The Nation Newspaper

Category: Celebrity

  • Ex-Miss Nigeria Helen Ajayi celebrates 56th birthday

    Ex-Miss Nigeria Helen Ajayi celebrates 56th birthday

    ONE look at former beauty queen Helen Prest-Ajayi will recall to mind the saying that form is temporary while class is permanent. Although the former Miss Nigeria’s reign ended many years ago, she continues to dazzle with her aura of undiminished elegance and class.

    Social watchers were given a glimpse of her enduring comeliness on Sunday, September 18 at the Sky Lounge Eko Hotels and Suites, where the adorable mother of three celebrated her 56th birthday at a gathering of friends and family members thrown together by her daughter Tomisin. The colourful soiree was an occasion of photo snaps and reunions as she was congratulated, commended and admired by all and sundry.

    The former Mrs Prest-Davies shot to fame as the winner of Miss Nigeria 1979 beauty pageant at a time when celebrities were the exception rather than the rule. But while her beauty catapulted her into social stardom, her brains did not fail her either as she obtained her master’s degree in Law at King’s College, London.

    The wife of respected media practitioner Tosin Ajayi has also dabbled into writing and activism. She is the CEO of Media Business Company and, with her daughter Tiffany-Annabelle, recently floated U-Wantit.Com, an auction site for luxury items.

  • Hadiza Akala savours the joy of matrimony

    Hadiza Akala savours the joy of matrimony

    THESE days, Hadiza Akala is an epitome of happiness. Wherever she goes, she radiates a glow of utmost joy and contentment that can only come from a rosy time on the marital front. The pretty daughter of billionaire businessman, Aare Rasaq Akanni Okoya, has a permanent smile on her lips, song in her eyes and melody in her heart. She has been thanking her lucky stars because of her marriage to a good man, which has so far yielded nothing but goodness.

    Since her father gave her hand out in marriage to Olamiju, the couple has been having a blast in each other’s arms. They have been spotted at choice destinations at home and abroad indulging in the merriment that comes from true love. So deep is their love for each other that just like a man’s shadow follows him everywhere, the two lovebirds are never far away from each other.

    This was apparent last Thursday when the couple descended on the Oluwanisola Estate home of the bride’s father to celebrate the Sallah festivities. During the occasion, Olamiju, son of former Oyo State governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, did not miss any opportunity to show the bride’s family how much he cares for their daughter.

  • Omisore recoils into shell

    Omisore recoils into shell

    IF the only permanent thing in life is change, one of the most affected commodities is power. It is as transient as the people who wield it; a lesson many in the corridors of power refuse to learn until it is too late and they are cast out to roam the lonely wilderness alone like once mighty lords banished and bereft of their high estates.

    Wherever he is now, former Osun State deputy gobernor and defeated governorship candidate of the PDP in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, must be pondering the tides of life that has reduced his once mighty name into a byword for expired glory. Gone are the days when his utterances carried the force of law and both the powerful and the powerless scurried around like intimidated rats to do his bidding.

    Like the biblical Nebuchadnezzar, the erstwhile strongman of Osun politics must have thought that his reign would last forever. During the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Omisore loomed large like Mount Everest over the people of his state. Now the times have changed and the tough-talking former governorship candidate, unable to contemplate his fall from relevance, has burrowed into his desolate shell.

  • Bola Atobatele loses son

    A SOBER mood pervades the atmosphere in the home of popular Lagos socialite, Prince Bola Atobatele and his wife, Toyin, since the cold hands of death seized their beloved son. Michael Babatunde Atobatele, the third of the couple’s four children, unwillingly answered the grim reaper’s call on Sunday 11 September at the highbrow Reddington Hospital.

    At 22, the departed Michael was a young man just setting out in life after completing a degree in Business and Human Resources Management from the University of Hertfordshire, UK. He had already started making inroads into the business world through Severe Nature, a printing and logo embroidery company he co-floated with a group of like-minds.

    It was gathered that the late Michael had complained of recurrent headache a few weeks after his return to Nigeria, whereupon domestic remedies were sought to alleviate his discomfort before he was rushed to the hospital when his condition worsened. Doctors were said to have diagnosed an alien fluid in his brain and performed a successful surgery. Everyone then thought he would make a speedy recovery, but that was not to be as he remained unconscious before he passed on. He has since been interred at the exclusive Ebony Vaults, Ikoyi.

    Since the unfortunate incident that shook the social scene like a hurricane, the Atobateles’ home has been playing host to hordes of prominent individuals paying their condolences.

  • Temitayo Ologburo makes waves

    TEMITAYO Ologburo has been proving to the world and her peers that youth is no barrier to achievement. While some of her mates are still tied to their parents’ apron strings, hoping for their regular stipends like roadside beggars waiting to collect alms from kind pedestrians, talented Temitayo has been moving from strength to strength as one of the most accomplished beauticians in the United Arab Emirates and arguably the most sought after Nigerian wielding the magic brush that can turn even viragos to visions of beauty.

    She is certainly building a resume of high profile jobs with the who is who in the Nigerian entertainment sector. On her list of successful assignments are the wedding ceremony of prominent OAP Toolz, the nuptials of Davido’s sister and other illustrious events.

