The Nation Newspaper

Category: Happenstances

  • Where is Faysal Harb?

    Where is Faysal Harb?

    Close watchers of the social scene in Ilorin, Kwara State would know that one of the rockers of the social space, Faysal Harb, has been missing in action for some time. The Chairman of Bulletine Construction Company once bestrode the social and economic firmaments of Kwara State like a colossus. Not only did he enjoy a cult following among the youths who have been major beneficiaries of his enterprise and benevolence, being friends with him was always the desire of everyone, including the powers that be in the state.

    His footprints could be seen in every nook and cranny of the state as well as the neighbouring states courtesy his chain of businesses. But the billionaire businessman has been missing from social functions since his business suffered a downturn. The husband of notable Ilorin socialite, Jumoke, was also said to have taken a break from the social radar as a result of a health challenge he suffered some time ago. While he has since recovered from the health challenge, he has been living a very quiet life since then.

    However, Jumoke has kept the social flag flying in his absence. She runs the biggest private school and salon in Ilorin

  • For Alaba Shonibare, it’s a new life

    For Alaba Shonibare, it’s a new life

    For popular Lagos businessman, Alaba Shonibare, the storm is over two years after he lost his beautiful wife, Adenike Shonibare, to cancer. He is back to another refreshing time of marital bliss.

    Things appear to have been looking up for him since he remarried a few months ago to Lagos big girl, Unuigbe. Shonibare, the scion of the illustrious Shonibare family whose patriarch made remarkable leaps in the corporate world and public service, went through some sad times when his late wife was diagnosed of cancer. He was everywhere with Adenike to ensure that she lived. Series of medical options were explored to get the terminal disease out of her system but death came knocking after assurances that she would live after a successful operation.

    After the sad incident, Shonibare, the chairman of Shonny Investment Property Company, withdrew completely from the social circle and his world literally came to a halt until a year ago when his path and that of Unuigbe crossed in Lagos. The lady brought renewing shine into Alaba life and he regained his groove, attending events hand-in-hand with Unuigbe.

  • Fola Adeola turns 60

    Fola Adeola turns 60

    With a life that boasts of sterling feats, including being a frontline banker and taking a shot at the nation’s number two position in the 2011 general election, Fola Adeola has every reason to be thankful. This is more so as he will be attaining the landmark age of 60 in a few weeks.

    The co-founder and pioneer Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank’s birthday will come up in January. But information scooped by CelebWatch indicates that friends and family members of the fair-complexioned banker turned politician are already putting heads together to make his 60th birthday grand and exceptional.

    A planning committee is said to have been constituted with a mandate to ensure a memorable celebration. But it was also learnt that the occasion may not be devoid of political colouration with the rumour that the Chairman of FATE Foundation is nursing a governorship ambition, even though he came out to deny any such ambition when his posters flooded the streets of Abeokuta a few months ago.

  • Crisis rocks Dino Melaiye’s marriage

    Crisis rocks Dino Melaiye’s marriage

    Efforts to salvage whatever is left of the marital life of Dino Melaye seems not to be making any headway if reports coming from his his home front is anything to go by. That Melaiye’s marriage to his ex-banker wife, Tokunbo, is in crisis has gone beyond the realm of speculation. As a matter of fact, the marriage is said to have been in crisis for long only that the lady decided to endure it.

    However, events took a new turn a few days back when the lady decided she has had enough. The lady, it was gathered, felt disappointed that Dino perpetrated violence against her in spite of the fact that she stood by when he was surrounded by series of crises. Dino had sent her packing as they both were becoming intolerable of each other after about a decade of living together. After she was sent packing, she allegedly went to report her estranged husband at the FCT office of the Federation of International Women Lawyers, from where a lawyer was detailed to take up her case. The body was said to have has started making contacts with her husband to see if he was keen on taking his wife back.

    Melaiye has been embroiled in one controversy after the other since he became a prominent player on the political field. Apart from his inability to make it back to the House of Representatives after falling out with some powerful forces in PDP, he was also enmeshed in a scandal with Nollywood actress, Bisi Ibidapo-Obe, who told the world that Dino was responsible for her pregnancy; an allegation the ex-lawmaker denied.

  • Subomi Balogun opensFCMB ‘s multi-million naira headquarters

    Subomi Balogun opensFCMB ‘s multi-million naira headquarters

    Otunba Subomi Balogun, the Chairman of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), is not resting on his oars as far as making FCMB an enduring legacy is concerned. That much he demonstrated when he opened the bank’s new office on Kakawa Street, Lagos, last week.

    Declaring the architectural masterpiece open, the Ijebu high chief reminded guests that the edifice should not be seen as the handiwork of a man consumed with passion but a faithful fulfillment of God’s promises to him and his life.

    As it has become the practice with the master of modern banking in Nigeria, he ascribed his achievements in banking to God’s doing, describing FCMB as “a financial monument built by God.”

    The latest addition to FCMB’s assets was one of the events aimed at marking FCMB’s 30 years of banking within the shores of Nigeria and beyond.

  • Gbenga James still anonymous

    Not a few people are wondering if Gbenga James’ disappearance from public glare does not have to do with his EFCC-inspired court case. For some unknown reasons, he has chosen to stay indoors.

