•As Chief TEMITOPE AJAYI Tells City People Her Story
She is one of the popular celebrity women currently making waves in Nigeria. She is well connected and very influential, in the scheme of things in the country.
She has a popular nickname Mama Diaspora, because of the influence she radiates across the globe, especially in the U.S. where she is quite connected to many of the past U.S. presidents.
Her global links is also tied to the United Nations. She is a UN Peace Ambassador. That is why everywhere she goes she preaches Peace. She is a Peace Advocate, a UN Peace Volunteer, and an eminent Peace Ambassador. All of these roles have earned her commendations and awards. Over the last 10 years, she has received several awards.
She has also been decorated by past Presidents. She has been given the keys to 5 cities and has been decorated with the seal of the State of Arkansas.
In turn, she has also been decorating achievers across Nigeria with the Peace Ambassador Ship of the UN.
But beyond the serious side of Chief Temitope Ajayi, is her soft side. She is an available woman who is there for all her friends. She attends parties a lot and dances well. She is also very stylish.
She is from a rich pedigree.
Her great-grandfather was a Gun Merchant. “I am the 4th generation. He was a gun merchant. He was one of the richest Nigerians. He was involved in the Yoruba wars. He donated ammunition and guns. He didn’t know how to operate the guns. He was with the Ogedegbes. He went to show them how to operate it, he made mistake. He killed himself mistakenly.
He killed himself because of his concern for Yoruba race. How about my grandmother? I didn’t meet her. But my late daddy says I am the replica of her.
She was one of the richest women in Nigeria. She and Moses Orimolade formed the Ijo Mimo. My late father was an Organist in Church Okepopo with late Papa Orimolade. The same thing with my own father. I have a beautiful memory of the 2 of them, Pa. Are Olabinjo. So, I came from a rich background. Many people used to come to my daddy and beg my daddy for help. I took after him. When I got to secondary school, I started paying my friends school fees. I was a rich kid. I went to a private primary school, Our Ladys in Maryland, Lagos the private secondary school before I went to Polytechnic Ibadan for my Accountancy. When I was young I knew how to get money from my father which I used to pay the school fees for my friends from the money I collect from my dad. I know how to collect money from my dad. Once you tell my dad you want to buy books he will give you the money. I love my parents. I built this house in Lekki, for her 37 years ago. If money can save my parents life, trust me, I would’ve bought that death”.
“As a young child, I started paying my friends school fees at Maryland Comprehensive. I was brilliant in school. Can you imagine a secondary school child doing all the things I did. He got to know later that I was using all the money he was giving me to pay the school fees of my friends”.
“I have kept their values going. I am a 3rd generation. Like I always tell everybody. I am not the one doing all I am doing for people, Almighty God in the one inside my body doing it.
“I am not boasting. I am blessed. I became very blessed at the age of 28”. How? “On account of what my late father told me. Ise logun ise. Ise ati jeun. Owo asela.
My dad told me I am a replica of my late mother who was a businesswoman. I was always taking loans from her to do business. So, my late mother was always giving me money. She was my bank manager. So, I have always been in business. That is why I am who I am.
Giving is in my DNA. I am one of the CEOS in Silicon Valley. We talk in Billions of Dollars there. Initially, I used to ask God, why did you create me to be a Nigerian? I didn’t want to go and live in America. One day somebody told me you are one of us. That was the wake up call.
DNA Nigeria? CEO in Silicon Valley? Wow! Give me a break. I know a lot of the Big Boys there. I know them, they know me.
DNA Nigeria. Do you know why they are successful? They are highly favoured. Favour. They don’t have degrees. But they know what they are doing. They are focused. There is this angel, they call the angel Favour.
When that Angel came to those in Silicon Valley, it changed their lives. Our women should also not be laid back. They should not be left behind.
I was very blessed. I was the Special Assistant to the Deputy Governor of Lagos State. Alhaja Aderoju Ojikutu, I was one of the June 12 supporters. That was how I went into exile. I cried ooo, because I couldn’t take anything out of Nigeria.
That was when I know say Khaki No Be Leather. But I was able to sneak my children away one by one. I started from scratch. I cried. I knew living in America, in diaspora, if they tell you the truth, we are suffering. Many of them do odd jobs. And you have to pay your Bills.
Living abroad changed my orientation. Nothing bothers me. As a matter of fact, I don’t miss what I don’t have. Wake Up, Don’t Sleep. People should go and get their voters card. Their Voters Card should be No 1”.
She is close to so many celebrities like Iya Adura, Prophetess Esther Ajayi. Do you know why I love that woman? She is deep! The day I heard her say Olorun Esther Ajayi! Wow! That is deep.
But for you to personalise that Olorun with you, it is deep. I am not a normal human being. No normal human being will do what I doing. They are using my body. They carted away luxury from my life, vanity away from life. I now know God.
I now know what is called God. Mo mo Olorun. I worry God a lot. And he is always answering my prayers and my cries.
Mama Aladura, I love her. For a woman to build the church in front of the Beach, Ki se oju la san. Olorun yanda fun ni. That is why I love her.
She wants to unify Aladura Church.
They look like a Rainbow Coalition with each one doing his own thing. When I went to visit her not to long ago, God said to me that I should celebrate and honour her for all the good jobs she is doing. Oluwa ni da mama yen lola. She is now an Ambassador of Peace. Its God. I can hardly do it myself. She is an Ambassador of Peace. We need Peace in this country.
Everybody that I nominated has been destined for Peace”.
How about Asiwaju Bola Tinubu? “Oh yes, you are talking about my brother, Asiwaju I knew my brother a long time ago when he was in Mobil, with Egbon, Uncle Pius Akinyelure.
I told you I became blessed at the age of 28, but that money went down.
My brother made me. He was in Mobil. He was the Chief Accountant in Mobil at that time. He is very educated. He is a very educated man. That was when I dabbled into Oil. I was about buying my own self-propelled badge before everything got scattered. It brings back memory haa! I remember Kemi Nelson. May her soul rest in peace.
I remember at that time. Kemi Nelson was going for Senate. We used to call her Gele Odun then. Asiwaju at that Mobil House told me Aburo, I want to go to the Senate. I remember his office. He used to wear that Awolowo’s round glasses then. I now told him why leave certainty for uncertainty. That is how we started the battle. Kemi lost out. I pitied her when she lost, she cried. Then, my brother won. I got so much involved in the politics of that era because of Abiola. I was very close to Sani Abacha. We had to run away. I was a Personal Assistant to the Lagos Deputy Governor when my brother Asiwaju wanted to be a Senator. We supported him. I was still in NPN. My brother was in SDP. But blood is thicker than water. I remember that night when we ran away all the activities of NADECO began because I got myself involved in the power tussle of the 2 most powerful men in Nigeria at that time: Abiola & Sani Abacha.
When I wanted to come back, my aides told me, Mama don’t come back ooo.
The SSS has been told to arrest you at the point of entry. The American government adopted me and my children. That is why I always say jokingly that I am an American. When my country rejected me American government adopted me. Looking around my living room here you can see all the awards I got from the American government. I was a real good Ambassador of Nigeria in the US. You can’t begin to imagine how many presidential awards I won in the US. I have the key to many cities”.
How does she see the outcome of 2023? “I am an observer. It is only the Almighty God that appoints. But my advocacy is for Peace to reign. The presidential election is going to be peaceful. The only thing that can determine who wins is your Voters Card. Go and get it. That is the power to make you a Nigerian citizen”.
