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In 44 BC the respected Roman seer and soothsayer Spurinna warned the great Consul and ruler of the Roman Empire Julius Caesar about the “ides of March”. He counselled him not to go out on that day because he had perceived that something terrible would happen. According to the Roman calender the ides of March was the 15th of March.
Caesar treated the prophecy and the warning with riducule and contempt, as is often the case with most men of power, and he chose to ignore it.
According to the Greek historian and essayist Plutarch, on the morning of March 15th, whilst on his way to the Theater at Pompei, Julius Caesar saw Spurinna again and disdainfully whispered into his ear that the ides of March had come, thereby mocking the old man and his prophecy.

The soothsayer smiled and responded by calmly saying,
“Ay Caesar, the ides of March has indeed come but it has not yet ended”.
Later on that same day on his return to Rome and as he entered the great hall and hallowed chambers of the Senate, the great Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by no less than 60 of his most trusted colleagues in the Senate, including Marcus Brutus, his young protegee who hailed from a noble and respected Roman family, who he had supported all his life and who he had virtually adopted as his own son.
History records that such was the courage, strength and fortitude of Caesar that even after dozens of vicious and deep fatal stabs were inflicted all over his ageing body and even as his blood flowed all over the floor of the Senate, he still stood up proud, refusing to bend his knee, refusing to plead for his life and refusing to fall. What a man he was!
It was only after the last of the conspirators, his very own Marcus Brutus, walked up to him slowly, looked him in the eye and plunged his long and sharp dagger deep into the old mans heart that Caesar gave up, yelled in pain and whispered the famous latin words, “Et tu Brute?” meaning “and you too Brutus?”? He ended it by saying “then Caesar falls” after which he fell down and gave up the ghost.
The truth is that he died more of a broken heart as a result of the betrayal of those that he trusted and loved, like Marcus Brutus, than he did from the physical stab wounds that were inflicted on him by the other Senators and his political enemies.
When he saw, felt and suffered Brutus’ betrayal and treachery he gave up hope and lost his will to continue to live.
What a royal tragedy this was! What a waste of human life and greatness! What a gruesome and complicated mess!
What a way for the most powerful man on earth of his time to end his days.
What a way for a gallant and noble son of Rome, a man of valour and a great and irresistible warrior, clothed by the Living God in magnificence, and glory to go down and leave the earthly plain.
This was a valiant and courageous man who had achieved greatness and who was bestowed with awesome power and unprecedented glory by the God of Heaven and the Lord of Hosts.
This was a man who went to the British Isles, who conquered and bound their ruling spirit Brittania and who proudly proclaimed those famous Latin words, “veni, vedi, vici”, meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered”.
This was a man who turned Egypt into a vassal state, who overwhelmed the Greeks, who conquered Europe, who mastered the Middle East, who ruled the entire civilised world and who bedded and tamed the great African Queen Cleopatra.
Yet this was also a man who was also deeply flawed: an unforgiving man who could not reign in his immeasurable and profound sense of narcissism, who could not control his  obsession with power and desire to dominate others and who could not shed his sense of pride, self-importance and vanity.
This was an arrogant man who listened to no-one, who took pleasure in being worshipped, who loved to be revered, who relentlessly persecuted his enemies, who showed cruelty  to his detractors, who scorned his three wives, who had contempt for his clerics, who mocked the sacred prophecies and who defied the Living God and the Ancient of Days.
Predictably and sadly it all eventually caught up with him and, in the end, he was taken dispatched from this world in the most agonising and pitiful way, wallowing in a pool of his own blood, slaughtered, not by his traditional and known enemies, but rather by his own political associates, loved ones and erstwhile friends.
If Caesar had listened to his youngest wife, the beautiful Calpurnia, that ill-fated morning and not stepped out he would not have been murdered and Roman, nay world, history would have been very different.
If he had listened to Spurinna, the great seer and soothsayer, who the God of Heaven had used to speak to him and if he had shown humility and heeded the seer’s warning about the ides of March, Caesar would have lived to finish the work that he started and to fulfil his vision.
If he had not become the victim of his own vanity and obsessions and if he had not turned from being a great and much-loved war general and hero into a beastly and dictatorial bully he would  not have turned the hearts of the Senate against all that he stood for, he would not have provoked the wrath of God and he would not have kindled and stoked the bitterness, hatred and enmity of even his most trusted loved ones and men like Marcus Brutus.
If he had not sought to destroy all his enemies with a bitter vengeance and if he had not killed, incarcerated, jailed and tortured the innocent and those that had done no wrong he would have attracted the mercies of God and the Lord would have protected him from his relentless and implacable enemies.
If he had not abused power, brought sorrow, hardship and pain to the people, played God and sought to impose his wicked will over the nation he would have lived longer and he would have died peacefully in his bed many years later as a fulfilled and happy old man.
If he had not allowed himself to be transformed  from being a great warrior and war hero who feared and honored God, who believed in justice, equity, fairness and the rule of law, who upheld the sanctity and integrity of the republic and who defended the constitution and the sacredness of the Senate into a mean-spirited, power-hungry, obsessive and brutal tyrant he would have lived for much longer.
If he had not attempted to transform himself from being an accommodating Consul and the humble leader of the Republic of Rome into a life-long dictator and all-powerful emperor who could tolerate no criticism, who would brook no opposition and who would kill, brutalise and demonize his enemies, lock up and humiliate his critics and seek to destroy the destiny and very essence of his nation, he would have lived for much longer.
If he had not used his brutal army to murder young and defenceless activists, opposition figures and protestors or his secret police to torture innocent people and lock them up all over the country without any recourse to the law or respect for their civil liberties, human rights or the courts, he would have lived for much longer.
If he had not attacked and sought to blackmail,  humiliate and intimidate the Judiciary and if he had not attempted to politicise, manipulate and corrupt the administration of justice in his nation he would have lived for much longer.
If he had not treated the opposition with disdain and contempt and if he had not sought to decimate and destroy their ranks by foul means and the dishonorable dispatch, planting and deployment of a bunch of merciless, crooked and treacherous blacklegs, traitors, moles, gangsters, saboteurs and murderers in their ranks he would have lived for much longer.
I could go on and on. When men play God all manner of tragedies stalk them and they never end well. That is the lesson of history and that is what we are seeing unfolding in Nigeria today.

