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Tag: Lagos Country Club

  • Lagos country club rocks at 70

    It was a night of glamour as the elitist Lagos Country Club joined the league of septuagenarian recently. Daniel Adeleye reports.

    Glasses were raised last week to mark the 70th Anniversary Grand Ball of Lagos Country Club, Ikeja. It was a high octave event as many movers and shakers of the state graced the occasion.

    The arrival of Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Ogun State counterpart, Prince Dapo Abiodun, the former governor of Ogun State Otunba Gbenga Daniel as well as the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabir Adewale Sotanbi , electrified the atmosphere of the entire club premises.

    The President of the Club, Tajudeen Akande along with other members were all resplendent with colourful flowing agbada with cap to match, while the female members were also adorned in beautiful dresses with exotic jewelry. It was indeed the gathering of men and women in society.

    Highlife music supplied by Sugar Band, blared from giant speakers that stood tall in the beautifully decorated club’s main hall, while dignitaries and the celebrants networked and beamed with smiles at intervals.

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, congratulated the executive and members of the club for witnessing the unique event. He said his government is poised for positive change in the lives of the citizens of the state.

    He lauded the synergy that exists between Lagos and Ogun State adding that positive synergy confirms what the true governance is all about. He said that until governments compete favourably the real dividend of democracy cannot come to the citizen.

    The event was anchored by the media icon, Bisi Olatilo, and at 6:45 p.m the national anthem was followed by the club’s. It was a special day because the club was marking its 70th anniversary. This, according to the

    President, Tajudeen Akande has undoubtedly made significant impact on socio economic development of the country.

    He said the theme of the anniversary, ‘Something for Everyone’, is to have programmes that appeal to different segments of the club, adding that  the longevity of the club is a clear testimony of the core values and belief as well as quality of the club’s membership.

    Akande saluted the immeasurable contributions of the past presidents, trustees and past officials, saying, “What we are celebrating today is 70 years of distinguished existence. 70 years of contributing to economic growth of Nigeria, as well as 70 years of friendship and 70 years of family togetherness.”

    Congratulating members of the club, Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Sotanbi, remarked that the event marked another unique day in the life of Lagos Country Club.

    The traditional ruler acknowledged that the club means a lot to the state, adding that the club should partner with the state government on infrastructural projects.

    Oba Sotanbi said, “I know what it takes to manage my wife for the past forty years, I know what it takes to manage one woman, and now we are talking about 14,000 members this far and still waxing stronger, I want to congratulate you.”

    Otunba Daniel congratulated members of the club for keeping the flag of the club flying in the last seventy years, while the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, called on all Nigerians to join hands and make the country a safe place to live.

    Ooni who spoke through Oba Ladepo Towobola, stated that it is the duty of leaders and the led to chase out criminalities and terrorism from the shores of the country.

    In his own goodwill message, the club’s chairman board of trustees, Aare Kola Oyefeso, said it is a thing of immense gratitude and utmost delight to be part of the 70th anniversary of the club have served in different capacity for over decades.

  • Osinbajo to deliver club’s 70th anniversary lecture

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will deliver the 70th Anniversary Lecture of the Lagos Country Club on July 30.

    Club President Chief Tajudeen Akande said the Vice President will be supported by eminent personalities in government, the business community as well as diplomats.

    He said: “The Vice President has graciously accepted to deliver our anniversary lecture holding in our Jubilee Hall on July 30. It is a great honour for us because apart from being the Vice President, he is eminently qualified as an erudite lawyer and intellectual of high repute. And I am happy that he will be speaking to Nigerians, considering that Lagos Country Club is a mini-Nigeria populated by Nigerians of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.”

    Read Also: Dolapo Osinbajo at 52: Seven things you should know about her

    The anniversary started on March 19 with a news conference, followed by other momentous events such as Family Funfair, Easter Carnival, Workers’ Special Day, Children’s Day and Wellness Day. Other events scheduled for the anniversary are Elders’ Night, Sports Week, Teens Rave, five-a-side Football Tournament, all culminating in the Grand Ball on August 3.

    “Our grand ball holds on August 3, which is our Founder’s Day, and it is billed to witness crème-de-la-crème of the society in Nigeria and across the world. This is the biggest event in the history of social/sporting clubbing in Nigeria and we are leaving no stone unturned, Akande added.’’

  • Glamour night, as Lagos Country Club celebrates Baba Ijebu

    It was a night of glam and panache, as Lagos Country Club unveiled its new gate and celebrated ace businessman and philanthropist, Sir Kessington Adebutu. Daniel Adeleye reports

    Elitist Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Lagos was agog last Friday as it commissioned its N30million main gate entrance and conferred the distinguished Honorary Lifetime Membership on billionaire betting magnate, Sir Kessington Adebutu.

