They say when a star ignites, planets will gather.
So was it on the 13th of August, 2022 when Tols, TAM, Mummy T, Tolulope Medebem was celebrated by people from all walks and life in Lagos, Nigeria.
The ever-energetic but unusually modest mother of three damsels, whose known backroom performance, this time, got the spotlight she very well deserves.
Her birthday, which was actually August 5, 2022, was at the very heart of family, friends, and colleagues in the Integrated Marketing Communications industry and those who are very close, spoke about the need to have moved the party to a Saturday to ensure all had enough time to dine and wine with the multi award-winning marketing communications professional and the CEO of Aster Integrated Marketing Limited, a thriving experiential marketing agency in the heart of Africa’s biggest city, Lagos.
Held at the Brava Event Centre, Ogba, Lagos, the golden jubilee celebrations was themed silver and black, with brilliant display of glitz and glamour and Tolu, as most popularly called, though ensured that the high-class event beared the great values she is known for by including the kids in the party with a unique children’s corner with bouncing castles, etc.
Born to the family of HRM Oba Sunday Olufunso Adeolu, Chief Eleyinmi of Village Headmaster and later the Alaiye of Ode, Sataloye II – Ode Remo, and a retired administrator mother from the Lagos State Ministry of Education, Tolu, hails from Ode-Remo, Ogun State. She is the fourth of her father’s eight children and her mother’s first.
Married to a medical doctor from eastern Nigeria, Mrs Medebem has three lovely daughters. She loves travelling, reading and gardening. It is her love for gardening that led to the naming of her agency after a flower.
Mrs Medebem studied Dramatic Arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife with specialization in broadcasting over three decades ago. She served at Klink Studios, where one of their clients then, Segun Giwa (Reflux Limited) hired her immediately after completing her national service to the nation. She would keep that employment with meritorious service until 1998 when she moved to AIT.
In an exclusive interview with to Freelanews, she revealed how she started her own business after she left EventPlus, an agency she helped to build from the scratch.
“Eventplus was a partnership with a friend. It was a great experience; running a partnership is an experience and this particular experience, I went through with a friend and it was great. It had its fair shares of ups and downs but the fact that we were, and are still great friends, made it all so much easier.
“On ‘going solo’, I honestly saw an opportunity to ‘do me’ and I went for it. There was that ‘need’, to do things right, correct or should we say in a certain manner. Not saying I’m always right but hey! Having worked over the years (over 20years), I have worked within all kinds of establishments, with different kinds of people (bosses, colleagues and partner) and somehow, it just seemed like the right time to ‘expand’ my horizon, focus on those things that I truly and personally believe in and here we are – AsterIML,” she said.
The amiable Apinke Ade, as she’s also called, is indeed also a princess in character as ovations poured in continuously on how she had selflessly impacted lives of so many people.
Medebem belongs to a league of female professionals holding sway in a male dominated industry and beyond words and emotional flattery is proving the point that “what a man can do, woman can do quite as much”, even better.
We at Freelanews and Freelart Media Group join the rest of the world to celebrant this people-serving solitaire and affirm the numerous wishes of long healthy life and more platforms for incredible impact, the kind only those with a heart of gold, like hers, can make happen.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
