 2019). "Femi Oluwole, the leader of the Europeanist movement that wants to stop Brexit". NuoveRadici.World (in Italian). Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  6. ↑ McTeirnan, Anthea (21 June 2016). "Diversity of opinion on Brexit manifest on Birmingham's streets". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  7. ↑ "Femi Oluwole at Our Future Our Choice". Our Future Our Choice. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  8. ↑ Nand, Lisa Francesca (host); Oluwole, Femi (guest) (9 October 2018). "38. Femi Oluwole; Anti-Brexit Campaigner on Nigel Farage, Chips in Brussels, Wealth v Poverty in Nigeria and a French Summer of Love" (Podcast). The Big Travel Podcast. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  9. ↑ Brown, Mike (11 March 2018). "Meet Femi, the campaigner and former Yarm School student who says Brexit is a disaster for the young". TeessideLive. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  10. ↑ De Peyer, Robin (17 February 2018). "'Let's take back control of our futures': Young campaigner Femi Oluwole's plan to overturn Brexit". London Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  11. ↑ Chappell, Peter (12 March 2019). "Seventy per cent of young people voted Remain—Lara Spirit is demanding they are heard". Prospect. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  12. 1 2 Ktena, Natalie (28 January 2019). "Why I'm taking a gap year to fight Brexit". BBC. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  13. ↑ Embury-Dennis, Tom (14 February 2018). "'Our Future, Our Choice': Campaign launched for young people who want Brexit stopped". The Independent. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  14. ↑ "Perspective – 'Keep the door open for us': The fight to keep the UK in the EU". France 24. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  15. ↑ Nsubuga, Jimmy (27 November 2018). "Big blue anti-Brexit bus pulls into Westminster for Parliament 'take over'". Metro. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  16. ↑ Jankowicz, Mia (25 April 2019). "'Nigel Farage IS racist': Femi schools Brexit Party activist". The New European. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  17. ↑ Read, Jonathon (22 April 2019). "'Stop the fake news' – former Farage adviser slammed for immigration mistruths in TV interview". The New European. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  18. ↑ "Femi Oluwole". The Independent. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  19. ↑ Oluwole, Femi (22 May 2019). "The Brexit party's toxic rhetoric doesn't represent most leave voters". The Guardian. London. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  20. ↑ "Femi Oluwole". Metro. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  21. ↑ "Femi Oluwole". Talkradio. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  22. ↑ "The Londoner: Brexit Party chair Richard Tice warns Femi: I'll sue". London Evening Standard. 23 July 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  23. ↑ Randall, Angus (24 July 2019). "Femi Oluwole: 'I won't apologise to Richard Tice'". Talkradio. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
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