HIGHLIFE
Like gypsy moth eternally attracted to a flare, the Indimi sisters court controversy with their lifestyles. But their father, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, the billionaire oil magnate currently enjoys the best of a charmed life. Besides being rich, he recently became an in-law to the most powerful person in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari. Indimi certainly has a knack for pitching his tent with Nigeria’s ruling class.
It would be recalled that he became ex-military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB)’s in-law, soon after the latter made him a billionaire. And while he struggled to accept the sad fate of his daughter’s broken marriage to IBB’s son, Mohammed Babangida, his son, providentially made him an-law to President Buhari by marrying the latter’s daughter. Indimi founded Oriental Energy in 1990 and has since expanded the company’s assets across international boundaries. He is blessed with attractive children, especially his girls who would give beauty pageants from any part of the world a run for their money. In fact, judging by the way the close-knit sisters bond and overtly show love and solidarity to one another and their ventures, they have been labelled in some circles as the Nigerian version of the famous Kardashian sisters. That unity seems doomed as one of his girls, Hauwa, is about to be handed in marriage to a son of the late NNPC Managing Director, Abubakar Yar’Adua, Mohammed, who was once reported to have dated another Indimi sister, the famed Fatima whose explicit images went viral few years ago. It is also a known fact that Mohammed went on to date Zahra Buhari, now Ahmed Indimi’s wife, when after he broke up with Fatima.
Ostensibly, this has created some bad blood among the sisters, as they have been polarised in support for and opposition to the planned wedding which is to take place next week. Adama, who just returned from Hajj with Hauwa, has been everywhere to make sure things go right. She was the first to release alluring pre-wedding images of the couple on the social media, while others have ignored and continued to mind their respective businesses which was quite unlike them. Indications of an imminent hostility among these siblings emerged in March this year when Hauwa got engaged with Mohammed.
Her engagement did not appear to have gone down well with few of her sisters and the messy affair was taken to Instagram where they threw shades at one another. Rahmayi, who is former wife to Mohammed Babangida, was the first to fire a shot when she registered her displeasure at the impending marriage with foul language on Instagram. In her words, “…This is f—k, he’s an ex for a reason and now you will go and bring the f—k back to my life. Nahhhh. I won’t support it. There’s a code for this. Friends and family ex’s should be off the table.†Rahmayi’s sentiment was echoed by her sister and owner of Tulip Bistro in Abuja, Zahra Yakaka, who wrote, “If my sister is marrying my ex, she was never my sister in the first place.†Miffed at their public outburst, a handle named ‘hauwaindimis_lovers’ responded and berated Rahmayi, advising her to respect her age, show love and be happy for Hauwa.
Party Across the Seas…as Wife Clocks 40, Forte Oil MD, Akin Akinfemiwa, Host Classy Shindig in London
Other passions only speak but true love shrieks out pleasurably; and often times, at a deafening pitch. Little wonder many a man dote upon the objects of their affection. Some do it with an affectionate look, some with a flattering word or poetic verse but the perfect soulmate does it with a timeless gift hence Akin Akinfemiwa’s inestimable gift of love and celebration to his beautiful wife, Toyosi, when she clocked 40.
London will not forget in a hurry, the day Akin Akinfemiwa, the MD of Forte Oil, feted friends and family in his wife’s honour. England’s metropolitan capital became the masque of high festivity and the pleasant place for rare merriment as Akin celebrated his wife, Toyosi’s 40th anniversary in a classy shindig. Akin held a dinner in Watford to celebrate the occasion and his closest family and friends thronged the venue like a flock of sheep responding to the shepherd’s summons. The Chairman of Forte Group, Femi Otedola and wife, Nana were at the event to honour the young man he called ‘Our God-sent, Honest GCEO of Forte†The elaborate event saw the guests shuffle and nod to the liveliest and most delightful musical tunes.
As the guests thrilled to delightful music, their hair stood on end and they tipped over in merriment – their joy spilling from their souls into the air and sky high into the blue firmament. Enthralled, the guests moved in gaiety, tap dancing and swaying to the beat as if they meant to enact a beach rave or simulate an indoor Ibiza. The melody reverberated through the halls and passageways of the posh venue and spilled into the atmosphere, drawing excited and muted sighs of pleasure from their invited guests and neighbours.
