When American poet, Maya Angelou, said:  “A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.”  Without a doubt, Angelou’s words on the marble aptly captures the life and times of Ibidunni Ighodalo, the beautiful and high-fliying event planner, who died in the early hours of Sunday, 14^th of June, 2020 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, a month to her 40th birthday. The ex-beauty queen breathed her last while on an assignment to set up a COVID-19 isolation centre for the Rivers State government. For a good reason, memories of her life and times on mother earth still lingers on in the heart of her loved ones, especially her husband, Pastor Ituah.

 

Since she passed on, the family, at the instance of her husband, has continued to organise memorial services in her honour at the popular Holy Trinity Church, Ikoyi Lagos. As usual, the event again held last week at the church, amidst an outpouring of emotions. While alive, Ighodalo, who ran Elizabeth R, an Upscale event planning company, was strikingly beautiful and blessed with graceful steps laced with a large heart. Her smile was  also infectious that you would have thought she did not have any worries in life.

 

Indeed, she never wished to part, forever, with her loved ones when she died at the young age of 39. The late co-pastor of Trinity House Church in Lagos and founder of Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation wished to live longer to see her dreams come true. And she had them aplenty, including marking her 40th birthday with the underprivileged by touching lives. All that she envisaged was cut short by the deadly grim reaper who took her on a sojourn of no return leaving behind two beautiful kids, mother sibling and a husband.

Akinwale Matthew Feyiyemi Abidakun with the sobriquet Wale Tomtom is not a rookie in the much saturated real estate business in Nigeria. In fact, he has been making giant strides for years selling collateral property for several Nigerian banks for loan defaulting customers. Since he graduated from the University of Ilorin in sociology and anthropology in 2003, after his mandatory Youth service, he was employed by Resort International and Bi-courtney group as an Executive Assistant to Chairman Chief Wale Babalakin (SAN). It was at this point his journey to entrepreneurship started as he sharpen and harnessed his entrepreneurial mindset for the great task ahead.

After his M.sc at the University of Leeds in 2009, Abidakun kickstarted his Bluemart reality property firm in 2014. In less than five years, he was able to turn the fortune of the moribund property outfit into a high-flying brand currently making waves with a long list of clienteles. A few days ago at the SouthWest Advancement Award, Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos, the Rotarian and father of two bagged an award as the Outstanding Youth Personality of the year for his contribution to youth advocacy, business success and humanitarian service.

 

 

 

If you have ever met Hon. Adetoke Benson-Awoyinka, one thing is archetypal about her she does not give in to mediocrity or ever settled for less all her life. She loves to raise the bar high and her taste is top-notch more reason all she achieved all her life comes with resounding success. She is no run-of-the-mill with her background as a seasoned technocrat and legal practitioner with years of experience and practice in Insurance Law including Underwriting policies, Risk and Claims Management, Litigation, Probate and Land matters at Yemi Peters & Co and then to B.O Benson Law firm before delving into the murky waters of politics.

Just like the fabled Kahrites the greek goddess of grace, beauty, adornment, joy and mirth, the law graduate from the Lagos State University LASU is pure-hearted like Lesedi La Rona’s type IIA diamond. Despite being a Lawyer and Technical Consultant; Head of Corporate Strategy and Policy implementation at Dvyn Inc. in the United States, she never forgot her roots in advocating for better governance. She returned to Nigeria to form a team that crafted the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) whose main aim was for the development of Western Nigeria.

On her return, it never took long for her leadership skills and ability to think outside the box to be noticed. After several attempts to represent the good people of Ikeja Federal Constituency at the lower National Assembly, her detractors were shocked by her occultic followership and the love she enjoyed across the constituency. In 2019, she was appointed Special Adviser on Housing to the Governor of Lagos. After over three years in charge, the housing ministry has witnessed massive revitalization, coordination and regularization. With lofty ideals, she ensured proper regulatory measures within the real estate development sector in Lagos State. She also ensured strict compliance and adequate punishment for defaulters. As of today, the Housing sector has witnessed a massive boom which is giving birth to the urbanization of Lagos to meet the mega city status and also meet the housing deficit according to the teeming demand.

On the 12^th of June, the soft-spoken woman celebrated her 55^th birthday with not much fanfare. Although she was celebrated by well-wishers to the high heavens with plenty of phone calls, newspaper advertorials, text messages, text messages and social media posts. Unlike last year, when she threw a big soiree in Lagos, she chose to celebrate on a very low profile with her immediate family and few friends as she gave thanks to her creator for allowing her to witness another year on earth.