•What No One Will Tell You About The 3 OGUNWUSI Brothers
After staying away from Ife Palace since his brother became the Ooni of Ife about 3 years ago, Prince Tunji Ogunwusi has finally reconciled with his brother, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi. He recently visited the palace where the 3 Brothers took group photographs to mark their historic reconciliation. Shortly after they took the photo it went viral. It was a happy Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, who stood in between his 2 brothers to take the photograph with Prince Tunji Ogunwusi and Prince Adegboyega Abimbola Ogunwusi who is the current Sooko Laekun of Ile-Ife, the source.
Prince Tunji Ogunwusi is the eldest son of Papa Ropo Ogunwusi. Prince Adegboyega is No. 2 among his siblings. Though both are biologically older than the Ooni, but going by Obaship Tradition & Culture, the Ooni has now become older. He is now their father.
The 3 brothers have always been very close, until both the Ooni and Prince Tunji Ogunwusi contested for the Ooni stool years back and Prince Tunji Ogunwusi had to reluctantly step down, then, for Oba Adeyeye who now made overtures to his brother after he won. Prince Tunji Ogunwusi felt he was better suited for the role. So embittered was Prince Tunji that he promptly relocated to London months before his brother was picked and he didn’t return to Nigeria until months after his brother was coronated king. He returned in time for a major family burial that took place in Ile-Ife. Even after Prince Tunji Ogunwusi returned, family members prevailed on him to reconcile with his brother, the Ooni. He was to reconcile with his 2nd brother and his 3 sisters who visited him and that eventually led to his reconciliation with the Ooni.
Both his dad and sisters have been on Prince Tunji’s neck to reconcile with the Ooni so that the family can be united once again. Other larger family members and friends also mounted pressure on Tunji who not to long ago conceded to reconcile with his brother, the Ooni and his 2nd brother, Sooko.
Who is Prince Tunji Ogunwusi? He is an accomplished businessman.
Prince Tunji Ogunwusi is a big name in real estate. He is what you call a Real Estate Guru. Many don’t know that he is one of the pioneer property developers in the Lekki and Oniru corridor. He started quite early and he has over the years built up a huge property portfolio that is very, very impressive. But he hardly talks to the press. He hardly grants interviews. He does not like publicity. He prefers for his work to speak for him. By nature, he is quiet and unassuming. But he is an accomplished real estate practitioner who has done well.
What explains his humility is his Ibadan upbringing. Born on December 8, 1967 into the family of John Oluropo Ogunwusi from the famous Ojaja lineage of the Giesi ruling house of the Agbedegbede Quarters in Ile-Ife, Prince Ogunwusi’s mother, Margaret Wuraola Sidikatu Abegbe Ogunwusi was born into the family of Soji-Opa, a prominent and famous Cocoa merchant in Ile-Ife. He attended Subuola Memorial Nursery and Primary School, GRA, Agodi, Ibadan between 1971 and 1977, Saint Patricks Grammar School, Orita Bashorun, Ibadan from 1978 to 1983. He had his A-Levels education at the then Oyo State College of Arts and Science, Ile-Ife from 1984 to 1986 and afterwards proceeded to the University of Ibadan, where he studied Agric Economics between 1986 and 1990.
He then joined the then Nigeria Intercontinental Merchant Bank in 1991, where he distinguished himself in loan packaging and investment arrangement for 4 years. In 1995, he assumed the position of Head of Credit and Marketing at Hillcrest Merchant Bank which later became Intercontinental Bank Plc and now Access Bank Plc. He became a Managing Partner at New Africa Investment Limited between 2001 and 2007 after 10 years of meritorious service in the banking sector. His exploits in the financial sector imbued him with 17 years of valuable insight into certain crucial fields of commerce and development finance including: structured and product financing, investment arrangement, large scale procurement, product development, business creation and marketing in the Nigerian economic terrain, while also utilizing the efforts of both local entrepreneurs and strategic partnership from overseas especially where foreign expertise were required. Prince Ogunwusi combined his wealth of experience in the Nigerian business terrain with a ‘never say die’ attitude because he realized from the onset that to survive in life, you cannot afford the luxury of giving up your dreams.
This couldn’t have been truer for a man who came to Lagos from Ibadan with nothing. In a short memoir written about his years at Intercontinental Merchant Bank, it was recorded that his bicycle was his major means of transportation to the office.
