Category: People
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Aliko Dangote; Nigerian industrialist and business czar. Aliko is a scion of a popular Dantata family of Kano who started out in 1977 in the Northern city as a trader with a seed money of 500,000 naira given him by his maternal uncle. His trade in food and building materials took him to Lagos in…
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Margaret Ekpo; first Nigerian woman to be elected a Member of Parliament in 1961. She contested on the platform of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, and won a seat to the Eastern House of Assembly. As a member of the House, Ekpo was elected as part of the delegation to the constitutional conference…
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Abubakar Adam Ibrahim; Nigerian writer, winner of the 2016 Nigeria Prize for Literature sponsored by the Nigeria LNG Limited. His winning novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms is a sympathetic narrative handling of a most psychologically and emotionally painful tale between an aging widow, who seeks release from her culturally imposed sexual repression, and a young…
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Efunjoke Coker; Educationist, first Nigerian principal of the Queen’s College, Lagos. Efunjoke occupied the unique place of being the only Queen’s College girl on record who participated in the life of the school in the capacities of a student, Principal, and Chairman of the Advisory Council. As a teenager, Efunjoke tutored pupils at St. Teresa’s…
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Kunle Afolayan; Nigerian Film maker who as son of his thespian father took up the gauntlet from where the elder dramatist left it, venturing after seven years as a bank staff into the movie industry. Kunle was auditioned by Biodun Aleja and Tunde Kelani who had worked with his father in the past, and through…
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Kaine Agary; Author of Yellow-Yellow, a debut with which she won the 2008 NLNG Nigerian Prize for Literature. Agary was the first new generation writer to win the high-priced award. The 2007 edition produced Mabel Segun and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo as joint winners. Agary’s Yellow-Yellow is the story of Zilayefa, a young bi-racial girl in search…
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Nigerian novelist who having won the Commonwealth Literature prize with, the Purple Hibiscus in 2003 and the Orange Prize with Half of a Yellow Sun in 2006, became a serious sensational writer. Adichie’s unique approach to details in her works, singles her out from the rest. Her first book went on to…
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Anselm Gbenga Adodo; Nigerian Botanist, priest and monk of the Catholic order who spearheaded research into herbal medicine. He was born in Akure on 2 November 1969. Adodo’s quest for a scientific and reliable herbal alternative to orthodox medicine began as a hobby in 1994, eight years after he joined the Ewu Benedictine Monastery as…
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Mutiu Adepoju; Super Eagles’ midfielder and a member of Nigeria ‘Golden Generation’ of the 1990s, with a career from being a player in the Spanish La Liga to being inducted as one of its ambassadors. Adepoju started his professional adventure at Real Madrid. He is called “headmaster” for his proficiency at scorinng goals with headers…
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Olufela Anikulapo-Kuti; Iconoclast musician who was the creator of the Afrobeat subgenre of highlife music. Fela returned to Nigeria after training at the Trinity College in London to join the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC. In 1962 he formed Fela and the Highlife jazz Band and played contemporary highlife music. Several years later, he made an…