 Flipside of Tony Elumelu
Like most billionaires of his ilk, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA, has got the money habit. But, unlike most billionaires of his ilk, he caught the fatherhood bug sometime between his ascension to fatherhood and entrepreneurial acclaim. Elumelu adorns the cloak of fatherhood with unprecedented pride hence he never shies from performing his fatherly roles to his wards. Tony cuts a contradictory picture to the random portrait of the billionaire as a bad father because of his obsession with money and acclaim. He effortlessly proves that affluence and child-rearing often go hand in hand, under the watchful and compassionate guardianship of a model father. Elumelu creates quality time to be with his daughters. The billionaire has successfully raised his daughters to be his source of joy and abiding peace. And to guarantee their evolution into full-fledged adults and total women, he creates time to celebrate every aspect of his daughters’ lives; he is part of their progress every step of the way thus he spends vacations with them in exotic locations across the world, and he is there to celebrate their graduations, birthdays and other success stories.
Thus it is hardly surprising these days as the happy father poses for pictures with his daughters. In a recent picture posted by Tony on his instagram page, “ A quick tour #UBALondon, and CNN with my girls…She calls me her wonderful daddy! Breakfast with my Gogo Lee after a great evening watching @beyonce at the #QueenElizabethOlympicPark.â€#QueenElizabethOlympicPark.â€
KAREN’S CROSS… KAREN KOSHONI REVERTS TO FATHER’S NAME, IDOWU
Bliss deserted Karen Koshoni’s marriage in unexpected hours, like the disenchanted bride fleeing the bounds of a loveless marriage. It is an open secret that Karen’s marriage to Patrick Koshoni failed. And as a final rite of passage for her failed marriage, Karen has allegedly reverted to her father’s name, Idowu. Since their marriage hit the rocks, Karen has tried few relationships which didn’t work out. Having suffered the action and counteraction that project the reciprocal struggle of discordant feelings in wedlock, she was devastated to see her marriage crash to the disharmony that resulted from her protracted marital blues. She is clearly one of those brides who, having got married, could not settle down to enjoy wedlock. Her marriage was ravaged and broken by upheavals.
Despite hopes that she and her husband would survive the rigours and intrigues of celebrity marriage, they lost that loving feeling and the magic that imbues marriage with bliss. Although the sordid details of their relationship is currently an open secret in high society circles, Patrick has moved on with his life but shouldering his responsibility as a father to the childrenproduced by the troubled marriage. To Karen, love was the thorn that pricked her strides in the valley of marriage. She hurt and bled from sting, she never misses an opportunity to impress it on her friends that marriage isn’t anywhere near top of the list of her priorities, at least for now.
SPOILT BRAT…HOW OSUN SSG’S SON, ADEOTI, TURNED LAUTECH INTO THEATRE OF WAR
Few spoilt brats squander their family’s fortune quicker than it took their forbears to amass it. From birth, they are bonded to fortune; growing up, they become hostages to it – particularly if their folks fail to instil in them the values required to improve their fortune and sustain it. Whenever the leaders of a family begin to amass tidy sums of wealth, concerns often arise concerning the dangers of producing detestable flawed children according to highly paid comedian, Louis C.K.
Indeed, contemporary research has revealed that there’s no way someone who was raised rich is not going to be a burden of a human being in his or her society thus parents raising children born to privilege, run the risk of creating self-satisfied little cretins. This terrible reality of silver spoon kids are recognizable in the lives of rich and famous Nigerian kids perpetually caught in a haze of promiscuous and extravagant living. The culprits are children of top politicians and billionaire businessmen and are seen flaunting their lifestyle on different social media platforms.
However, if the unfortunate event allegedly spearheaded by Olatunbosun Adeoti, a son of the Secretary to the State Government of Osun State, Moshood Adeoti, is anything to go by, something must have gone wrong somewhere with the upbringing of the reportedly petulant boy. Olatunbosun was said to have wreaked havoc on various targets at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, where he is a 500-levl student of Civil Engineering.
