August 18, (THEWILL) –Â They say when life serves you lemon, you should make lemonade from it instead of wallowing in self-pity. This, former beauty queen, Ene Maya Lawani has incorporated into her business life. She is gradually recouping what is left of her investment after the devastating loss she suffered during the End Sars protest that rocked the nation last year. Her millinery studio, Enemaya, located at Shoprite, Adeniran Ogunsanya, Surulere, Lagos, was one of the shops which got looted by hoodlums.
This ugly incident which happened just a few weeks to her 10th year anniversary as a milliner, saw the studio vandalized and everything in sight carted away. It was indeed a dark period for her as she was unable to salvage anything from what she had built in the last ten years, from her sweat and hard work. Ten months after the ugly incident, the businesswoman who is currently based in Abuja is staging a comeback with the recent launch of her new millinery collection called Femme de Luxe, in celebration of Avant-Garde femininity. A former Miss Nigeria, a beauty pageant she won in 2004, Ene is regarded as the longest-reigning queen of the pageant, by no fault of hers but due to the ineffectiveness of the pageant organisers.
She eventually relinquished the crown in 2010 when a new queen was crowned. During and after her reign, Ene took both the Lagos fashion and social scene by storm, doing it all effortlessly with luxury lifestyle king, John Obayuwana of Polo Limited by her side. But with the demise of the relationship, Ene retreated from the social scene and relocated to Abuja where she lives a quiet life tending only to her millinery business and her Abuja based lover.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