Persecution and the abuse of power always attracts a heavy price for those who indulge in it: this is especially so when they hate God’s children and His anointed and they persecute the Church and His clerics.  (TO BE CONTINUED).

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SUJIMOTO Wonder building -LUCREZIA Ready In 3months …Still Selling Fast

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“I want the $100,000 initial deposit I made back.”

 

“A lot of people are saying this dream is impossible, and you are too overzealous.”

 

“No one has achieved such yet, especially not in Nigeria!” Her voice still echoes in my head.

 

And, I remember responding with, “Aunt, kindly exercise patience; the tenth floor at $1.5M is a great deal.”

 

She had no idea that I had sold her a $4 million property for $1.5 million.

 

 

She continues, “In my 27 years of professional expertise, I don’t believe this dream is achievable!”

 

These are statements and concerns I received from the chairman of a major insurance company that attended our 5th-anniversary celebration in 2019. Afterwards, she decided to invest in Lucrezia’s off-plan before the commencement of the LucreziaBySujimoto’s foundation. However, she cancelled the transaction and requested a refund. Thankfully, the money was still intact, and I refunded her immediately.

 

Just recently, she visited the mock apartment and was flabbergasted by the incredible work and speed we’ve achieved on the Lucrezia project. As one of our staff continued to negotiate with her over the price this time, she refused him, saying, “SUJI handed me this property for $1.5 million a few years ago before its foundation started, why are you now telling me to pay three times the price?”

 

I said to myself, “This is what happens when a pessimistic investor refuses to trust in the vision of tenacious entrepreneurs!”

 

Unfortunately, she can’t afford it now, as the final unit we have is priced between $2.5 million and $4 million.

 

 

The best time to invest in real estate is to find a reliable developer with a wealth of experience and integrity. Then buy into his vision, now!

 

 

I remember vividly when we started Lucrezia —nobody believed us. The only person who believed in our dream and was more than happy to invest in it was the Managing Director of Providus Bank. A visionary leader who, despite all obstacles, sat at our side at every meeting, fighting for us and ensuring that everything we needed to complete the project was supplied.

 

Yes! Nobody told us it wouldn’t be easy.

 

Nobody told us containers would spend months in port or foresaw the price of clearing a container, spiking from N4M to N9M.

 

Nobody warned us of the drastic exchange of the naira to the dollar, from N360 to today’s rate of N750, giving us a deficit of over N5B.

 

Nobody told us COVID-19 would impact the global economy, which affected this project and shot up our costs by over 200%. Nobody reminded us of all these.

 

 

But these are the lessons we learn as energetic and uncommon entrepreneurs, as when we commit to a project, we ensure its successful execution against all odds.

 

This is one of our company’s trade secrets. We believe in our goals of reinventing luxury living, which is a true motivation for putting our perpetual effort into developing what is now worth more than N50 billion.

 

Building a duplex is different from building a skyscraper; there are fundamental, technical, but essentially important details you need to know to build a skyscraper.

 

That’s why all our technical and structural engineers are people with successful experience in the erection of skyscrapers across the globe. To reinforce our zero tolerance for mediocrity, we hired an Italian piling master with 28 years of experience to oversee the work of Nigeria’s proclaimed best-piling company, as we were determined to establish a foundation of unwavering strength.

 

A total of 17,500 cubic meters of concrete was used to create one of the biggest piles and pile caps in the world, which has a 900 mm pile diameter and goes 45 meters deep with over 140 piles, making Lucrezia’s foundation one of the most formidable foundations ever, one to endure a century and beyond.

 

We raised the building after the pilling from the ground floor to the 15th floor in 4 months, making it the fastest construction of a high-rise building in Nigeria with the use of bonded post-tensioning slabs, which are the only standards in Dubai for the construction of high-rise buildings, making Sujimoto the first indigenous company to use such technology.

