July 24, (THEWILL) – Hajiya Zainab Abah Folayiwo, popularly known as Sisi Abah, mother of Segun Awolowo, the former Executive director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, clocked 80 years on Friday, July 22, 2022.
Awolowo and friends of the socialite rolled out the drums in celebration and praises to God for sparing the life of the doyen of fashion.
The party started with an early prayer at Sisi Abah’s residence in Ikoyi, Lagos State, which was followed by an after-party at the same venue.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was one of the first people to pay the fashion icon a visit in commemoration of her birthday. Some of the top dignitaries who graced the occasion include, billionaire business woman and one of the richest women in Africa, Hajia Bola Shagaya; Senator Florence Ita- Giwa; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State and his wife, Ibironke Sanwo-Olu; Senator Oluremi Tinubu; the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu; former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori; Publisher of Guardian Newspapers, Mrs Maiden Ibru; Olori Ladun Sijuade and a host of others were all in attendance.
Ita- Giwa, the celebrant’s closest friend, was one of people who ensured tha all the dignitaries in attendance were well received and feted with the best delicacies on the menu.
Despite clocking 80, Sisi Abah is still agile and aging gracefully. She had planned to stage her 80th birthday in Ghana, but her son and friends insisted she must have a Nigeria version.
Born and raised in Ghana to a family of dress makers, she later relocated to Nigeria with her mother. She set up her fashion label, Labanella in the 1970s in Surulere and remained on the fashion scene, winning many accolades. She won the best designer competition in Ghana when Ghana Airways started operation. It set up a fashion competition which she won and she was taken to Beirut in Lebanon, the first location that the airline flew to. She is also the patron of Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN).
Sisi Abah was engaged to Segun Awolowo Jr, son of the late Nigerian nationalist, Obafemi Awolowo. She met him when he came back to Nigeria from London, but he was unfortunately killed in a car accident, which occurred while his father was facing trial for treason in 1963. Folawiyo was pregnant for him and gave birth to her only son, Segun Awolowo, two months before her lover’s death.
She also had a fling with Lasun Adesanya in the 1970s, but they later parted ways and she married billionaire businessman, the Baba Idinni of Yorubaland, Chief Wahab Folawiyo. He spoiled her silly with the good things of life and the two were regular faces on the covers of popular magazines and newspapers before his demise in 2008.
