Billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote has publicly expressed his gratitude to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, for a decisive intervention that allowed the development of his factories.
Speaking at an event on Thursday, Dangote recalled that after acquiring land for the project, the site contained more than 19 shrines, halting any construction. He credited the Ooni with personally visiting the location and authorizing their removal.
“Ooni went there, he stood right there and said, remove all of them, anything that they wanted, let the gods come and talk to me,” Dangote recounted.
Addressing the monarch directly, Dangote said, “Your Royal Majesty, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because without the simpler acts of yours, I don’t think we would have actually been able to do this.”
Dangote made the remarks during the launch of his Foundation’s ₦100 billion Annual Education Support Fund, which he described as Nigeria’s largest private-sector education intervention. The initiative is projected to benefit 1.3 million students over the next decade.
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
