Your name is more popular than your
husband's. Do you know if sometimes in
his sober moment, he asks himself ‘why is
my wife more popular than I am’?
I believe that that is on the contrary. You
know why? He is extremely shy. He does
not like publicity. I’m an extrovert; I don’t
mind publicity. I like to throw parties; he
likes to listen to music.
Nowadays, marriages fail a lot but what
would you describe as the secret that has
sustained your marriage for so long?
A lot of things make marriages break.
What I have noticed over the years is that
a marriage doesn’t break suddenly or in a
day; it is a gradual process.
And the earlier you nip it in the bud, the
better. And it is always better to know
what the dos and don’ts of marriage are
before you get into it so that you don’t
get your fingers burnt and so that you can
enjoy rather than endure your marriage.
One of the tenements of marriage is that
you must communicate with one another.
If you do not talk to one another regularly
enough, your love can begin to grow cold.
You may begin to drift apart and then
other things begin to set in. The Bible
tells us that if one person offends the
other, you need to take care of that matter
immediately and not let it degenerate.
Mrs Folorunsho Alakija makes some very
Mrs Folorunsho Alakija makes some verystrong points about life and marriage.
Everyone should learn from this:
At 65, is age just a number, do you look
forward to 100 years or do you wish you
were younger?
For me, every day of my life is a new day,
a new beginning. It is a testimony. I look
at everyday as something that is a new
challenge. I don’t see my age to be
something that tells me, ‘Oh! You are
getting older and won’t be able to do this
or that’. I appreciate every new day and
take it as it comes. I tackle everything I
need to tackle. I don’t feel tired easily.
I feel as young as I was many years back.
Yes, now and again, you get the odd pain
here and there but you think nothing of it.
You get your regular medical checkups
and just move on with whatever you need
to do. You do it and then it is about what
is next.
You have been married for close to 40
years. Are you still in love with your
husband the way you were when you met
him many years ago?
If anyone of us is abroad, for instance, the
two of us would make sure that we call
each other a minimum of twice a day. We
have spoken three times already today.
If it wasn’t that I was running late for the
interview, I would have picked up the
phone again to ask him to buy me three
brushes but I had to give the job to my
assistant to do. So every little thing, we
are talking throughout the day.
You are still friends?
Very much so too. We are lovers, friends,
brother and sister.
Where did you meet him?
We met at a party in Surulere, Lagos, two
weeks after I relocated to Nigeria from
England. The party was in the evening. So
my brother, his fiancée and I were
attending that event and we were all
seated together.
Then came along my husband-to-be; he
said to me ‘why are you following your
brother about’? I said ‘what do you
mean’? Then he accosted my brother who
he knew well and said your sister is a big
girl, why are you allowing her to follow
you about?
Then my brother said, ‘stay away from my
sister. Leave her alone’.
Anyway, we got talking and after the
party, he suggested that I should sit with
him in his car rather than sit in my
brother’s car so we could carry on with
our conversation and we would be driving
in a convoy back to our abodes. So we
carried on talking and said goodnight. But
from that night, unless one of us is
abroad, there has been no day that we
have not seen each other.
Ever since that day, we have seen each
other every day unless one person is away
and the other is somewhere else.