According to a media report, the younger Adeoti led a group of hired thugs wielding guns and machetes and laid siege to the office of the Acting Dean of Student Affairs, Sunday Adewale, with the intent to harm him, after an initial failed attempt to unlesh mayhem on him and his family. The spokesperson for the school narrated how Adeoti has continued to be a nuisance, constantly fouling the peaceful atmosphere of the school. The spokesperson revealed there were images showing gunshots fired at the school’s gate. Few students, upon whom various degrees of injuries were inflicted, are receiving treatment in hospitals at the moment. Adeoti was arrested alongside some members of his group but sources confirmed he had since been released from police custody. Adeoti’s actions were predicated on the results of LAUTECH students’ union election which did not go down well with him and his group. He, who was the immediate-past Speaker of the Students’ Representative Council, wanted the candidate of his group to be declared as the union president even though a different candidate won the election. When this was not to be, he resorted to self-help and breached the school’s peace. Adeoti, who many students tagged a cultist of ferocious dimension, was said to have led thugs to foment trouble at Bowen University sometime ago, wielding deadly weapons and charms. It took the pleas of his father, Moshood Adeoti, to douse the tension raised by his son’s reported belligerence and impunity.
FLIPSIDES OF A DULL COIN… BAPTISM OF FIRE FOR CBN DEPUTY, ADEBAYO ADELABU
Ambition, it is said, is a great man’s madness, but Adebayo Adelabu, the Deputy Governor, CBN, begs to differ. The fun-loving man seeks to affect no madness; he only seeks to serve his people in Oyo State in more appreciable capacity. The story is all over town that that he is set to join the state’s gubernatorial race.
By now, it must have occurred to Adelabu that it would be easier for him to retrieve an object from the Bermuda Triangle than for him to be the next governor of Oyo State. Not because he is incompetent, far from it. But because he would be a victim of the nation’s political system in which merit is sacrificed on the altar of godfatherism, ethnic, political, and religious affiliations.
Trust Nigerian politicians, they do not bother to dissuade him from venturing into the much-troubled and malignant space of Oyo politics. Rather they have promised heaven and earth to deliver the state to him on a platter of silver.
It still remains knotty why many Nigerians hate to covet glorious exit from public life rather than subjecting themselves to ignoble departure. There is no gainsaying the fact that he has been an astute administrator and a seasoned technocrat in his professional calling but he needs to be admonished that politics in Nigeria, particularly as played in his home state goes beyond financial policy formulation and boardroom conventions.
Adebayo, without a doubt, is one of the high-flying dudes calling the shots at the nation’s topmost banking institution but it appears he has overrated his influence by carrying his gospel of becoming the next Oyo State governor too far with his taking a plunge into the murky waters of Nigerian politics in a state highly charged for 2019 and a contest already characterized by infighting and backstabbing in his preferred party, the All Progressives Congress.
Leading to his eventual resignation, the 47-year-old Adebayo has been engaging in some clandestine moves burnishing his credentials as the best thing that would happen to Oyo State after the expiration of the incumbent, Abiola Ajimobi’s tenure. He has also been going about brandishing his ancestral links with the late Adegoke Adelabu, a foremost Ibadan politician (in)famously known for the ‘penkelemesi’ (“peculiar messâ€) tales.
Adebayo may have had a brilliant scholastic career earning him accelerated promotions just like his forefather whose meteoric rise in career was equally notable, his critics are of the opinion that he lacks enigmatic trait of grandfather’s ability to forensically analyse issues from sociological, political and historical perspectives.
They believe that Adebayo’s rise to the enviable position of the CBN deputy governor was a result of skewed boardroom politics that favoured him. His stint at the apex bank has not been without its tainted moments. He has had to be interrogated and admitted to administrative bail by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for abuse of office and his role in the alleged siphoning of shareholders’ funds via phoney loans at First Bank Plc, where he previously served as the executive director and chief financial officer.
