As a people, our love for social events, be it weddings, naming, burial ceremonies and others, is well-documented.
Even in the face of recession, Nigerians are not shying away from having fun.
This piece highlights some celebrity marriages in Nigeria so far this year.
Tolu Oniru (Toolz)
The popular and endowed OAP tied the knot with her heartthrob, Tunde Demuren, early this year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the wedding gown is still very much talked about months after. Tunde, the son of a former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, had proposed to Tolu in May last year during a vacation trip during which some of their friends and family members were reportedly present.
The introduction ceremony between the Beat FM presenter and Tunde, co-owner of Empire Mates Entertainment, held on September 5, 2015. Going further, the couple had their traditional ceremony, which was lavish by all standards, at the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos on January 30, 2016. Organised by Toolz’s sister, Funke, who is the C.E.O of Sapphire Events, it was not the last lap of a talk-of-the-town wedding.
For the wedding proper, the couple dragged their family members and friends all the way to Dubai, with the white wedding witnessed by the likes of Banky W, Tiwa Savage, Oreka Godis, Dolapo Oni and many other popular celebs.
Kalu Ikeagwu
Kalu Ikeagwu is another face of Nollywood who left the train of bachelors this year. But it must be said that Kalu’s wedding came as a surprise to most of his fans as some found it difficult to believe he wasn’t married yet at the time. Another aspect of the surprise, as his fans commented, had to do with the fact that he married someone many of his fans felt was much younger than him.
Two major departures from the usual celebrity events are that his wife, Ijeoma, is not a popular figure and the wedding was not even half as loud as other celebs make theirs. But our or not, the joy in Kalu’s face couldn’t be hidden on the day as he and the pretty Ijeoma Eze pronounced the words: “I do” to each other on June 25, 2016 in Enugu.
Like Toolz and Tunde, they had their introduction last year, precisely in November at Udi Local Government Area. Ijeoma, who finally won the heart of Kalu after many female Nollywood actors who wanted to settle with him must have thought he would never give marriage a shot, is a make up artiste who is also doing well in her field.
With the marriage, Kalu, whose profile has continued to rise more than a decade after his first appearance on screen in the 2005 TV series, ‘Domino’ a number of lead roles in blockbuster movies including Two Brides and a Baby along with an ongoing part in Tinsel, is finally off the list of bachelors.
Funke Akindele (Jenifa)
Funke Akindele, also widely known as Jenifa, signed the dotted lines this year for the second time in her life. She got married to hitherto UK-based Nigerian rapper and producer, Abdul Rasheed Bello, better known as JJC Skillz, on August 23, just a day to her birthday.
Unlike many in her league, Funke wedded her entertainment lover secretly in the united Kingdom, following the collapse of her marriage to politician, Kehinde Almaroof Oloyede, due to some irreconcilable differences just a year after the marriage was contracted in 2012.
Akindele, a writer, actress and producer behind the popular and trending TV series, ‘Jenifa’s Diary’, is now enjoying a new lease of life. With a thriving career, Akindele, who has countless movie roles and awards to her name in both the English and Yoruba sections of Nollywood, so happy is she with the new union that she has even featured her new husband in her series.
Monalisa Chinda
Nollywood actor and producer, Monalisa Chinda is another Nigerian celeb who has tied the proverbial nuptial knots this year. This time, the Kiss and Tell actor and producer has married her second husband and longtime family friend, Victor Tonye Coker.
The wedding to her new husband, a man of Nigerian and Sierra Leonian parentage, is based in Germany. Having been long-time friends from childhood in Port Harcourt before losing contact, they have decided to take it to a whole new level this time around.
Monalisa, was married before to Dejo Richards, her first husband with whom she parted in 2009 after their union produced a daughter. The new couple had their introduction on December 28, 2015 before sealing the union through a wedding that took place in Santorini, Greece this year, with Chinyere Wilfred and Daniella Okeke among guests present.
Tosyn Bucknor
Top Radio presenter and self-styled Area Mama, Tosyn Bucknor, is one of the celebs to have gone down the aisle this year. Bucknor married her French husband, Aurelien Boyer, a top member of staff at Lafarge Engineering Construction in Nigeria, in France this year.
Their white wedding held on May 7 this year, in the Quiant Island of Corsica, France. The wedding between the unconventional Radio host and her French lover followed their engagement in August 2015 and a London leg of the event in November 2015 before they ended it in May this year.
Femi Adebayo
Another Nollywood figure who got married for the second time in his life, Femi Adebayo, is the son of veteran Yoruba actor, Abebayo Salami better known as Oga Bello. Femi, who has stepped out of the shadow of his father after years of convincing with the roles he has taken on both as an actor and a producer.
Femi, who was married to his first wife, Khadijat until they separated for sometime before going through the formal divorce process which began as far back as 2011. Getting married for the second time, Femi chose to go with Omotayo Maimunat Sanusi, a U.S-based business woman last month.
The wedding between Femi, once linked to Funke Akindele, and Omotayo, took place this year in Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos. Perhaps trying to avoid the attention a public event would bring to the union, chose a simple but classy traditional wedding in Ikeja this year which was attended somke of his colleagues including Odunlade Adekola, Mercy Aigbe Gentry, Desmond Elliot, Bimbo Oshin and Olaniyi Afionja (Sanyeri).
Tunde Owokoniran
Tunde, one of the protégés of ace Nollywood actor, Odunlade Adekola, got married to his heartrob, Tunmise Akinrinsola on May 8. The low-key wedding took place in New Jersey, United States of America, coming almost a year and half after their traditional wedding held in January 2015 in far away Ondo State.
Tunde, who is becoming prominent in the Yoruba section of Nollywood after proving his versatility in different roles, proposed to his wife, Tunmise at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in 2014. – New Telegraph.
