In the wild-eyed fantasies of many beautiful ladies, Mutiu Sunmonu, the chairman of construction giant, Julius Berger, is the ideal man to love and spend eternity with. He’s dark-hued and handsome; wealthy, connected and very single. The ladies love him to the moon and back and would give a limb to date him even for a day, and if mother luck is on their side, have him for keeps forever.
For a man not too desirous of another shot at marriage, there cannot be a more defining moment than when he is confronted with a bevy of beauties jostling to take him to the altar willy-nilly. Though it is hard to obliterate the memories of his late wife completely from memory, he is bouncing back into full vitality, leaping and spinning when necessary.
A first-class graduate of the University of Lagos, Sunmonu resigned as Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), and Country Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria after 36 years of meritorious service. He is currently the MD of San Leon Energy PLC, UK; and Chairman of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. and Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank. He was appointed to the Board of Unilever Nigeria Plc. in December 2015. So, money is not the problem. It does seem, however, that he has not got over the death of his adorable wife, Funke, who died in April 2017, after a protracted battle with cancer. She was buried at the elitist Vaults and Gardens in Ikoyi in the presence of friends and family members and prominent Nigerians.
If money were enough, he could have mustered the whole world to save her and fulfil his vows that they would grow grey together but death had other tragic plans. Of course, it was hard for him, like it would for anyone else who loses a loved one especially one like Funke and to accept that they would never see again or look into the loving eyes of each other as they had for the past almost three decades.
The anger that he was helpless as his beloved suffered untold agony in her last days and all his wealth couldn’t salvage her dovetailed into understandable depression. But time heals all wounds. Gradually, Sunmonu has come to accept the reality of his wife’s death as the permanent reality. While the cold, lonely nights subsist, Sunmonu’s days are becoming interspersed with moments, no matter how brief, when he gives in to some form of gaiety but he never lets his guards down especially when the female hawks start to hover, circle and prepare to swoop on him. Everywhere he goes, the finest and most exotic species of the womenfolk are on his trail but he has avoided any romantic entanglement.
This is why his friends and associates are worried that he is not considering remarrying especially as age is no longer on his side. While Sunmonu is not averse to giving marriage another shot, he is reportedly being careful not to choose wrongly because of the preponderance of gold diggers. The pressure to give marriage another shot – at least for the sake of the children and for himself too – has become even more intense in the past months of total lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
