Let Me Share a Short Story BY …Òtúnba Nathaniel Adegoke

Let Me Share a Short Story BY …Òtúnba Nathaniel Adegoke

My mum had me on her wedding day. Yes, I was born in the morning, wedding was already planned for same day. Guess what, she dressed up and went for her wedding. Same day.

She was born into an affluent upper class family. She chose my Dad because according to her, he was from a a good Christian family though extremely poor. My Dad said growing up, 18 people slept in a room and parlour and he had to sell bread at some point whereas my mum was a GRA girl. For her, rich or poor it didn’t matter.

She only had secondary school certificate at the time she got married. She went ahead to earn a degree in English Literature. She’ll clutch me around her waist, drag me through University of Maiduguri lecture halls as she earned her degree. My Dad was her biggest cheerleader.

She always wanted to study law. After her English degree, we went back to ABU Zaria and started Law from the scratch. She’ll strap my kid sister on her back. Though my kid sister is also a lawyer today, her first experience in Law School was as a toddler because she stayed in the hostel with my mum who wouldn’t allow marriage or children stop her dreams. After law school, she’ll drive herself to Lagos from Osogbo almost every weekend till she earned her masters degree in Law from UNILAG.

My Dad being a sickler with the sickle cell wahala, one would think she would not choose him. Yet she did. She later said, not that she didn’t have options, of course there were guys within her social circle that could fit as a perfect uptown match but through the counsel of her mother she made an excellent choice in my Dad.

Their marriage like all marriages had its fair share of challenges. My mum being a tough cookie and my dad being a jayejaye meant they had very frequent clashes at the beginning. My mum said she was too stubborn at making her marriage work that divorce was never even an option. This woman held it down, literarily.

Once my Dad was flat out broke. We had moved from living the good life to just getting by. He left his World Bank project job to start his own engineering firm. He went into a business partnership that went south. Right before our eyes, his entire life was stolen from him except his family.

We moved from our big house to living in a plastered mud house only demarcated with plywood and cartoons. I remember the strangeness of being called out in school as a fees defaulter. In those days, my Mum’s meager salary as a young lawyer was the only reason we had eba and efo as dinner and of course it had no meat or fish. My Dad was angry, frustrated and suicidal. Life was tough.

Then one day, my Mum came home with a N20million contract paper, this almost 25 years ago. She had gone out everyday looking for business opportunity for her husband. On the said day, my Dad I’m not sure had up to 2k to his name and right here before him is a check in his company name. His woman had done the magic again. It was like a dream. I remember vividly my Dad was so shocked he was screaming, “Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah…” like he was insane. That was the end of that chapter of poverty for my family. Then my Dad built his house in Osogbo and ensured the Local Government named the entire street after her. ????

Mum’s integrity and love for God and justice made it impossible for her to compromise her righteous stand even in the face of daunting situations. Today she’s a Federal Judge.

That’s the woman I call mum. That’s why today can’t go without me letting the whole world know how much a fighter, hustler and honorable mother and wife she is. This is the stalk I grew from. This is the fabric I’m made off.

Happy Birthday Mum. Our love for you is limitless.