The Nation Newspaper

Category: Weekend Treat

  • Bola Shagaya, Onyeka Onwenu defend First Lady

    Bola Shagaya, Onyeka Onwenu defend First Lady

    Millions of Nigerians may have expressed their disappointment at the wobbly English spoken by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, in respect of the abducted pupils of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, but not so for her coterie of friends led by billionaire businesswoman, Hajia Bola Shagaya.

    Bola Shagaya was said to have been enraged by the taunts that have since been directed at the First Lady on the social media and elsewhere, expressing shock and disappointment at the fact that the First Lady’s traducers would not see beyond an issue as ephemeral as lack of finesse in the First Lady’s spoken English. She believes the woman should rather be praised for the empathy she showed by weeping uncontrollably for the missing kids.

    A few days ago, Onyeka Onwenu, popular female musician who was recently appointed the Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development, was on a TV programme to defend Patience Jonathan and demonstrate her support for the First Lady. “I have never met anyone as down to earth as the First Lady… She has a wonderful heart… We ought to thank her,” she said.

  • Grace Ihonvbere lies low

    Grace Ihonvbere lies low

    Grace Ihonvbere, the stylish wife of former Edo State governorship aspirant, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, was once as popular as her husband on the social scene in Lagos and Abuja. But the ardent fan of golf has lately settled for the back seat for reasons best known to her. This is in spite of the fact that her husband is currently the Secretary to the Edo State Government.

    A few weeks ago, some women from the Afemai ethnic group in Edo State paid her husband a solidarity visit, during which they urged him to consider taking a shot at the senatorial seat of Edo North Senatorial District. Big as the visit appeared, Grace was not on hand to receive the women. Some people, however, said neither Grace nor her husband was really prepared for the visit because it was a surprise one.

    The decision of the fun-loving woman to lie low has, not surprisingly, become the subject of discussion among other socialites who used to enjoy her company.

  • Ex-Daily Times MD Onukaba-Ojo buries mum

    Ex-Daily Times MD Onukaba-Ojo buries mum

    A former Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria (DTN), Adinoyi Onukaba-Ojo buried his mother at Oboroke in Ihima, Okehi LGA, Kogi State on May 3, 2014. The cream of Kogi political elite, top businessmen and women as well as first class traditional rulers were there in to honour the former Media Adviser to ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

    The Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Yomi Awoniyi, led to the ceremony a powerful delegation, including a former Deputy Chief of Staff in the Presidency, Prince Sola Akanmode; his brother and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Governor, Prince Richard Akanmode; the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Mohammed Ataba Sani Omolori, as well as senators, House of Representatives members, State House of Assembly members, commissioners, chairmen of local government councils and others.

    It was a classy event that featured colourfully dressed guests inside a beautifully decorated 2,500-capacity party tent. Assorted musicians entertained guests in Ebira, English and Yoruba. Food was provided by uniformed caterers from Abuja, while Guinness Nigeria Plc supplied the beverages exclusively. Onukaba’s mother, Hajiya Aishatu Onukaba, died on February 12, 2014 at the age of 82.

  • Ade Lexus escapes assassins’ bullets

    Ade Lexus escapes assassins’ bullets

    But for providence, popular Lagos socialite, Victor Adegbenro Adelakun, also known as Ade-Lexus in the Lagos social circle, would have bade the world farewell.  Ade-Lexus has been offering thanks to God for sparing his life from the bullets of hired assassins allegedly sent by one of his old friends to eliminate him penultimate Friday. Celeb Watch gathered that the four-man gang of assassins was on the verge of carrying out the heinous crime at the chosen location, Pekkas Night Club, by Allen Avenue, Ikeja, when some operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad swooped on them.

    SARS’s timely intervention was said to have been occasioned by some intelligence reports it had received about the impending assassination. On interrogation, the suspects confessed that it was one Ade’s friends that sent them from Ibadan to Lagos to terminate his life for reasons known only to their pay master.

    The sum of N100,000 was said to have been recovered by the police out of the N140,000 allegedly paid to the suspects as mobilisation fee. Aso recovered from them was Ade Lexus’s picture.

    Speaking to Celeb Watch about the incident, Ade-Lexus, who owns Advic Motors in Ikeja, Lagos, was full of thanks to God. He denounced any business relationship with the alleged sponsor of the suspected assassins.

    Ade said he had met the alleged sponsor through another friend a few years ago but did not do any business with him. He also denied befriending the sponsor’s wife as insinuated in some quarters.

  • Hajia Mairo Tanko Al-Makura puts first leg forward

    Hajia Mairo Tanko Al-Makura puts first leg forward

    It has become a fad of some sort for Nigeria’s first ladies to launch one pet project or another as soon as their husbands assume office as governors. Some get it right while others just pile up activities for reasons that are more cosmetic than impactful.

    In Nasarawa State, the wife of Governor Tanko Al-Makura, Hajiya Mairo, has shown that her pet project, Tallafi Women and Youth Foundation (TWAYF), was truly established to provide unlimited opportunities for women and youths through skill acquisition, human capital development and economic empowerment programmes.

