Since Gold & Diamond Merchant, Liz Anjorin got married a few days back, the media has been agog with all sorts of stories about she and her husband, a Lagos businessman. A few days ago, City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE got Liz Anjorin who started her career as an Actress and Movie Producer, to talk about their love story. Below is Liz Anjorin’s account.
Why did you accept to marry your husband when he proposed to you a few months back?
Because I like him so much. I love him and we have been dating for over 14 years, about 15 years to be precise. He is a very, very generous man. He has spoilt me silly over the years. He never gave up on me. He kept persisting even when I kept putting him off. I wasn’t ready to settle down all these years, if not we would have been married even before my mum died.
He is a businessman, a very successful businessman at that. He does legit business. He has nothing to hide. All his friends know him. They know what he does. He is very, very rich. He has been very patient with me, kind-hearted. Only very few men can tolerate the way I treated him.
I kept putting him off, as he kept saying he wanted to marry me. He was ready a long time ago. I wasn’t ready. He was and he is still my friend, brother. I call him my Success Builder.
He is a quiet man. He is a very, very disciplined man. His Yes is his Yes and his No is his No. I understand him very well. He is plain. He does not tell lies.
He tells it as it is. He embarasses me atimes by telling me the truth. No matter how bad the situation is, he will tell me, Liz, I have done this ooo.
So, I can relate with him. I am like his junior sister. He tells me things. When he meets a girl, he tells me.
He helps many people realise their dreams. He likes you to display your talent. He has encouraged me to excel in what I do. Once I tell him my plans, he supports me financially. He believes in relationships, not Sex. He is not crazy about Sex. He leaves me to do whatever I plan to do. He is a wonderful man. He is very disciplined. His No is No. His Yes is Yes.
I have never seen a man like him before who pulls himself back to let his woman shine. He derives great pleasure in making his woman Glow. He is shy, very shy.
He doesn’t like publicity. He does not like the limelight. He does not like the life of a celebrity. He does not talk much. But he is full of Action and Discipline. He is a very generous man. He likes to give and he gives generously.
How did you meet him?
We met a long time ago. How did we even meet ooo? Alhaji, how did we meet? (She turns to him). Oya tell me how we met (Laughs).
Let me tell you. It was at a party. But he was shy to walk up to me to tell me, he loves me. He just kept staring at me. What he then did was to send someone to me to tell me and we exchanged telephone numbers. He then started patronising me. He began to buy fabrics from me. He bought so much from me and I began to wonder whether he was going to wear all these fabrics alone.
I guess he also bought for people.
That was how we became friends and we kept close for years.
He told me then he wanted to date me and I said No. I can’t date You because I was into a relationship then, and I was hoping it would lead somewhere. So I wanted to concentrate on my relationship. And surprisingly, he agreed. He said okay. Take your time. But he didn’t abandon me, he kept spending on me heavily. He was spending and spending. He is a very plain man.
You can read him like a book. He does not hide things away from me. He kept helping me. He doesn’t wait for me to ask for help before helping me.
He was so generous and nice to me that my mum wanted him to marry me. When I broke up with my boyfriend he was willing to help me bounce back. When my mum fell ill, he was there. He kept coming to see her on a daily basis. He bought me a car, got me an apartment and paid for her hospital bills.
My mum told me to marry him. My mum told him to marry me. When he was delaying, my mum asked him what he was still waiting for. “Can’t you get her pregnant?”, she asked him one day ‘Can’t you force her? Can’t you rape her?’
‘She is my daughter I would support you. Are you impotent?’ She asked him one day.
So, you can see that Alhaji has been a constant star in my life. He has always been there for me anytime I am down. He usually comes to see me any time I am down. Me too, I always call him any time I am down. Once I am down or sad I will call him.
Those who know Liz Anjorin know I don’t tell lies. I will say it as it is. You might not like what I say, but I will always say my own.
He always gives me money. No. He Showers me with money. Even when I say No, he will still give me money, big money.
When he first told me to let’s start dating I told him I want to become somebody in life first. I want to achieve first. The second time he said it I told him I wanted to be a big Actress. I wanted to be a Movie Producer, producing my own movies. I am a very ambitious lady. I want to be an achiever, a celebrity, a Star. I worked hard at it and today I have achieved all that. I am today a big player in the Gold & Diamond business. I am into Stoning Abaya Outfits. I work hard.
So, I have always told Alhaji, No. I don’t want to marry yet. I want to achieve. I want to make it in life. So this time around when he raised it again I accepted.
When he first toasted me years back, I was fresh from school. I just graduated from Osu. It was 3 years after I left school. My dream was to meet a fresh young guy and marry him, like we all used to read in Novels. But he accepted my NO response.