The anti-graft body also once subjected the first-class chartered accountant to hours ofgrilling, August last year over the role he played in the financial allegations against the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke. Adebayo is said to have amassed a huge war chest in preparation for his governorship ambition under the platform of the ruling APC in 2019. Months ahead would reveal if he can match his reported amassed wealth with the political sagacity to make his dream come true, even though he has been deploying it surreptitiously to ensure some Oyo APC leaders buy into his gubernatorial dream.
CALM DOWN, DONALD DUKE WILL NOT CONTEST
Many have questioned his electability: to some, the only thing that the former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, would be bringing to the 2019 presidential election is ‘slayage’ and swag. To others, Duke has only jumped on the 2019 political train for pecuniary gains. To these two schools of thought, Duke’s chances of even snapping the ticket of any of the serious parties are as tiny as one strand of his hair. Donald Duke has started living true to the words of people who see him as a ‘slay’ candidate rather than a serious contender. His pedestrian approach to national politics is being depicted by playing to the gallery. Penultimate week, he posted a stage-managed image showing him in grocery store shopping, claiming his wife sent him on such an errand, making people wonder if he had fired his domestic staff and turned himself to an errand boy. Trust Nigerians, no sooner had he posted the image than a barrage of condemnations followed. Duke, whose eight-year tenure as Cross River governor plunged the state into about N80 billion debt that has continued to skyrocket and kept the state on its knees, is said to be wallowing in humongous crippling personal debts also. It is believed in some circles that the only reason he has thrown his hat into the ring is to be able to raise money from some moneybags so as to loosen the grip of asphyxiating debts tightening their noose around his neck. Duke keeps friendships that cut across political divides and different economic strata; a feature likely to be exploited to his huge advantage if he can rev up his aspiration.
Duke laid all speculations to rest when he, during an interview with an international news agency, AFP, said that he would be standing in next year’s presidential election, but held off declaring which political party he would represent. Though he is still a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party which has zoned the presidential ticket the party to the North, words are flying high Duke would be testing his popularity in the newly-formed African Democratic Congress, (ADC), which is the political party that has been adopted by the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) of which he is a founding member.
Since he missed out in 2007 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo bypassed him for the late Umaru Yar’Adua as his successor, and Goodluck Jonathan as the former’s deputy, Duke’s political fate has continued to hang in the balance. It is on record that he has made a couple of attempts to manipulate his ways into the seat of power to no avail. Recent revelations have shown how his sabotage against Jonathan failed.
OLD WINE TASTES BETTER… FEMI OTEDOLA’S 86-YEAR-OLD MUM FOR AMBODE
When an 86-year-old woman defies all geriatric frailties to go on re-election endorsement crusade for a sitting governor, that governor must be doing something beyond right and normal. And when the endorser is no other person than the Otedola matriarch, Lady Doja Otedola, then election only becomes a formality as victory seems assured if the governor is able to become his party’s standard-bearer. The widow of former Lagos State Governor, Sir Michael Otedola, went on endorsement crusade to urge indigenes of Epe to back Akinwunmi Ambode for a second term. In a gathering that drew professionals, artisans and market women from the four corners of Epe, Lady Doja called for unflinching support for the indefatigable governor on the strength of what she termed “excellent delivery of democratic dividendsâ€.
Her expression of confidence comes with the fact that a second term for Ambode would guarantee continuity of meritorious service to all Lagosians. She depicted her versed knowledge of Ambode’s strides by mentioning projects after projects initiated and completed by the governor. She ascribed the massive projects seen all over Lagos and Epe as evidence that Governor Ambode is a hard-working man of vision. She therefore called on all Epe people to shake off any lethargy, go out to get their permanent voter card (PVC), vote massively for Ambode and make him “record unprecedented votes in Epe Division at the election.â€
Those who know Lady Doja Otedola very well speak of how she is not the type given to flippancy; neither does she engage in political activities devoid of substance. She is not your run-of-the-mill senior citizen who only root for public office holders for the pecuniary benefits. Anyway, what can one give a woman who mothers an exceptionally successful business mogul and billionaire in Femi Otedola?