 

 

To ensure that the facade installations are of the highest quality, we went above and beyond by recruiting the expertise of specialists and companies with proven track records in the fabrication of facades costing more than 1.5 billion naira.

 

Aside from the spectacular features—the IMAX cinema, the lobby, the virtual golf, a 345 square meter temperature-controlled pool, including a Jacuzzi and kids’ pool, and a spa— A special place the residents and other special members of society can visit to indulge in the ultimate relaxation experience is Lucrezia. We have one of the finest salons for the convenience and comfort of our residents, as well as a creche to nurture future kings and queens. Also, to create ample space for car parking, we raised the ground floor higher to enable double parking racks.

 

We are hopeful and optimistic LucreziaBySujimoto will be completed by June 2023, and we’d be gazing up at Banana Island’s tallest building. A 15-story ultra-luxury building with magnificent maisonettes and two of Africa’s best penthouses wrapped in a rare façade material known as glass-reinforced concrete.

 

The $52 million architectural masterpiece towers 65 meters above the ground, with a combined livable space of 18,000 square meters reserved for the vital few and an incredible, mechanically powered, centralized AC system that would outperform any other company in Nigeria.

 

Our mockup flats are designed to exude and emanate the luxury of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Shard in London. Zaha Hadid Porcelanosa, one of the best Noble prize architects in the world and the producer of the rarest sanitary wares by Porcelanosa, immensely contributed to this project, making us the only developer in Africa with such a level of rarity and class as it only available at 5-star hotels in Dubai and London.

 

With the proper quality control checks at every level, we made sure that all T’s were crossed and all I’s were dotted, ensuring thorough and rigorous quality control of every material, from the sand to the chandeliers, doors, sanitary wares, and others. Without a doubt, the project has been founded on resilience and determination. one of the most complex but successful projects ever, as everyone that worked on the project paid excessive attention to details.

 

As we near the end of this record-breaking project, we want to convey our deepest gratitude to Providus Bank for helping us develop one of the greatest condominiums in the African real estate market. And also, to our incredible staff, both local and international, which numbered over 300 people working day and night for the past 792 days to complete one of Africa’s most iconic projects

 

LucreziaBySujimoto’s penthouse, unquestionably the best penthouse in Africa, with a private golf garden, private elevator, private pool, and private gym, is still available to any audacious and daring individual. We also have one unit of the maisonette available for sale at a reasonable price.

 

You can contact the general managing director directly for further information or call 0809 124 3555.

 

Sijibomi Ogundele is the Managing Director of Sujimoto Group, the Czar of luxury real estate development, and the mastermind developer behind the infamous Giuliano. Our other audacious projects, such as the grandiose Sujimoto Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in Africa, the regal Queen Amina by Sujimoto, a monument to royal affluence, and the magnificent LeonardoBySujimoto, Africa’s most exclusive waterfront high-rise development, have etched an indelible imprint on Nigeria’s skylines, a testament to their unrivalled mastery of luxury.

 

Furthermore, Sujimoto is dedicated to redefining luxury living with transformative experiences through intricately designed architecture and also searching globally for the world’s most renowned thought leaders in architecture, art, hospitality, and innovation.

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Obasa to Remi Tinubu At 62: Your Roles In Nigeria’s Democracy Are Indelible 

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The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has congratulated Senator Oluremi Tinubu on her 62nd birthday.

 

Dr. Obasa, in a statement by Eromosele Ebhomele, his Chief Press Secretary, described the former First Lady of Lagos as one whose love for Nigeria and roles in national unity and development are worthy of emulation by every well-meaning citizen.

 

The Speaker added that Senator Tinubu has continued to etch her name in the history of Nigeria as a politician of repute, a champion of the downtrodden and an advocate for the youth, the aged and good governance.

 

He noted Senator Tinubu’s passion for a greater Nigeria both as a crusader for a more vibrant democracy and as a serving member of the National Assembly.

 

“As the loving wife of our dear leader and presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, you have been a major pillar of support and progress.

 

“That Nigeria practises democracy today is partly as a result of the roles you played while the military held on the the government of the country. History is replete with how you worked tirelessly against the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election result won by Chief MKO Abiola and how you took care of many exiled members of the National Democratic Coalition and citizens of Nigeria who were at the time under the radar.

 

“As First Lady of Lagos State, your love for the education of the underprivileged in the society and the need to raise standards gave birth to your pet project, The Spelling Bee Competion, which, delightedly, has produced great minds and future leaders.

 

“Lagos is blessed with you and we are happy that you have remained a major support for the growth and development of our State. You have also remained a mentor to many Nigerians whose lives you have touched with your New Era Foundation and various scholarship programmes.

 

“On behalf of my family and members of the legislative arm of Lagos government, I congratulate you on your birthday and pray that God continue to bless you with good health, strength and divine capacity ahead of the bigger task before us all, amen,” Obasa prayed.

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