    Before he recoiled into his shell, Gbenga James, once a close friend of former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, was one of the big boys who determined the direction of social activities in Ibadan. It is a matter of public knowledge that he enjoyed good rapport with the Afao-born former governor.

    And Gbenga was not just a governor’s friend; his influence was so pervasive that one would think that he was next to Fayose in the scheme of things in Ekiti State. He flaunted his closeness to Fayose to warrant caution from friends and reprobation from foes. But all that changed when the dreadful former boss of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, beamed his searchlight on the Fayose administration in which Gbenga, a big time farmer, was very active.

    Gbenga, who did not enjoy immunity like Fayose was arrested over some suspicious deals he had with the former governor in respect of a poultry project the administration undertook. The infamous “poultry project” became the basis for the misfortune that later befell him and his governor friend.

    Gbenga has since been keeping a low profile.

  • Otedola’s wife steals show at Lagos wedding

    Otedola’s wife steals show at Lagos wedding

    Nana Otedola, wife of oil and gas magnate, Femi Otedola, is a woman that one does not get to see often in social circles. But whenever the reticent woman chooses to have a feel of what the social space feels like, she does so with panache and style.

    After an absence that has lasted many months, she was sighted at a wedding event recently, held on Victoria Island, Lagos. Dressed to the nines, her beautiful face and radiant skin looked resplendent in her gorgeous attire. She was elegant as she walked into the reception hall shoulder to shoulder with her husband and their lovely daughter, DJ Cuppy.

    Nana, as would be expected, instantly became the cynosure of all eyes at the gathering. It was an event in which she simply stole the show from other women. Even their pop sensation daughter, whose latest song has been enjoying rave reviews on radio stations in Nigeria and the UK, did not gain as much attention as her mother.

    She and her daughter were seeing repeatedly whispering words into each other’s ears.

  • Toke Makinwa, Maje Ayida keep fans waiting

    Toke Makinwa, Maje Ayida keep fans waiting

    Things are looking up for Idanre, Ondo State-born on air personality, Toke Makinwa. The current year has seen her take her trade to an enviable height; a development that has not gone unnoticed by her employer, fans and the corporate public.

    To say that Toke, who rules the airwaves from Rhythm 93.7 FM with her velvet voice has become one of the hottest babes in town is to state the obvious. With promotion at work, a couple of deals signed with some corporate brands and some thriving multi-media projects, through which she smiles to the bank on a weekly basis, Toke could not have asked for a more fulfilling year.

    Toke was at virtually all the big shindigs that have taken place in Lagos during the year, with a report claiming that her bank account got fatter with every occasion. What is more, the year 2014 is said to hold a lot of promise for the sexy tube diva.

    The anchor of the popular programme, Morning Drive, on Rhythm 93.7 FM, would be said to have had a fulfilling year but for her continued status as a spinster, in spite of wide expectation from fans that the beautiful broadcaster would formalize her romance macho built Maje Ayida.

    Many big boys are said to be falling head over heels for the petite broadcaster who, fortunately or unfortunately, is engaged to Maje who seems to have more pressing matters on his hands now than marriage.

  • Tokunbo Afikuyomi renews ambition

    Tokunbo Afikuyomi renews ambition

    Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi is one man who loves to court relevance at every opportunity. As a former students’ union activist and ‘MKO Abiola for President’ crusader, Senator Toks, as he is fondly called by friends, has definitely paid his dues.

    In the past few months, the two-term, two-district senator has been living in self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom, leaving many to wonder if he had embraced political oblivion as a reality. The Senator who has represented Lagos Central and Lagos West and later opened a wine bar in Ikoyi, moved abroad after his term as Commissioner for Tourism in the first term of the Fashola administration. He later moved to Osun State at the beginning of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola government, hoping to enjoy some patronage from the new government. But his romance with the Osun State Government lasted shorter than he probably anticipated.

    Sensing that he might have expended his goodwill with the government, he decided to leave for the UK where he has been reminiscing on the good old times as a high ranking senator in Abuja before he attempted to succeed Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the governor of Lagos State.

    But Celeb Watch has gathered that Afikuyomi may stage a come-back, as he is now eyeing his former position as the senator representing Lagos West; a position presently occupied by Senator Ganiyu Solomon (GOS), who is rumoured to be nursing governorship ambition in Lagos against 2015.

  • Gbemi Saraki back on social radar

    Gbemi Saraki back on social radar

    Two years after her governorship ambition was truncated by her own brother and immediate past governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki, followed a few months later by the death of her father and political backbone, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Senator Gbemi Saraki has resurfaced after taking a sabbatical from both the political firmament and the social space.

    While the pretty politician was away in her anonymous cocoon, tongues wagged with rumours. Some said she was trying to make a family, others said she was nursing the political wound inflicted on her by her own brother. The only major appearance she had made since then was at her father’s one year remembrance a few weeks ago.

    A few days ago, however, she was sighted at Senator Teslim Folarin’s 50th birthday in Ibadan. Gbemi radiated the kind of joy associated with inner peace at the occasion. In fact, a serving senator was quoted as saying that no woman could be so peacefully beautiful without a man in his life.

    Meanwhile, her name is being rumoured as one of those penciled down for ministerial appointment by the Presidency any time soon. Information available to Celeb Watch indicates that her name has already been sent to security agents for screening.