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CityPeople Reveals What No One Will Tell You
Lagos billionaire and property developer, Sir Dr. Clement Oluwatumininu Okeowo KJW resembles his dad in so many ways. Over the last 20 years he has taken after his dad, late Sir Victor Taiwo Okeowo, in many ways. His dad was the Baba Ijo of Saint Paul’s Anglican Church, Irewon, near Ijebu-Ode. He was also the veteran Choirmaster Emeritus of the Methodist Church, Nigeria. Many don’t know that Olu Okeowo love for both the Methodist and Anglican Church was because of his dad’s love for those churches. Let’s tell you more. Sir Olu Okeowo loves to sing. He loves to dance. And he plays the organ so well, with so much dexterity. We can also tell you that Sir Olu Okeowo does not joke with all the things of God.
In his magnificent home Palacio de Okeowo, at Parkview Ikoyi, he has a Chapel where he worships. It is called Solomon’s Chapel of Faith.
The Chapel also has a big Pipe Organ that Sir Olu Okeowo plays almost everyday. He has a resident Organist. He has a Choir. He has an Orchestra.
Annually, he holds a New Year Thanskgiving inside his home, over looking the ocean, with a long list of Ministers in attendance.
Lets tell you more about this Construction giant, who is a well-known Rolls Royce afficinado. Though he grew up here in Nigeria, he studied abroad. After a brief stint in Austria, to study Medical Technology, he proceeded to the Caribbeans, in North America, to study Medicine, at the prestigious Universidad Central de Este, in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. But, not satisfied yet, from the year 1991, he began a major policy shift in his career-path, veering into an entirely different but evidently related field of Real Estate Business, Development and Construction.
Strongly inspired by his native instincts and global exposure, and inwardly fired by a combination of dogged determination, underlying brilliance and an irresistible passion to hit the roof and stay atop in life, Olu Okeowo floated and established, a couple of years later, what has now become a world-renowned company, Gibraltar Construction Nigeria Ltd – a real estate development and full service Building and Civil Engineering Consortium, located in ikoyi, Lagos.
What began rather modestly in 1992, with the first contract of fabricating mere burglary-proof safes for a security company, had since blossomed, by God’s watering fortunes, into a conglomerate, variously engaged in International Property Business – especially in developing private estates in several exclusive highbrow parts of the world; Railway Wagon conversions, construction of storage facilities for Power Plants, Erection of Tank Farms and Silos Barges for multi-nationals, etc.
The Okeowo Conglomerate is also the leading lights in the revolutionary “Operation Light-up Lagos” project on the Lagos 3rd Mainland Bridge, and several other Housing Estates, across the country and beyond; and is equally involved in the design and construction of several Bitumen Plants, Design and Fabrication of off-shore components for the Oil Industry, all over Nigeria and across other continents.
Sir Olu Okeowo has also consistently distinguished himself as a consummate business tycoon, real estate guru and business development expert, astute Administrator, and a man of unassailable integrity; proudly displaying in those several decades of global business enterprise, a plethora of unforgettable landmarks and monumental achievements. Olu is currently carrying out massive developments of modern housing units in Ikoyi, in addition to being the promoters of another industry giant, Bell and Holmes Nigeria Limited (a leading, 21st Century Telecommunications and Electrification Outfit) as well as Solomon and Clement Nigeria Limited (another emerging colossus in the globally-flourishing Plant-Blending industry); GIBET – (yet another global player in the Sports-Betting business, worldwide). A big real estate player with heavy investments in international properties, Sir Olu Okeowo is involved, in an ongoing development of a Christian Ecumenical Centre, named after his late father Sir Victor Taiwo Okeowo, at Ijebu Ode. He is also into heavy investments in the Hospitality business in the Caribbeans.
These chain of businesses are a confirmation that authentic self-made individuals, are those who, may not necessarily have been born into a particular business, or into privilege and wealth, but yet through self-effort, and by pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, emerge from those unpromising circumstances, to becoming great successes in life.
In the religious sphere, Sir Olu Okeowo, is a member of the Anglican Communion, worshipping at Our Saviour’s Anglican Church, TBS, Ikoyi, Lagos.Amusic buff, great singer and Organist, like his late father, Sir Olu Okeowo, a respected Knight of John Wesley, (KJW), in the Methodist Church, Nigeria.
He has most generously supported church work through several Organ Donation, Rehabilitation or Enhancement Projects in various Churches. Of particular note is the family’s rich investments and support for Church Music, especially in the development of classical Orchestra and indigenous African music through The Gibraltar Orchestra; well as several instances of Overseas Training Sponsorship of members of the Orchestra, in a bid to promote Classical and Orthodox music.
He is the Asiwaju Onigbagbo of Irewon Christians, Patron to many Church Societies like the YMCA, YWCA, Christian Ladies League, Helpers’ Union and The Boys Brigade; just to name a few. As a result, he was at different times, honoured in recognition of those contributions, especially to the Methodist and Anglican churches. He is a recipient of the prestigious Episcopal Awards of the Anglican Dioceses in Lagos and other places. He is also reputed for running a Scholarship Scheme for Choir members of a First Baptist Church, in Lagos. He is also a proud recipient of an honorary Doctorate degree (Honoris Causa) from Wesley University, Ondo, Nigeria and two others from some International Universities.
Although a Christian by birth, Olu has not restricted his numerous philanthropic gestures to only the Christian community, but has, as well, hugely supported various Islamic Organisations and Mosques, especially through the Sir Olu Okeowo Foundation; credited with the compassionate gesture of feeding, over 100,000 vulnerable Lagosians, during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Even long after the pandemic, The Foundation, had consistently maintained a Food Bank, to support several charities and families. The Sir Olu Okeowo Foundation, had, also, over the years, provided developmental programmes of durable advantages to afflicted societies and vulnerable populations through the implementation of humanitarian projects, committed to supporting victims of poverty, hunger and squalor; empowering the socially-downtrodden, alleviating poverty in communities by providing basic infrastructural amenities, education for children and young adults, as well as free medical care for indigent people.
He has touched so many lives, silently making several donations of pipe organs to several Churches across the state of Lagos and intervening in the training and sponsorship of clergymen and their children, through scholarships and bursary awards. He is known to have also regularly given out private scholarships and eye glasses to the blind. But perhaps, of most remarkable importance, is his most recent donation of what is arguably, the biggest project in any Nigerian University today, The Sir Olu Okeowo Physiotherapy Centre, located at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL); LUTH, Idi Araba, Lagos; consisting of a multi-complex made up of lecture rooms, Operating Theatres, Equipment Rooms and Offices for the Medical Doctors and Nurses who will work there. Arguably, the biggest Physiotherapy Centre in West Africa!
But, as far as Olu Okeowo is concerned, it’s all about Philanthropy and Giving. And he takes pleasure in doing that. His love for luxury cars is also well-known, with a stunning fleet, worth billions. He is well travelled and speaks, Spanish, Latin, and Portuguese, aside from English and his native language,Yoruba.
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