December 06, (THEWILL) – Following her philanthropic gestures to elderly residents and market women within and around Eti Osa Local Government Area and Ikate-Elegushi, to mark her 45th birthday, Olori Aramide Sekinat Elegushi succumbed to pressure and finally threw a party, two weeks after her birthday. The queen had initially planned to do something different, away from partying, which informed her hitting the streets to celebrate with ordinary folks through her Queen Sekinat Foundation. She gave out gift items to market women, presented cash gifts to some, bought goods on display from others and organised a free eye test to about 150 elderly people with a 100 of them going home with free eyeglasses and medication.
The lavish birthday celebration took place at her events centre, The Monarch, in Lagos. For dress code, the guests were required to wear normal western-styled clothes. Olori Sekinat wowed her guests, including the Oniru of Iruland, Oba Adewasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, Prohetess Funmi Lucas, Folashade Okoya, actress Toyin Abraham, her mother in-law and many others in a floor-length shimmery gold dress complete with a crown.
King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, who had just married a new wife, thrilled the guests to his brand of Fuji music. Everyone who knows or is closely associated with Olori Sekinat attended the party to felicitate with her. But conspicuously missing from the crowd was her co-wife, Olori Hadiza, the daughter of prominent Kano politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai.
Hadiza’s absence at the party simply confirmed that both wives of Oba Elegushi were still not on speaking terms with each other. While Sekinat sees Hadiza as an usurper, who has come to reap where she didn’t sow and to divide the full attention her husband has been giving her, Hadiza considers her co-wife a greedy person who wants the dashing monarch all to herself when he is clearly allowed to marry as many wives as possible, as a monarch and Muslim.
At their husband’s 45th birthday party earlier in the year, the rift between both women came to the fore when Sekinat remained glued to the side of the monarch, never giving Hadiza a chance to come close to him except when it was time to cut the birthday cake. Thereafter, she went back to sitting quietly with her retinue of friends and eventually left the party.
Olori Sekinat has always thought the world of her husband, believing that he has eyes only for her. Their love dates back to their days as students of the Lagos State University. She must have thought that their love would stand the test of time without a third party. But she was wrong. After three female children and perhaps longing for a heir apparent, Oba Saheed Elegushi made his intentions known about taking Olori Hadiza, as his second wife. Expectedly, Olori Sekinat protested vehemently against this, but she soon calmed down after emissaries visited her and reassured her of her rightful place.
Olori Hadiza eventually bore the monarch a son and heir apparent. To keep both wives happy and ensure peace in his home, he had to scale up his spending pattern by providing them with some of the finest things that money can buy. Who says you can’t have it all when you have the means.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
