eyeing the Governorship seat of Lagos State, western
Nigeria to replace Governor Babatunde Fashola in
2015.
Posters of Alakija are already on the streets. The
posters have equally flooded the Lagos State
Government Secretariat, Alausa inviting people to
support her ambition for the governorship seat.
The caption on the posters read: "2015: Vote
Folorunsho Alakija for Governor." The posters did not
specify the party Alakija will be contesting.
It could also not be ascertained if the posters
emanated from her as efforts to get her to comment
on issue proved abortive at press time.
Calls made to her phone was picked by a white man
who said she was in a meeting and that she would
call back after the meeting, but she never did.
Alakija is seen by many as a woman of impeccable
character and one that could provide the needed
leadership to move Lagos forward, but with the
dominant All Progressives Congress, APC, in power in
Lagos, it is doubtful if she can achieve her aspiration
outside the party.
In 2013, Forbes named Alakija as the richest black
woman on earth as she defeated the television show-
host and actress, Oprah Winfrey. By November,
2013, Forbes put her net worth at $2.5 billion. But by
January 2014 her net worth had skyrocketed to $7.3
billion courtesy Mail of UK, beating Oprah Winfrey
whose net worth is now $2.9 billion to the second
place.
She worked as a secretary in a Nigerian Merchant
bank in the 1970s and later left to study fashion
design in England. She subsequently founded
Supreme Stitches, a Nigerian fashion label that
catered for upscale clientele, including the late
Maryam Babangida, wife of Nigeria's former military
Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida.
It was during the reign of Babangida that her
company Famfa Oil got an oil prospecting license
which went on to become OML 127, one of Nigeria's
most prolific oil blocks. Famfa Oil owned a 60% stake
in the block until 2000, when then President
Olusegun Obasanjo acquired a 50% interest in the
block. Famfa Oil went to court to challenge the
acquisition, and the Nigerian Supreme Court
reinstated the 50% stake to Famfa Oil in May 2012.
Her 60 per cent stake in the block is currently valued
at around $7.3 billion, Ventures Africa reported.
Alakija was born on 15 July, 1951. She originates
from a large family: her dad had eight wives and 52
children in his lifetime and she was the second
surviving child, her mom was the first wife.
She and her younger sister were sent to school
abroad when she was seven years old. They went to a
school in Wales, a private school for girls in Northern
Wales, and they were the only coloured (black) girls
in the school. And because their fellow mates
couldn't pronounce their names, they coined them
names-Flo for Folorunsho and Doyle for Doyin. They
were in the school for four years, and at age 11 she
and Doyle moved back to Nigeria at the request of
their parents who didn't want them to lose their
African values, culture and tradition.
Alakija got married in 1976 to her loving husband
and between them they have four kids, all boys. All of
them schooled abroad and are all engaged one way
or the other in the family business.
Folorunsho's mom used to be a fabric merchant and
she used to help out, and through that she learnt a
lot. After leaving the corporate world in the early 80s
(1984), she went to the UK to study fashion
designing.
She came back to Nigeria in 1985 a year after her
training and started her fashion house-Supreme
Stitches at a 3-bedroom apartment in Surulere,
Lagos, and a year after establishing the company,
she emerged as the best designer in the country in
1986.
Sent From David Aniemeka
No comments:
Post a Comment