    President of the club, Tajudeen Akande along with other members were all resplendent white flowing agbada attires with cap to match, while the female members were all bedecked in beautiful dresses and jewellery.

    Soft music blared from hefty speakers mounted in the beautifully decorated club hall, while dignitaries networked and exchanged banters.

    The arrival of Akarigbo of Remo Land, His Royal Majesty Oba Babatunde Ajayi and the celebrant, Sir Kessington Adebutu, electrified the club, as the popular Yoruba song ‘sekere l’oba njo o’ rendered by traditional dancers rent the air, amidst blaring trumpets in honour of traditional ruler.

    At a point, Ijebu traditional dancers stole the show with their captivating performance and rendition of songs of the late Hubert Adedeji Ogunde.

    The double-barrelled event kicked-off with the commissioning of the multi-million naira gate by the financier, Sir Adebutu.

    Speaking, president of the club described the event as a celebration of success and human kindness.

    Extolling Sir Adebutu’s virtues, Akande described him as a rare gift to humanity, who has touched lives beyond imagination.

    Quoting the ancient philosopher, Aristotle, Akande said, “To give away money is an easy matter and in any man’s power, but to decide to whom to give it and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man’s power nor an easy matter.”

    He enjoined all members and guests present to borrow a leaf from the man who described himself as a ‘rare philanthropist’ and imbibe his spirit of generosity.

    The president also apprised members of the immediate commencement of the phase 2 remodelling project of the entire club.

    “Lagos country club is hosting this reception to give honour to whom honour is due and to show appreciation.

    “About two years ago, Baba extended his generosity to us with a donation of 25million naira.

    “The main gate we had before now was the 1949 look. Today, with the kind assistance of Sir Adebutu, we have the edifice that is standing there and nobody is more qualified to commission the project for us than the financier.”

    Responding, Sir Adebutu said he feels good every time he does good to others.

    He acknowledged that even though he worked hard while growing up to achieve greatness, many worked harder than him but didn’t make it; hence it is glory of God that has shined upon him.

    He described the honour conferred on him as a call to more service, adding that the short fall of money spent on the new project would be made available to the club within 24 hours.

    “Firstly I want to thank this great club for the honour bestowed upon me tonight. When you came to my house two years ago and I gave you a token of N25million, I did so, not for any reward.”

    “As you’ve rightly said here tonight, honestly speaking I feel good whenever I do good to others. I was never born with a silver spoon in my mouth. It’s true I worked hard but definitely some people work harder than me.”

    “During my speech while the project was being commissioned, I told our president that what you’re doing today is a call to service. So having said that, Mr President Sir, the new project of our great club, I would kick-start from tonight with a sum of 10 million naira,” he announced.

    Another highpoint of the event was the presentation of a plaque bearing the picture of the philanthropist to him by executive members of the club.

    Other dignitaries at the event included the wife of the celebrant, Otun Yeye-Oge of Lagos, Chief Mrs. Foworola Kessington, former Super Eagles player, Peter Rufai, the first female town planner in Africa, Mrs. Kehinde George amongst others.

  • Lagos Country Club gets editor

    The Lagos Country Club has appointed a journalist and brand consultant, Sanya Onayoade as the Editor of the Club’s magazine, The ClubNews.

    Onayoade, who has spent about 15 years in the media, including The Guardian and Punch, is a corporate communication and brand management professional with competencies in integrated marketing communication and publishing.

    He is the Senior Partner Brand and Biography Consulting Limited, a company dedicated to media consultancy, Brand Management and Biography, among others. He had previously managed brands and corporate communication strategies for companies in the telecoms and aviation industries.

    He has also had leading roles in development sector projects and partnerships and was Editor of Lagos MDG Report 2009.

    He is an alumnus of the University of Ibadan, University of Pittsburg and the Lagos Business School. He also studied at Rhodes University, South Africa for Reuters Foundation certificates in Conflict Reporting and International News Writing.

    Onayoade is a Fellow of Institute of Brand Management of Nigeria, Fellow of Freedom House, Washington DC, member of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON).

    He was a recipient of Commonwealth Media Awards in 1998 and author of A Decade of Democracy.

    The ClubNews, a quarterly, according to a statement signed by the club’s Secretary-General, Mr. Igho Okor, reports sports and social activities as well as contemporary issues, such as healthy living, economic trends, fashion, women and children.

     

  • Eko Boys raise funds for school’s new site

    Old Boys of the Eko Boys High School celebrated their alma mater’s 105th anniversary with fanfare last Saturday.

