Poverty, indeed, is a terrible thing. Which explains why the rich and the famous don’t ever want to have anything to do with it. Alive and in death, they flee far, far away from it.
And the evidence is there for all to see. Especially at the Vaults and Garden, an ultra modern cemetery in Ikoyi, Lagos, situated beside Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria. Declared open by former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on October 30, 2006, even here, there is still segregation. The super rich have a special corner. Likewise the poor. To get a space for the not-so-rich here is from N750,000 and above. But if you are rich, and want to prove that you have truly arrived, you simply up your game. How? It’s very simple. You cough out N40 million and above to get yourself a spacious corner. And like it happens in all the highbrow areas, you will enjoy a lush lawn, a beautiful gate, more space, balcony, garden…name it.
As at Friday, July 20, 2012 when we visited, billionaire mogul and Globacom boss, Dr. Mike Adenuga’s sister, Mrs. Esther Osunade, had one to herself. The woman who was born in 1938 died in 2009. Her next door neighbor in this exclusive section is Gboyega, son of another super rich man, Otunba Adekunle Ojora and his fashionable wife, Ojuolape. Gbegi, like he was popularly known, was born in 1960 and died in 2011. Right next to him is one of the founders of GT Bank, Tayo Aderinokun. His final resting place is not only very wondrously decorated, but also boasts of his two giant photographs, smiling on those that are still living.
Before the trio, however, is that of a true man of God, like it is dubbed inside the cemetery – the final resting place of former Redeemed Christian Church of God minister, Pastor Eskor Mfon. Born in 1953, he died in 2007. A photographer who accompanied us to the cemetery described it as one of the most expensive in the world – and we couldn’t agree less.