In Loving Memory
née Ajayi
A gentle soul. A steady light.
23 August 1961 — 12 August 2026
A special tribute from Sola Soetan
Her Story
Mama Tina — 23 August 1961 to 12 August 2026. Her story is still being told by everyone she loved.
On the 23rd of August 1961, in the town of Ifon, a light was born that would go on to touch generations. Tina Ajayi's earliest years belonged to Ondo State — raised between Ikaro and Ifon, it was there, among the red earth and close-knit compounds of those two towns, that she first learned the values that would define her entire life: hard work, faith, and love for people.
She began her education at St. Monica Primary School in Ikaro, before moving on to St. Catherine Grammar School in Owo. Straight out of secondary school she went to work at the Cocoa Board in Owo, then proceeded to the College of Education in Ikere-Ekiti for her NCE — training to become a teacher, a calling that revealed early on her instinct to nurture, to guide, and to build others up. She spent a year of teaching practice at Eka Marun Anglican Grammar School in Ifon, giving to others what she herself had only just finished learning.
She worked at the Cocoa Board in Ibadan, and then her story took her further still — to London, where she lived and worked for several years, gathering the kind of quiet, worldly wisdom that only distance from home can teach. And then, in true character, she came back. Tina was never a woman to lose herself; she was a woman who went out to gather strength and returned to plant it at home, stepping into banking and building a career at Gateway Bank.
Comfort was never Tina's compass — vision was. She left the bank for business, moving from decorating events to producing drinks, from one enterprise to the next with a fearlessness that refused to be boxed into a single trade. She went into construction, helping to build houses for family and friends; with her three sisters she built and managed a company in Ikaro, their hometown; and she ran a building-block industry business besides, because her energy always seemed to find one more thing to build.
She headed the Agbaloba women's cooperative society, standing at the front of an agricultural empowerment scheme designed to lift women into leadership and self-sufficiency. She did not just succeed for herself; she opened doors and held them open for other women to walk through.
She was married to Mr. Emmanuel Alegbejo, and together they built a family rooted in faith and love. She is survived by her son, his wife, and three grandchildren, along with the sisters and brothers who knew her not just as a matriarch but as a friend, a confidante and a pillar. Above every title she was deeply loving, caring and down-to-earth — principled to her core, God-fearing and God-loving in the quiet consistency of how she lived. She served faithfully in the house of God and gave her heart to music in the choir — the very well from which her son would draw his own gift.
Tina Oke Alegbejo did not chase a single legacy. She built many, quietly and relentlessly, one project and one act of faith at a time. She is gone, but what she built remains — and what she built was never just brick, block or balance sheets. It was people, purpose, and a legacy that will keep singing long after the choir has gone quiet.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
Moments
Written in her memory
She was more than a name on a certificate,
she was the teacher who never needed a classroom
to show the world how to learn resilience.
She was more than a woman who crossed oceans to London and back,
she was the tide that always finds its way home,
carrying new shores within her, but never forgetting the old one.
She was more than a banker counting figures behind a desk,
she was a woman who knew the truest currency was courage,
and she spent it, again and again, without fear of running dry.
She was more than a businesswoman,
she was an architect of possibility —
turning flowers into events, grain into drink,
imagination into industry.
She was more than a builder of houses,
she was a builder of homes,
raising walls for family and strangers alike
until the line between the two disappeared.
She was more than a manager of a company with her sisters,
she was proof that a family, joined at the root,
can carry a business — and each other — through any season.
She was more than a leader of a women's cooperative,
she was a quiet revolution in Ikaro's soil,
planting dignity beside the yams and cassava,
until other women learned to stand the way she stood.
She was more than a wife, more than a mother,
she was the calm at the center of every storm,
the peace that did not flinch when the winds came,
the strength that never had to raise its voice to be heard.
She was more than principled,
she was proof that principle, lived daily,
becomes a kind of quiet unstoppable power.
She was more than faithful in God's house,
she was faith itself, walking —
in the choir, in the boardroom, in the marketplace,
in every room she ever entered.
She was more than his mother,
she was the first music he ever heard,
the reason a guitar found his hands,
the reason his songs now travel
from Lagos to London,
from Johannesburg to Toronto —
her voice, still singing,
in every note he plays.
Like the sun, she rose early and gave without asking.
Like the moon, she stayed steady through every dark hour.
Like a river carving its own path through stone,
she was gentle — and unstoppable, both at once.
She was more than a woman who lived.
She was a woman who built —
and everything she built
is still standing.
In loving memory — Sola Soetan
Celebration of Life
Join us as we honour her life. Flyers for each public event can be downloaded and shared.
31 October 2026
Saturday · 12:00 PM
Christ Victory Centre International
6–7 Station Avenue, Coldharbour Lane, Loughborough Junction, London SW9 7EU
RSVP Sola Soetan — 07351 116507
17 November 2026
Tuesday · 5:00 PM
Global Harvest Church
Maryland, Lagos
RSVP Sola Soetan — 0805 227 6844 · Esther — 0815 838 4864
19 November 2026
Thursday · Family only
Atan Cemetery
Yaba, Lagos
A private moment for family and close friends.
20 November 2026
Friday · 9:00 AM
Excellence Hotel
Ogba, Lagos
Strictly by invitation
RSVP Sola Soetan — 0805 227 6844 · Esther — 0815 838 4864
Leave a word
“Mummy, you were the softest strength I have ever known. You loved us quietly and completely, and everything good in me began in your hands. Rest well, gentle soul.”
“A woman of prayer, warmth and unfailing hospitality. Her home was open, her table was full, and her faith never wavered. Heaven is richer today.”