Fela Durotoye- President of the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation

Adetokunbo Olufela Born in Ibadan, Oyo State, on May 12, 1971, DurotoyeListen is a business consultant, expert on leadership, and inspiring speaker. Fela is the leader of the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation, which is a non-profit group that trains young people for transformational leadership and social change. He was the Alliance for New Nigeria party’s (ANN) Nigerian presidential candidate for the 2019 election.

Education

Fela Durotoye was born to Layiwola and Adeline Durotoye, who were both teachers at the University of Ibadan. After his parents moved to Obafemi Awolowo University of Ife, Fela went to the Staff Children’s School from 1974 to 1981 and then to Moremi High School from 1981 to 1986. At Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Durotoye went on to get a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with Economics as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He went to Harvard University and took part in the John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program.

Fela Durotoye went to Yale University to take the High Impact Leadership for a Better Society program. He is also a certified leadership teacher with the John Maxwell team.[8] In 2015, Fela finished the senior seminar program at the Lagos Business school on strategy, innovation, and good government. After that, he went to the Nigerian Police training college and took a program for extra police officers. He did very well in that program and graduated with an honor.

Career

Fela Durotoye worked at Ventures & Trusts Limited as a financial assistant in 1992.[12] In 1998, he was in charge of customer service at Phillips Consulting Limited. Fela went on to start V.I.P. Consulting Limited in 2000, which quickly became well-known in Nigeria for its work in customer and people management. The company changed from a consulting business to Visible Impact Limited, which is a social enterprise.

Durotoye runs and talks at management and leadership retreats in Nigeria and other places.

In 2018, Durotoye spoke to over 200 entrepreneurs at the first Nigerian American Business Forum in Tampa, Florida. He was on the same stage as senior senator Mohammed Shaaba Lafiagi, senator Ben Murray-Bruce, Nigerian Stock Exchange chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo, Media pioneer Biodun Shobanjo, former governor Peter Obi, and technologist Ade Olufeko.

Mushin Redesign

In December 2009, Fela Durotoye led the “Mushin Makeover” project to improve the city. Banky W, Alibaba, Kate Henshaw, Omoni Oboli, Teju Babyface, Sound Sultan, TY Bello, Dj Jimmy Jatt, Omawumi, Denrele, Dele Momodu, Tosin Bucknor, Stella Damasus, Tee A, Segun Dangote, and Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, among others, painted for the project and asked for paint donations. Young adults with jobs gave free paint and helped people paint.

Fela got more than 2,000 volunteers to paint 296 houses on 7 streets in the Mushin neighborhood of Lagos, Nigeria, at no cost to the owners or people who lived in the homes. Berger Paints PLC taught more than 100 young people who were out of work how to paint as part of the Mushin Makeover project. Because of the Mushin Makeover project, the young people went on to become artists.

Politics:

On February 22, 2018, he announced that he wanted to run for president of Nigeria in 2019 as a member of the Alliance for New Nigeria party. Under the umbrella of the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), Fela Durotoye was chosen as the consensus choice by a group of 11 candidates. On September 29, 2018, he became the Alliance for New Nigeria’s (ANN) presidential candidate for the 2019 elections.

Fela said when he was running for office that “it’s not easy to run for office,” but he also said that “the best way to serve his country’s interests is from the country’s highest office.” He picked Khadijah Abdullahi-Iya as his running mate after thinking about it for a while. She has been a great social entrepreneur, and she would be his vice president.

On Thursday, January 24, 2019, Fela Durotoye went on Twitter to praise Oby Ezekwesili for being at the forefront of building a strong alliance and putting forward a Consensus Candidate for the 2019 Presidential elections. He also said that if he didn’t become the consensus candidate in the next election, he would support the candidacy of a consensus candidate chosen from the leading alternative candidates, such as Fela Durotoye, Omoyele Sowore, and Kingsley Moghalu, through a fair election process. Before this agreement, there was a group called “The Force” that was made up of the Young Progressive Party and the Alliance for New Nigeria.

Personal Life

Fela is married to Nigerian make-up artist, lawyer, and CEO of House of Tara Tara Fela-Durotoye. Mobolurin, Demilade, and Morolaoluwa are the names of their three boys. Fela Durotoye and his whole family are Christians.