Yemi Lawal and Six Decades of an Extraordinary Journey 

The titles alone make the case: Imole Adinni of Lagos, Osi Bobagunwa of Egbaland, Bobasua of Iperuland, plus honours from communities in the South-east. On December 18, 2026, Otunba Adeyemi Saheed Lawal, known as YSL, turns 60, and few Nigerians have built so wide a circle from a banker’s desk.

What a desk indeed it is! Lawal spent 18 years in commercial banking, rising through audit, treasury, branch management, and corporate finance to Regional Manager before leaving in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

Then he started to build.

Eagleways Investment Group, founded in 2005, became his parent company, with interests in oil and gas, asset management, and consulting. Seagle Property Development Company followed in 2007, putting up residential and commercial projects in Oniru, Lekki, Ikoyi, and the Lagos Mainland, among them Eagle Heights.

Extraordinary journeys rarely run straight. In September 2022, a seven-storey Seagle Property building under construction in Lekki collapsed, prompting scrutiny of Lagos building regulations and contributing to the resignation of the state’s physical planning commissioner, Dr Idris Salako.

Part of the reason is giving. Lawal has donated cement, educational materials, and a N2 million annual maintenance grant to the Lagos State Council of Imams and Ulama Islamic Centre. In the 2020 lockdown, he funded food and palliatives for more than 5,000 residents of Egbaland.

The Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, conferred the title of Ekerin Bobagunwa, later Osi Bobagunwa, in recognition of that community funding. Admirers also celebrate him as Abese of Egbaland.

He backs Nigerian squash too, having sponsored the 2024 Chief Olusegun Obasanjo National Squash Championship in Abeokuta to promote youth development. His youngest child is completing a Master’s in Architecture at an American university.

At 60, he has a banker’s discipline and a circle that crosses faith and region.