6 Nigerians Who Have Made A Mark In Their Careers Globally

Nigeria no doubt is a land blessed with both mineral and human resources. An average Nigerian is resourceful and intelligent. Because no one would help us sell us, Nigerians must learn to themselves, hence the reason for this piece. INFORMATION NIGERIA is beaming the spotlight on 6 Nigerians who have made positive marks in the area of fashion, music, education and business…

Fela Kuti: Often referred to as the father of Afrobeat, ushered a new musical genre onto the world stage and also used his music as a political weapon to speak out against corruption, military dictatorship and cultural imperialism. The human rights activist died in 1997 and, today, his children Femi and Seun Kuti carry on his powerful legacy through music.

Wole Soyinka: The  Nigerian playwright and poet was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first African to be honored in that category.

Kase Lawal: Is a Nigerian-born businessman who lives and works in the United States. Now head of a multi-billion dollar empire, his Houston-based company, CAMAC, is one of the largest black-owned businesses in the U.S., generating over $2 billion dollars a year. He founded the company 25 years ago after working as a chemical engineer with Shell Oil Company. It started off as a small agriculture business but expanded into oil in 1991 when Lawal “made a deal with the oil giant Conoco, agreeing to jointly operate and share production from any Nigerian discoveries. Today, CAMAC has offices in London, Johannesburg, Lagos and Port Harcourt, Nigeria and is involved in oil exploration, refining and trading.”

Folake Folarin-Coker  is a Nigerian fashion designer and creative director of Tiffany Amber, who founded the very successful Nigeria based fashion line called Tiffany Amber in 1998. Despite its foreign name, the label’s designs are inspired by Nigerian prints as well as modern Western silhouettes. Folarin-Coker’s market is international and she’s the only Africa based designer who has shown twice in New York Fashion Week.

Adebayo Ogunlesi: A Nigerian businessman who acquired the London Gatwick Airport, which is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world, in a deal worth over $2 billion U.S. dollars earlier in the year. The Harvard and Oxford educated Ogunlesi leveraged his years of experience in global finance as one of the leading executives at Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation to launch his own independent investment fund called Global Infrastructure Partners, through which he acquired the airport.

John Dabiri: a 30-year-old American born Nigerian biophysicist, professor of aeronautics and bioengineering, and dean at the California Institute of Technology. He has been named one of the 23 new Fellows of MacArthur foundation for 2010, meaning he receives a $500,000 “genius” grant  with no strings attached. Mr Dabiri works on a wide range of fields, including theoretical fluid dynamics, evolutionary biology, and biomechanics to unravel the secrets of one of the earliest means of animal locomotion.

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