    In the midst of her rising profile, the beautiful indigene of Ibadan has not forgotten her studies, proving that she has a good head on her shoulders. She is in the terminal year of a course in Business Administration at the University of Wollongong, Dubai.

  • Rilwan Aleshinloye lies low

    T‎HERE is time for everything, goes the age-long aphorism. For popular socialite, Rilwan Aleshinloye, the time appears to have come to retire from the limelight. Alesh Rilwan, as he is fondly called, has virtually from the social scene since his marriage with gold merchant Sade Alesh crumbled. While Sade has since found her way into the arms of another lover, Rilwan seems to have forsaken both the trappings of love and the allure of the klieg lights.

    But those who should know insist that handsome Rilwan has not totally forsaken the social scene. They maintained that while he is no longer as prominent as he was in the 90s, especially in Lagos where he used to spray musicians with money, the owner of Alesh Hotels, Ajah still makes appearances from time to time.

    Some claim to have sighted him at meetings of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos, even though he prefers to sit on the back bench. He is also said to have maintained his support for the fuji music

  • Toyin Collins savours motherhood…after two decades of fruitless search for baby

    FAMOUS beauty aesthetician, Toyin Collins, has been savouring life as a mother since she was delivered of a bouncing baby girl in December last year. The birth of the bouncing baby girl was said to have thrown the brains behind Fresh Look, a multi-purpose beauty parlour on Joel Ogunaike Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, and her husband, Debo Collins, a suave businessman and politician, into fits of uncontainable happiness.

    Feelers indicate that Toyin Collins and her baby have become inseparable as she savours the fresh fruit of the womb after more than two decades of fruitless search. The amiable new mother has been married to her beau Debo for less than three years and is already reaping the rewards. Her joy was accentuated by the fact that in her former marriage, she was childless while her husband managed to father four children with three different women.

  • Ernest Azudialu fades off social radar

    ON first encounter, Ernest Azudialu, comes across as a hard worker and a resilient entrepreneur. But while he loves his job and perhaps works harder than most other entrepreneurs, he also parties as hard as a rock star. Surprising, however, his face has been scarce on the social scene for quite a while. These days, trying to find him at a social event or celebrity gig is akin to looking for boiled eggs in a Sallah stew prepared by a rich Muslim woman.

    His sudden disappearance has led many to wonder what the multiple business award winner must be up to. The social scene could certainly do with the flamboyance and irreverence which made the fresh-faced founder of Obijackson West Africa once throw a party where things happened that could turn nuns to nursing mothers and make men of God forsake the good news.

    But those days seems to have passed away for the top dog at oil and gas giant, Nestoil, as he seems to have swapped parties and bashes with business proposals and boardroom activities. The owner of four private jets, including a Gulfstream four, and no fewer than 20 exotic cars even confessed that he spends a lot of time in the air these days. No wonder he has faded off the social radar.

  • Dimeji Bankole plans big for dad’s 75th birthday

    QUIET birthday celebrations are unheard of in the circle of elites in Nigeria. It comes as no surprise then that former speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, is planning to pull all the stops to ensure his father’s 75th birthday celebration is marked with as much fanfare as possible.

    While Dimeji Bankole shot into fame as the youngest ever speaker of the House of Representatives at 37 in 2007, his father, Chief Suarau Alani Bankole, is a formidable figure in his own right. He is a former vice chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party. He established the first freight company in West Africa, and currently chairs the West African Aluminium Products (WAAP) Plc. Chief Alani Bankole is heavily involved in the politics of his Egba ancestral home. He holds the title of Seriki Jagunmolu of Egbaland and doubles as the Oluwo of Iporo Ake, while his wife, Atinuke, is the Ekerin Iyalode of Egbaland. He recently launched a book, Alake of Egbaland: The Succession Dynamics, wherein he revealed his unquantifiable knowledge in the royal matters of his people.

    To mark the elder Bankole’s 75th birthday is a lecture titled Bankole the Great Builder. to be delivered by Justice Dahiru Mustapha (CFR), a former Chief Justice of the Federation, at Park Inn by Radisson, Abeokuta on September 17. The crème-de-la-crème of the politics and business sectors are expected to attend.

  • Adenuga’s love for Awujale

    Adenuga’s love for Awujale

    SAYING that billionaire businessman and Globacom boss, Dr. Mike Adenuga is very close to the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, is like saying that a new born baby is fond of breast milk. This perhaps explains the love that the Apesin of Ijebuland has been showering on the monarch and his kingdom. The billionaire businessman’s telecommunication company, Globacom, was the main sponsor of this year’s Ojude Oba festival which held on Wednesday.

    Mike Adenuga, who is regarded by Forbes as Nigeria’s second richest person, has Ijebu royal blood in his veins through his mother, Oyindamola Adenuga. This is perhaps the initial familial strand that connected him to the Awujale. He has since taken steps to strengthen the brotherly bond with the Ijebu paramount ruler. Whenever there is any important occasion to be celebrated, Adenuga’s companies are usually at the forefront to make sure that everything runs without a hitch.

    If the fact that Globacom has been sponsoring the Ojude Oba festival for 11 years running is any indication, Adenuga’s towering love for the Awujale is not about to end anytime soon.