    After a service at the Hoares Memorial Methodist Cathedral Yaba, the party moved to the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, for an awards and fundraising dinner, during which the national president of the Eko Old Boys Association (EKOBA), Ekorian Idowu Sofola, said the association would require close to N2 billion to complete projects at the school’s new site in Abijo GRA scheme along the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

    The school is presently located in Mushin, where many structures are dilapidated.  However, if the master plan of the Abijo site is followed, the school would boast of state-of-the art facilities.

    Already sitting on the land is a block of 18-classrooms being constructed by the Lagos State Government.

    Sofola said the funds raised would be needed to complete classroom block, hostel (N85 million); Staff quarters (N121million); assembly/dining hall (N61.8 million); and fence work (N 35.8 million).

    Others are: security house (N2.8million); sandfilling (N30 million); perimeter lighting (N4 million); generators/installation (8 million); external works, road layout etc (N15 million) among others.

    Sofola thanked success Lagos State governments – Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr Babatunde Fashola, and Mr Akinwunmi Ambode – for supporting the school.  He said the association was intervening to complement government’s effort.

    “We are gathered here today for the sole purpose of taking up the government’s challenge and raise the first tranche of N1 billion of our conservative N2 billion intervention fund to supplement the work of the Lagos State government in order to expedite the construction of the school complex and put our students in an atmosphere of conviviality,” he said.

    In a paper titled: “Being an overview of the progress on relocation of Eko Boys High School to its new site,” Ekorian Funso Owoyemi said Eko High School had fulfilled the dreams of its founding father, Late Rev William Euba, as the first indigenously founded non-denominational private school to educate indigenes of Lagos (Eko).

    “I am confident and grateful to God that the objective of the founding fathers has largely been achieved as it is on record that so many eminent Lagosians such as Late Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, Late General Adeyinka Adebayo, Late Dr Olusola Saraki, the Muri Okunolas, the Lagudas, the Kotuns, Erogbogos, Simpsons, Keshintons and numerous notable families in Lagos State and indeed Nigerai passed through this great institution,” he said.

    Considering this, in addition to the absence of a government school within an eight kilometer radius of the school’s new site (except in Sangotedo and Akodo), Owoyemi appealed to the government to still give more attention to the relocation effort.

    “We envisage a similar situation and almost a total package that was offered to Methodist Boys High School when it was relocated from Broad Street to Victoria Island, Lagos and the entire landscaping of the school was done with a completed perimeter fence.  This has become imperative against the backdrop of the recent ugly experience of Model College, Igbonla around the same axis with the present location of Eko Boys High School,” he said.

    Old students from far and near stood to be counted at the event – donating/pledged various sums towards the cause, including N2 million from EKOBA London “towards the foundation of the school hall”; N10 million from former First Bank Group Managing Director, Mr Bisi Onasanya; N2.5 million from the 79 Set; and N1 million from Mr Kolapo Omidire of the 78’ set among others.

    The programme also featured awards to old boys who had distinguished themselves in their various endeavours and public life including: Dr Olu Payne, Mr Adeniji Raji, a past president, Mr Gbolahan Solabi, Mr Akin Lawrence, Mr Babatunde Johnson, among others.

    Post-Humous awards were given to Rev Akin Adesola, Justice Muritala Aremu Okunola; Olusola Saraki, and Semmie Adisa Olatunji.

    In her speech, the Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Idiat Adebule, represented by Mrs Yetunde Odejayi, Permanent Secretary attached to her office, praised the old boys for their passion for their alma mater.  She said she was impressed they had gathered to raise so much money for the school.

    I am impressed by your effort to raise N1 billion for your school.  The Governor has asked me to promise you he will do more than other governors,” she said.

     

  • I relax my mind by clubbing and socialising

    Ex-Lagos Country Club President Ogunmekan

    Funny, tactful and highly sociable are some of the few adjectives to describe High Chief Olayinka Ogunmekan.

    A former President of the prestigious Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Chief Ogunmekan belongs to other notable clubs like Ikoyi Club and Island Club among others. He is also the President of the Swedish-Nigerian Chamber of Commerce.

    A product of a polygamous family himself, Chief Ogunmekan is not strange to the many negative stories surrounding most polygamous families in this part of the world. However, he has proved that those negative stories are not enough to deter him from marrying three wives, the last of whom he picked in 1981.

    With his tact and native intelligence, he has, to a large extent, thrown to the dust bin all the negative stories surrounding polygamous marriages with his more than three decades of successfully marrying and keeping three women under the same roof.

    With the experiences garnered from his father’s exploits as a polygamist, the Ipara Ijebu, Ogun State, high chief devised his strategies towards a successful polygamous marriage even before he delved into it. The number one lesson, he disclosed, was that all the women must live under one roof, with each of them assigned with particular responsibilities.

