The tempest and turbulence of electioneering notwithstanding, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State is secured in the knowledge that whichever way the Saturday, September 19th governorship election goes, he has a fortress of a luxury apartment in the heart of Ikoyi, Lagos, to groove or grieve as the case may be.
Embattled Obaseki recently forked out $7million for two blocks of apartments inside the 25-Floor residential high rise located on 4, Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi. The twin tower, which induces gasps at night and awe during the day, is considered one of the world’s elite luxury residences catering to high net-worth individuals, public figures and other affluent sophisticates. And it couldn’t have been better located. Bourdillon is one of the more elitist streets in the highbrow area boasting of some of Nigeria’s most powerful businessmen and politicians like former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose residency there has earned him the cognomen, ‘The Lion of Bourdillon’.
The block of luxury apartments where Obaseki now calls home anytime he is in Lagos is owned and managed by El-Alan Construction Company and is regarded as the most expensive of its type in Nigeria. Founded in 1982 as a private limited liability company with an initial focus on renovations and sub-contract work through which it quickly gained a name for itself, today, the company is described on its website as “one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic construction and civil engineering companies in Nigeria, delivering high quality integrated construction solutions.”
While Obaseki occupies one of the apartments valued at a mouth-watering $3.5m, his partner at Afrinvest who shuttles between Lagos and London owns the other. Obaseki founded Afrinvest, an independent investment banking firm with a focus on West Africa and active in four principal areas: investment banking, securities trading, asset management, and investment research, in 1994. He left the company to work as an economic adviser to former Governor Adams Oshiomhole in his native Edo State before he later won election as governor in 2016.
Perhaps many Nigerians would have continued presuming Obaseki to be a prudent governor but for top directors of El-Alan who have been shouting from the rooftops that better days are ahead for them if Obaseki is re-elected because, according to them, the governor had promised to do a lot of businesses with them.
Alas, even Obaseki is acutely aware of the tough re-election battle ahead of him considering his bitter fallout with his godfather, Oshiomhole, who introduced him to politics and ensured his victory at the polls in 2016. When the All Progressives Congress, APC, denied him a second-term ticket, Obaseki decamped to the People’s Democratic Party and will be facing his strongest opposition in Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who is perceived as being more rooted in the politics of the state.
