There comes a moment, quiet and profound, when a son stands tall not in the shadow of his father, but beside it. For Osahon Okunbo, that moment has arrived.
Heir to the towering legacy of the late Captain Hosa Okunbo, Osahon has long worn the weight of his surname like a tailored coat: elegant, distinguished, but undeniably inherited. Now, with steady hands and a vision of his own, he begins the work of threading his own initials into Nigeria’s national tapestry.
Chairman of the Wells Carlton Hotel and Apartments and steward of multiple enterprises across sectors from oil to agriculture, Okunbo is not just keeping the family flame alive. He is reshaping it into a torch. His endeavours, particularly through The Osahon Okunbo Foundation, suggest a heart not just tuned to profit, but to promise.
This July, he will bring together 20 artists, double the originally intended cohort, for a masterclass in classical painting. With support from the Belgian Embassy and Legacy Arts Foundation, this initiative is less about prestige than possibility. One suspects this isn’t just about art. It’s about building cultural, professional, and ethical frameworks that allow talent to climb rather than crawl.
Okunbo’s fingerprints are also visible in quieter places: community schools, environmental cleanups, carefully reviewed memos, and the steely confidence of colleagues who feel they are part of something precise and purposeful. He reads everything, approves nothing in haste, and expects excellence not out of tyranny but out of belief.
He is still young by most metrics, but old enough to know that great legacies are not inherited fully formed. They are curated, sometimes quietly, always deliberately.
And so, while the memory of Captain Hosa remains deeply etched in Nigeria’s civic consciousness, his son is no longer simply the bearer of that name. Osahon is writing his own chapters now: inked with intent, bound by service, and opened with grace.
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