    “One of the mistakes polygamists make is to keep the women in different homes. This is dangerous because it does not promote unity, even among the children. Moreover, the man himself is not even safe, because anything can happen to him.

    “In our home, there is only one mummy, and that is the most senior wife. The second wife is called Aunty, while the third is called Sisi (Lady). We also have each of them with a particular portfolio. For example, there is somebody in charge of health, education and so on.

    “No matter whose child is sick, for instance, it is the person in charge of health issues that will take responsibility like staying with the child in the hospital and so on. But when it comes to food, we do it together. Anybody can prepare the food for us at home.”

    Despite the seeming success, Chief Ogunmekan admitted that his family has had its own fair share of matrimonial problems. But the family has come to a roundtable to resolve whatever differences they may have each time such problem arose.

    “I am not saying my wives don’t quarrel. But whenever such happens, there is always a centre point, and that is me. If I can remember, it was only once that an outsider has had to resolve anything between my wives and I. But nobody has had to resolve quarrels among my wives. It is better to discuss your troubles among yourselves.”

    For him, a larger chunk of the blame for failed polygamous marriages should be placed on the ‘actors’. According to him, “The problem with most polygamous marriages are the actors, not polygamous marriage itself.”

    His success story with polygamy has earned him huge number of fans and a daily influx of people who seek to drink from his deep well of knowledge on marital issues. And today, he has become somewhat an authority on polygamous marriage and a marriage counsellor to young couples and older ones planning to venture into polygamy.

    A chunk of the book he wrote to mark his 60th birthday about seven years ago is devoted to treating issues relating to polygamy. He explains: “Funny enough, a large portion of my book is on polygamous marriage, though I am planning to change that in the revised edition.”

    The son of a prominent of hotelier in the Ijebu area of the country in the 1950s, young Ognumekan grew up with a silver spoon. He attended the prestigious Mayflower Schools in Ikenne, Ogun State. With a wide grin etched on his face, he proudly announced that his grandfather was the first man to ride a car in Remo.

    After secondary school, he had the opportunity to study medicine, which was his childhood dream, in Germany. But his mother was not disposed to her son living far away from her at such a ‘tender’ age. She feared that she might lose her precious son to the world. So rather than proceed to Germany to pursue his dream, he got a job with the then Barclays Bank, a career that would last 10 years.

    With good eyes for business opportunities, young Ogunmekan soon saw better life and opportunity outside the banking hall. And he promptly took the decision to quit and face his own business.

    An opportunity fell on his lap one day during a trip to London. According to him, the managing director of a prominent newspaper of that time called him and wanted to know how to supply of newsprint. Without wasting time, he set to work and made contact with a Swedish company, marking the beginning of a thriving paper business that has lasted till today.

    Several years after that idea was sold to him, Ogunmekan still bestrides the newsprint market in Nigeria, selling the product to most newspaper companies in the country.

    Aside from newspaper business, the chief also has his hands in several blue chips businesses, making him a very busy man. He was also at a point a major dealer to major auto makers in Europe.

    However, amidst this seeming ‘very tight’ schedule, Chief Ogunmekan still has enough time to socialise and have a few glasses of wine and his favourite bottles of Stout between Mondays and Wednesday, while intake of chilled bottles of Star beer, which he called ‘social beer’, starts on Thursday night.

    All these, he said, are necessary to have a relaxed mind and a healthy life. “Most people don’t understand the need for you to socialise. As a man, you need to go out to decent places to relax your mind and muscles. What better place can that be if not a club like this (Lagos Country Club)?

    “Unlike the regular beer parlour, you are safe here and you get to mix with friends with whom you discuss issues and matters of common interest. And by the time you decide to go home, your bones and mind are relaxed and ready for the next day.”

    With a look and agility that belies his 67 years of sojourn on planet earth, Chief Ogunmekan wasted no time in shooting back when asked what his secrets were. Without blinking, he shot back: “Three wives”, followed by a long laughter.

    As if to buttress his points on this day, the club became lively as his colleagues, none of who was below age 55, began to arrive. Each arrival was followed by lively banters and laughter, loud enough to jolt a sleeping man back life.The old men truly know how to enjoy life. Their corner, a long row of white plastic chairs and tables, stood a few distance away from the swimming pool. With the leader of the team sitting at the head of the table, it was no doubt a beautiful avenue for these grandfathers to let off the steam gathered over the course of the day with a few glasses of their choice drinks and menu.

    Though he belongs to other major clubs in town, Chief Ogunmekan became the Vice President of the Lagos Country Club about five years after becoming a member.

    “I was five years old in the club when I contested and won the position of the vice president. Before that time, nobody so young in the club had done it.”

    As an icing on the cake of his socialisation, he ran for the office of the president in 2002 and won with a margin that corroborated his popularity and number one choice among the members.