Abiodun Abioye

Otunba Bimbo Ashiru: From 57th Child To A Two-Term Commissioner and Boardroom Icon

Otunba Bimbola Ashiru was born in Ijebu-Ode to the illustrious Ashiru family, the son of the late Pa Simeon Adeyemi Ashiru, a distinguished Ijebu statesman, and Omo’ba (Princess) Moradeun Ashiru, of the Fidipote royal family of Ijebu-Ode and the ruling house of Owu-Ijebu. Over more than three decades since he first walked into a banking …

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Rev. Prof. Konyinsola Ajayi (SAN): One Man, Three Caps of Institutional Leadership in Nigeria

Very Rev. Prof. Konyinsola Ajayi, SAN, was born on May 25, 1959, and raised in the intellectual and professional tradition of a family deeply rooted in Nigeria’s legal and public life. He is the son of Sir Olaniwun Ajayi (1925–2016), the revered Nigerian lawyer, Afenifere chieftain, a revered author, and elder statesman who founded the …

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Benjamin Akande: The First African-Born President of a US Liberal Arts College

Benjamin Ola Akande was born in 1962 in Nigeria, the only son among five children of Rev. Dr. Samuel T. Ola Akande, a widely respected Baptist minister with ancestral ties to Awe town in Oyo state, and Comfort Olalonpe Akande, in a household that prized ambition long before Akande had the means to reach for …

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Funmi Olonisakin: The First Black Woman Professor at King’s College London and Why It Matters for Africa

Oluwafunmilayo Olonisakin was born on 8 February 1965 in South London to Nigerian parents, the child of two worlds long before she chose to spend her career moving between them. She would go on to become a scholar, feminist, institution-builder, and one of the most consequential voices in African peace and security studies, a woman …

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Oyeyimika Adeboye: Cadbury Nigeria’s First Female CEO, A Blueprint for Intentional Leadership

Oyeyimika Adeboye stands as a towering figure in Nigerian corporate history, defined by a four-decade career of shattering barriers and leading with unwavering integrity. Born the 21st of 27 children into a prominent dynasty, she forged a distinct path by choosing excellence over excuse, service over self, and patience over shortcuts. She built a legacy …

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A Tribute to OLOYE ‘LEKAN ALABI (1950–2026): Custodian of History, Culture, and the Press

On Saturday, August 1, 2026, in Lagos, the voice that narrated Ibadan and Yorubaland to two generations fell silent. Oloye AbdulRasheed Olalekan Alabi, the Abese Olubadan of Ibadanland, passed away at the age of seventy-six. News of his passing spread quickly across newsrooms, government houses, palace halls, and radio studios—spaces where he had long been …

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Tribute to Emeritus Professor Ayo Bamgbose NNOM,FNAL (1932 – 2026): Nigeria’s First Professor of Linguistics

Emeritus Professor Ayo Bamgbose is gone, and Nigeria’s academic world is left to sit with a silence it has not known in a long while. He was born in Odopotu, a small community near Ijebu Ode in present-day Ogun State, on 27 January 1932, and he died in Ibadan on 25 July 2026, at 94, …

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Kola Karim: From Palm Kernel Cake to a $850 Million Vote of Confidence

Kola Karim turned fifty-seven on November 24, 2025, as Executive Chairman of one of Africa’s most diversified indigenous conglomerates, a group with more than 5,000 employees, operations across sixteen African countries, and 2025 revenue in excess of $1.2 billion. Every empire has an origin story, and Karim’s begins not in a boardroom but in a …

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Charles Akindiji Akinola @70: The Architect Turning Southwest Region’s Development Blueprints into Reality

On a Thursday in July, Dr Charles Akindiji “Diji” Akinola turned seventy. Most Nigerians only met him this year, as the newly appointed pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the South-West Development Commission (SWDC). But the man who now sits atop the region’s most ambitious institutional experiment did not arrive there by accident. …

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