BIRTHDAYS

Bola Tinubu

Chief Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu, 71 years old, (born 29 March, 1952), is a Nigerian Accountant and politician, who is the president-elect of Nigeria. He served as governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 and senator for Lagos West during the brief Third Republic.

Tinubu spent his early life in southwestern Nigeria and later moved to the United States, where he studied Accounting at Chicago State University. He returned to Nigeria in the early 1990s and was employed by Mobil Nigeria as an accountant, before entering politics as a Lagos West senatorial candidate in 1992 under the banner of the Social Democratic Party. After dictator Sani Abacha dissolved the Senate in 1993, Tinubu became an activist campaigning for the return of democracy as a part of the National Democratic Coalition movement.

In the first post-transition Lagos State gubernatorial election, Tinubu won by a wide margin as a member of the Alliance for Democracy. Four years later, he won re-election to a second term. After leaving office in 2007, he played a key role in the formation of the All Progressives Congress in 2013. In 2023, he was elected president of Nigeria.

Tinubu is generally accepted in reliable sources to have been born in Nigeria in 1952; this year of birth is sometimes disputed by political opponents, who argue that he is much older. Some reliable sources note that his age has not been verfied. He completed undergraduate studies in the United States, first at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago and then at Chicago State University. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

Oloye Akin Alabi

Oloye Akin Alabi, 46 years old, (born 31 March 1977), is a Nigerian politician, entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. He is the author of the best selling business and marketing books, Small Business, Big Money and How To Sell To Nigerians. He is the founder of NairaBET.com, Nigeria’s first sports betting company. He is the founder and owner of Lekki United F.C.

Akin Alabi is the Mogaji of Ajiwogbo in Ibadan. He was appointed by the Late Olubadan of Ibadan, HRH Saliu Adetunji on Monday, December 5, 2016.

Born in Ibadan, Oyo State, to Chief and Chief (Mrs) Adediran Alabi, Akin completed his primary education at Command Children School, Ibadan, and secondary school education at Federal Government College Enugu.

Akin Alabi holds a Bachelor of Science in Politics and International Relations from Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State of Nigeria.

He also attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma in Business Administration.

Folake Solanke

Chief Folake Solanke, 91 years old, (born 29 March, 1932), SAN, is a Nigerian lawyer, administrator and social critic. She is the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria. She is a former Chairperson of the Western Nigeria Television Broadcasting Corporation (WNTBC).

She was the 42nd and the first African International President of Zonta International, an international service organisation that focuses primarily on advancing the status of women.

Solanke was born into the family of late Pa. J.S Odulate at Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State.

From 1937 to 1939, Solanke attended Ago Oko primary school. From 1940 to 1944, she attended Emo Girls School in Abeokuta. From 1945 to 1949, she attended Methodist Girls’ High School Lagos, where she took the first prize in English and Mathematics consistently. In 1949, Solanke obtained the West African School Certificate, became School Prefect and Games Captain, and at the West Africa School Certificate Examinations she became the first student of the school to obtain grade one certificate. She spent a year at Queen’s College, Lagos before she proceeded to Newcastle University (then University of Durham), England, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts (2nd Division) degree in Latin and Mathematics in 1954.

Farooq Kperogi

Farooq Adamu Kperogi, 50 years old, (born 1973), is a Nigerian-American professor, author, media scholar, newspaper columnist, blogger and activist. He was a reporter and news editor at many Nigerian newspapers including the Daily Trust, Daily Triumph and the now defunct New Nigerian.

He worked as a researcher at the Presidential Research and Communications Unit in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and had taught journalism at Ahmadu Bello University and Kaduna Polytechnic. He is a full Professor of Journalism and emerging media at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, United States.

He writes ‘Notes from Attanta’ column for the Saturday Tribune. He is one of Nigeria’s newspaper columnists, whose views affect public policies and prepare.

He is the author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English, published in 2015, as the 96th volume in series of Berkeley Insights in Linguistics and Semiotic. He is also the author of Nigeria’s Digital Diaspora Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation (University of Rochester Press, 2020) which was awarded the “2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Winner.”

Babafemi Ojudu

Babafemi Ojudu, 62 years old, (born 27 March, 1961), is a Nigerian journalist who was elected Senator for the Ekiti Central constituency of Ekiti State, Nigeria, in the April 2011 national elections. He ran on the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform.

Babafemi Ojudu was born in Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State. He attended Ado Grammar School in Ado-Ekiti (1973-77). In 1976, he won a scholarship jointly sponsored by activist lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi and Juju musician, King Sunny Ade for indigent students of the state, the start of a long-term friendship with Fawehinmi.

In 1980, Ojudu was admitted to the University of Ife, Ile-Ife to study English. He took an interest in journalism while at the university, joining the Association of Campus Journalists and reporting for COBRA, a campus journal. He and two friends founded a journal called The Parrot, which he edited until he graduated in 1984. On completing his National Youth Service, Ojudu worked as a reporter for The Guardian, while attending the University of Lagos (1985-86), where he studied for a Master’s Degree in Political Science.

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