He is basically an unconventional self-starter. He doesn’t believe that you have to follow the conventional way of doing things. In the realm of Wealth Dynamics, Adetunji can be regarded as a Wealth creator because of his awesome abilities to get things started. He became fascinated with the real estate market while still at the helm of affairs at New Africa Investment Limited. He later plunged himself into real estate with a revolutionary mindset to do what private developers regarded as nearly impossible.
Subsequently, Primewaterview Limited was created in 2005. However, he became actively involved in the affairs of the company in 2007 after six years with New Africa Investment Limited. The company was set out with a lofty vision to become the best real estate company in Nigeria, and out of Africa. Prior to the advent of Primewaterview Limited in the Nigerian real estate industry, residential high-rise development was a no-go area for indigenous private development companies. The completion of Gardens 1 Estate (107 units of high-rise development) within 14 months and the immediate commencement of Gardens 2 Estate another high-rise development of 348 units before Gardens 1 was delivered, was a marvellous record in Nigeria’s real estate industry.
Within 9 years of operations, Primewaterview under his leadership had been directly involved in the completion of over 700 units of various types of housing units on the Victoria Island Annex/Lekki Corridor. Most of his large-scale projects were either embarked upon or ongoing during the credit crunch and banking crisis in 2009 giving credence to the fact that Adetunji never looks back when he sets his mind at a particular goal.
Currently, he sits as the Group Chairman of the Primewaterview Holdings comprising of Primewaterview Limited and PWV Management Services. A staunch believer in local content development, over 80 per cent of his resources were sourced and developed locally. According to his aides, “It is better to be safe than to be sorry” is Prince Tunji’s usual statement during project planning and throughout the lifecycle of a project, a testament to his meticulousness, integrity and scorn for cutting corners.
His insatiable drive to explore new horizons is remarkable for the inspiration it provides for both associates and underlings of the Ife Prince. Little wonder he was one of the first few Nigerians to explore the then-budding Dubai real estate market where he facilitated good returns on investment for many indigenous businessmen and companies in the market.
Strategic partnering is another very important area where he excelled in business as the Prince has strategic partners in major countries of the world and has also facilitated the same for many business concerns in Nigeria. Some of the countries where he has business interests and partners include China, United States of America, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirate, Taiwan, Italy, Hong Kong, Spain and Australia, among others.
His knack for Wealth Creation is manifest in his several investment portfolios ranging from real estate, oil and gas, power generation, construction, hospitality and tourism. Due to his real estate influence, Primewaterview Limited was invited by the government of Southern Sudan immediately after their independence to help develop the real estate market. The efforts put into Southern Sudan are, however, yet to be fully appreciated because of the myriad of problems faced by the young nation.
Prince Tunji Ogunwusi is well travelled. In fact, his resourcefulness in real estate business and his passion for playing the field successfully, are attributable to his quality exposure and experience garnered from many trips and business endeavours with the most shrewd yet daring game-changers in foreign real estate markets. Some of his business role models include Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and their likes. The Prince revealed that he is continually inspired by their successes, management styles and leadership models.
More noteworthy, however, is his attractiveness to the country’s high society comprising past presidents and head of states, traditional rulers, notable politicians, business moguls and technocrats; this has been variously attributed to his infectious humility, brilliance, diplomacy and finesse.
He believes that to be truly successful and build sustainable wealth, you must create wealth for others thus his relentless zeal to impact positively on the lives of others. He is regarded in many circles as a mentor par excellence. His entrepreneurial acclaim is founded on mentoring people who subsequently help to create additional value in the lives of others, in what has been severally applauded as a chain reaction of positive developmental culture.
Today, some of the notable real estate development companies on the Lekki axis in Lagos, for instance, are offshoots from Primewaterview. Their founders’ were directly mentored by Prince Tunji Ogunwusi and despite being responsible for the success of these business concerns, he persistently shies from claiming credit for their breakthrough. He is a down to earth and very jovial character. He is a philanthropist who never cringes from lending a helping hand to struggling businesses, family and friends. He is a deeply religious man who believes in the unity and universality of one God that reigns in the affairs of men.
His journey to the top, however, didn’t lay out in flat miles; he experienced several ups and downs, most of them daunting experiences that would have caused the lily-livered to buckle and yield to defeat; but like the proverbial cat with 9 lives, he kept picking himself up by the jockstraps, trudging through his crucible of challenges till he chanced on success and acclaim in common hours.
