Sade Okoya at 40: A Birthday Feast Fit for Royalty
If organising high society parties with the right mix of guests, gourmet food and endless exotic champagnes and cognacs known to connoisseurs were art, you may jolly well call billionaire industrialist, Chief Rasaq Akanni Okoya, the Michelangelo. And if that skill were classical music, please, call him Mozart. The money man knows how to deploy his vast wealth to serenade and stun those close to him. And, when it’s about his beloved wife, Folashade, he goes the whole hog, spares no expense and harnesses all his contacts and connections to flatter and fete her. Folashade, a University of Lagos graduate, clocked 40 last Sunday and Chief Okoya pulled everybody that matters in the society to join him in celebrating the woman that effortlessly adds plenty sheen to his glowing and glorious being. Held inside the sprawling Oluwa Ni Sola Estate on Lekki Expressway owned by the Eleganza Group chairman, it was easier to count the foremost Nigerians that weren’t at the party than those there. And they were in their eyewatering finery, yet, complied with the Black Tie dress code. From captains of industries to consummate politicians, royals and rulers, it was an evening when the spangled stars in the Lagos skyline, peering through the gold embroidered blinds, seemed to connive with the neon lights that lit the hall to cast a celestial halo on the birthday girl. Regally tall and resplendently attired, Folashade beamed with toothy smiles as she moved from table to table to greet guests, ensuring nobody missed out on the Okoyas’ epicurean hospitality. Despite her humble parentage, Folashade, who got married to Chief Okoya while in her early 20s, now carries herself with cultured aristocracy. It was her day and she lived the moment like she was born to do so. With comedian, Tee A, behind the microphone, there was no dull moment and the tempo of the party went octaves higher when reigning indigenous lyricist, Olamide Baddo, took the stage. Seguing from his early to latest hits, the singer ensured he made many men discard their agbada while the women did away with their stilettoes as they danced without inhibitions to his music. The birthday girl was not left out of the dancing binge that lasted well into the midnight.