With the sterling qualities she exudes, Dame Abimbola, the wife of number one man in the Centre of Excellence, Lagos State, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, is no doubt a woman that deserves to be respected and adored.

With her status as the first lady of Lagos which makes her more visible, pronounced and in a way gives her an edge over her counterparts, Dame Abimbola has remained a woman with no airs around her. She is cool headed, unassuming and humble. Dame Abimbola will readily pass for an example of a virtuous woman. On this note, it was only natural and expected that many would volunteer to go the whole hog to make her happy on not just any birthday, but her golden jubilee.

But perhaps, for the electioneering period and her kind of person, the birthday anniversary was down played.

In order not to let such a glorious day go unnoticed, a private dinner was put together for the birthday girl. At the event where only very close allies and family members were invited, guests recalled their wonderful personal experiences with the first lady but the climax of it was the turn of her ‘lover man hubby’. The governor extolled the virtues of his wife as one whose level of perseverance, dedication, sense of duty and commitment has made their 21-year marriage a success.

Meanwhile, Dame Abimbola in a chat shares her love story, and tells how she met her husband at the age of 27. According to her, they were introduced by the governor’s father, while she served at her best friend’s engagement party.

“I met my husband at age 27. That was at my best friend’s engagement then. I was serving and making sure everyone was okay and well taken care of, attending to people and all that. And then his father saw me and then said ‘I have a son and I will like you to meet my son.’ So I said no problem sir. He said ‘good, my son will soon come in.’

“When he came, we introduced ourselves. We exchanged our numbers and that was it. We took it off from there. He was cool, he looked cool-headed. He was friendly. He had no airs about him. He was a simple fellow. He was already working then as a lawyer.

“He was at Sofunde, Belgore & Co. He clicked with my sisters too. He was always going to parties with them. He was bubbling with them. I didn’t use to go to parties with them. Since my sisters accepted him, I had no choice but to accept him,” she said.