    Only recently, she displayed an attribute of a typical African woman. Her organisation donated the sum of N1 million to 100 widows drawn from the 13 local government areas in the state. Market women have also received soft loans to boost their businesses. ‘Tallafi’, which means ‘Support’, is a pet project of Mairo Tanko Al-Makura initiated in July, 2011, when the state coordinator and the facilitators in the 13 local g areas were inaugurated to oversee its affairs.

  • Fire razes Mina Okoloko’s home

    Fire razes Mina Okoloko’s home

    Beauty Concerns owner, Mina Okoloko, has lately been having one ugly experience after another. The latest in the string of unpalatable occurrences is that her Victoria Island home was gutted by a fire that also destroyed everything she had in the building.

    The ugly incident was said to have left Mina speechless and traumatised for days. Not even the presence of her close friend, Kate Henshaw, and other family members could assuage the depression that seized her heart. She was said to have lost property worth millions of naira to the inferno. Lost items were said to have included her expensive diamond and gold plated jewellery like necklaces, earrings and wrist watches.

    Her dresses were also burnt; just like some goods she had taken delivery of a few days earlier. But she was lucky to have found help in few neighbours who helped to drive her expensive cars away from the compound. The lawyer-turned-beautician is said to have returned to her bubbly self. Reports say she is already planning to jet out of the country as part of her plans to expand her beauty business.

  • Edwin Clark’s wife goes into politics

    While Abisola Sodipo-Clark, wife of Ijaw National Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, may have chosen to get her husband from the South South, she is looking in the direction of the South West for a breakthrough in politics. Only last week, the fair-complexioned woman, who got married to the 87-year-old Ijaw leader last year, indicated that she might vie for an elective position in the forthcoming general elections in Ogun State.

    The medical doctor, who hails from Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State, spoke while renewing her PDP membership card at her Ward 11, Ikija area of Abeokuta, the state capital. Sodipo-Clark was later received at the party secretariat by the state chairman of the party, Chief Adebayo Dayo, and Secretary, Alhaji Semi Sodipo, among other party members.

    She neither denied nor confirmed the speculations surrounding her political ambition. She, however, told newsmen that she was eminently qualified for any political position in the state. The big questions on the lips of many political watchers in the state is what political position she will be jostling for and what political antecedents she has beyond getting married to an elder statesman who is not even from Ogun State.

  • Overseas wedding for Daisy Danjuma’s son

    Overseas wedding for Daisy Danjuma’s son

    It was a parade of who is who in Nigeria and beyond last week as Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) and his wife, Senator Daisy, hosted guests at the wedding ceremony of their son. Senator Daisy Danjuma’s first son, Yuki Ehime Omenai, and his lover, Moriam Omobolanle Rotimi, sealed their age-long romance with a fairytale wedding in far away Marbella, Spain last Saturday.

    The couple was joined in holy matrimony inside Gen. Danjuma’s plush home in Marbella, with the high and mighty from Nigeria and elsewhere also on hand for the ceremony. The beautiful city of Marbella stood still for the strictly-by-invitation wedding described by those who attended as classy.

    Close friends and associates of Senator Daisy Danjuma,including Priscal Soyemi, Terry Waya, Musa Danjuma and Bashorun Dele Momodu, were in attendance.

  • Lagos hots up for Erogbogbo’s wedding

    Lagos hots up for Erogbogbo’s wedding

    On May 24, the Lagos social circle will experience another A-list shindig. The stage is set for the hosting of top Nigerian celebrities, politicians and civil servants by one of Lagos’ finest civil servants and Permanent Secretary of the state’s Ministry of Education, Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo. On the said date, she will be giving out her child in marriage.

    Reputed as a thoroughbred civil servant, Mrs. Erogbogbo has traversed the length and breadth of the operational settings of the Lagos State Civil Service. That the respected pubic administrator has set the machinery in motion to make the event remarkable is saying the obvious. Already, one of Nigeria’s most patronised luxury event planners has been contracted for a hitch-free ceremony billed to feature eminent Nigerians, including Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, who is said to have a close working relationship with her.

    Senators, commissioners and other public officials are also expected to grace the event scheduled to hold at The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Gbagada. Guests will be entertained at the Ark Events Centre, Lekki, Lagos.

  • Princess Oladunni on the march again

    Princess Oladunni on the march again

    Many are agreed that the allure of politics is strong. Whether for money or for power and influence, political office is a bride to court eternally, particularly for those who have tasted it. That is why the recent moves by Princess Oladunni Odu from her self-imposed exile would not come as a surprise to many observers.

    The former top shot in the government of Ondo State is planning a comeback. This time, she wants to go to the Senate come 2015. How this would pan out in the long run remains to be seen, considering Odu’s withering political influence in the state.

    Few years ago, her influence in the state was overwhelming as the Chairperson of Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). That was during the administration of the late former Governor Olusegun Agagu. Nobody would have thought that any hurricane could sweep the lawyer-turned-politician off the state’s political space. But now, not a few fear that the former Commissioner of Education during military era in the state might have seen her best days in politics.

    Before now, she had been courted by any government in power in the contemporary history of Ondo politics.