And he waited. I can’t find any other man who can match him, who will take all I was doing to him. He just took me like an Aburo, like a younger sister. I used to joke with him. I talk to him as I want. He wasn’t angry.
Many don’t know he was the one behind my changing cars annually. I buy new cars every year. He makes sure I change my cars every year. He kept changing my cars for me. He upgrades my cars for me every year.
He was the first man that got me an apartment. He got me a 3 bedroom apartment in Lagos. I have always liked to live large. As a student, I lived large in school. I lost everything I had to a fraudster. Alhaji saw all that happened. He now said Liz I will help you. He got me a House and bought me a car.
Since then, he has been buying me cars every year. After every 1 year, he will change my car for me.
He is my Success Builder. He was the man behind my high taste. He made me develop a high taste. It became so bad that people began to mock him for always helping me. They started saying Liz has used juju for him, that I have cooked. Efo for him.
He was with me all through the time I treated my mum for Stroke. He saw my mummy with Stroke and he supported me all through. He didn’t have to do that. He promised my mum before she died that he will take care of me. I was just laughing that see this man ooo.
Me, I am not going to date him. I want to face my career in Acting, not dating him. He didn’t mind. He kept taking care of me. He was my Alfa & Omega. I love him. He believes in me.
It is sad that instead of some people to be happy for us, they are out there saying rubbish. He was surprised that some of those he has helped also joined in mocking him. So, he has stopped helping people.
If it was before, he would have bought plenty Ram at this Ileya period, and given them out free. He didn’t. He has stopped helping. We leave them all to God to decide on the appropriate judgement for them. Alhaji is a good man. Even me, I have stopped helping people, because all you get in return are insults. They keep saying bad things about you. This Ileya he didn’t buy a single ram for anybody. That has stopped.
All along he has lived a life of helping people. I don’t know his offence. I am one of those he helped. He made me who I am today. He is a very smart and brilliant businessman to the core.
Is it true his favourite artist is Pasuma?
Yes. He likes listening to Pasuma, he and his set of friends. He is very sociable. He dresses well. It is sad that haters have tried to run him down. My husband is not a flirt. He is loyal to many. I am the only one he did Court wedding with. He tells me everything. He doesn’t lie to me. He tells me how it is, no matter how the issue is, he will tell me. So, I know.
Is it true that his getting married to you has changed his lifestyle?
Overnight he has become a Celebrity. He can’t go everywhere again now. He no longer goes out. He stays here with me. He recently went out to an event and everybody wanted to take photos with him. They were all shouting, see Liz Anjorin’s husband. He is shy, you know. He had to rush out of the place. He now moves around with security details.
So, you can see that I am married to my Padi, my best friend. My gist partner. We yab ourselves freely. You can see me yabbing him. He too makes fun of me. To me, he is a flawless man. Whatever people say, I love him. We both live together. He has been telling me he wants to make me someone in life. He keeps spoiling me silly.
He is a man of simple taste.
Being a Muslim he has never taken a woman to the Registry. He told me he wants a Court Wedding. He wanted us to go and seal it up in court.
It is because he knows me well. If he does not seal it up properly, I can say I am not doing again later.
He knows I am also a very tough lady to deal with. When he got me an apartment in Ikorodu, for example, years back, and he said he wants the duplicate key, I said No. And I didn’t give him. Yet he still paid for the place and I told him he can’t come to see me unless I give him the go-ahead.
This time around, when he said he wanted to marry me, I saw it as a joke. When things began to take shape, I saw it like a movie.
We got married at a place called Lekki Miami, I supplied everything.
How did he propose to you?
It was in the room. I went to the bathroom and when I came back he showed me a ring and asked me: Will you marry me? I am tired of staying alone. It’s a lonely life. That was a few months ago. He said you promised me to go and make it in life. You have made it. You are now a big Gold & Diamond Merchant. I was just laughing. He brought out a ring and surprisingly, it fitted me. I think he spoke to my girl, Arike, to know my finger size. Everything was like a movie ooo. I thought he was joking. When we were doing Engagement, I was laughing. When they said, are you sure you want to marry him, he looked at me. For a minute, he must have been afraid I would say No. He knows I am playful. He knows I can say anything.
What went through your mind?
I was just wondering how someone can wait for me for so long when he had options. He is obsessed with me. He loved me when I was nobody. If he met any girl he will always tell me. He was constantly sending me money and material things.
When some of his relatives and friends heard about our marriage, they said Ope ooo. Thank God, all his investments in me have not gone to waste.
