Helping vulnerable people is a passion I was born with —Princess Omolola Oyinlola

Princess Omolola Oyinlola, wife of former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, clocks 70 today. In this updated interview, she speaks on how God has seen her through seven decades.

 

Congratulations on your 70th birthday. How do you feel reaching this milestone?

I feel great and fulfilled. I give all glory to God.

 

What would you say has made your marriage work? What is it that is making marriages break these days?

First of all, I will say before anybody decides to get married, go on your knees to seek the face of the Lord for His own good choice. Ask God what you want in your spouse with prayer and fasting. Accept the one that God gives you after conviction that your prayers have been heard and make up your mind to live the rest of your life with him\her. However, you must determine to make the marriage work by coming to an agreement on your dos and don’ts, likes and dislikes. This we did on the night of our wedding. Accept the fact that nobody is perfect and take the mistakes or shortcomings of your partner as part of humans’ imperfection. Do not hesitate to apologise when you are wrong and have the spirit of forgiveness anytime you are offended by your spouse. Learn to appreciate and compliment each another when necessary so as to encourage each another. Avoid communication gap, let there be mutual love, respect and tolerance and pray together at all times.

 

How do you think mothers should prepare their daughters for marriage?

First of all, I thank Almighty God for my daughters for they are happily married with children to His glory. I made them realise before their weddings that marriage is not a bed of roses and if it were, there are thorns in it as well as fragrance as the character of your spouse unfolds. Marriage is supposed to be a journey of no return, irrespective of the situation of the road, whether it is straight, curved or with roundabouts or potholes. There should be determination to make your marriage work with prayers, perseverance, tolerance, transparency, forgiveness, love and care. This is a relationship for life and should be guarded jealously. Marriage is an institution ordained by God and the participants of the institution should recognise God.

 

During his active military career, your husband’s job always took him away from his family. How did you handle that?

Well, I thank God who gave me the grace to handle it. I have always liked that passage in the Bible which says, ‘When my mother and father forsake me then the Lord will take me up’. When I married him and realised that he was an orphan, I asked God to give me the grace to play the role of a mother to him and He has given me the grace to do it. While he was in service, especially in the military, it was true that his work came first while I took the second place. I realised that he derived joy and happiness from his work and so I accepted it and ensured that he got that happiness while I played the second fiddle. As long as he was happy with his job, so was I.

 

Were there moments when you wished he was there by your side and he was not?

Yes and there were many of such moments. As a military man in the armoured corps, we were always posted to rural places and there were times when one of the children would get ill and I had to rush that child to the hospital and at the same time take care of the other children at home and ready them for school. I moved from one place to another and saw to their upkeep with my little resources. I never contacted him for anything at all when he was on an operation or on a course and I never told him a child was ill. I always did everything without consulting him and God was always with me.

 

Several years ago, one of your daughters was kidnapped.

It was precisely on the 2nd of March, 1993 that my child, the baby of the house, was kidnapped in Jos, Plateau State. On the 4th of March, I received a call from my husband who was far away in Somalia, which was the first time he would call since he left Nigeria on the 3rd February for Somalia on a peacekeeping mission. He had to settle his troops before contacting the family. Remember, I said his work came first, so I did not want him to be distracted from his mission, hence I did not inform him about the missing child. However, God Himself managed the situation for me. I exercised my faith in the Lord, prepared the child’s food thrice daily, ironed her dress and asked her to come home to eat her food and wear her dress. I was always reciting Psalm 121 on her picture every morning, ending with, ‘Come home, Olayinka, darling. I love you’. I would then follow this with praise and worship.

 

The child was kidnapped in Jos. Where and how was she found?

In Otukpa, Benue State. According to the lady who kidnapped her, she had come to Jos to see somebody at the air force base but the person wasn’t around. When she got to the school, she found three children playing and picked the one she liked most and that was my Olayinka. She took her to Kano where she was residing before she later decided to take her to Otukpa in Benue State, her hometown. While she was in Otukpa, she took the girl as one of her family members and was taking her wherever she went all round the village, including the brook to fetch water. As God would have it, a cousin of hers working in Katsina State had got permission to go and see his old parents for two weeks after several years of ungranted permission, when he got home, he saw a child playing with old people and asked who she was. Meanwhile the lady had changed her name from Yinka to Rekiya and she would be beaten if she said otherwise but when the man asked for her name and she said Rekiya Oyinlola and that she was Yoruba; that her father was in Somalia while her mother was in Jos. She also told him that she was a pupil of Air Force Primary School, Jos.

However, the man decided to go to the police station in Makurdi to report the case where they showed him two pictures of children that were missing and he identified Yinka. Policemen came with him to Otukpo and arranged for Yinka to be taken back to Jos. This was how Yinka came back to Jos. We were just rounding off our usual daily fasting and prayer at about 6.00 p.m. with my church women when we suddenly heard a shout of Yinka’s arrival.

My birthday is March 19 and I remember asking God to give me Yinka back as a birthday gift, and God brought her as a belated birthday gift on the 22nd of March, 1993.

 

How old was she when she was abducted?

She was only four and a half years old.

 

Did you take any legal action against the kidnapper?

She was arraigned by the police and was sentenced to one and a half years imprisonment. I advised her to move close to God and presented her with a Bible to read in prison.

 

Did she ever get in contact with you afterwards?

No.

 

Going back to your love story, were you attracted to him because he was a soldier?

I was never attracted to him because of his uniform. I did not like any man in uniform then because I believed they were arrogant. I was attracted to him because of, first of all, the love that existed and still exists in his family. I knew his family before I knew him. I was a very close friend of his niece, Iyabo Asa (nee Adepoju) and Prince Toye Oyinlola, his brother whom I also met through my friend, Iyabo, who was also a friend to Prince Toye’s girlfriend, now his wife. So, the three of us were good friends, always doing things together. The family accepted me before I even met him and this made it not so difficult for him, although he did not get me on a silver platter. I later realised that he was not an arrogant army officer; he was and is still humble, loving and caring, always apologetic when he knows he has gone wrong.

 

Is it true that you two broke up at a point?

We broke up for a year and met again during his niece, Iyabo’s wedding, where I was the chief bridesmaid. It was in Erin-Ile in 1976. He tried to renew the relationship but I did not receive him warmly because I had moved on with my life but still bound by the love of his family for me. His excuse was that I was a marriage material and he did not want to hurt me, so he just disappeared and I also swore not to have anything to do with him again. However, during the wedding, Prince Toye made arrangement for our movements in Okuku and mandated me to get in his car. I suspected it was arranged by both of them. I vowed never to enter Ola’s car, so I was given a car to drive.

However, I was moved to tears as he later wrote me a letter and on the left side of the envelope, he wrote, ‘Please, forgive me’ in capital letters. This moved me because it takes a man with conscience to do this.

 

For how long have you been married?

It will be 44 years in July 2022.

 

Who cooks your husband’s food?

I do, most of the time.

 

What is his favorite food?

His favorite food is Amala and Ewedu with fish.

 

How would you describe yourself?

Well, I can say that I am a woman with the fear of God and passion for the needy. I see myself as a reserved person. I always like to be myself because I am an introvert.

 

How could a Majekodunmi be an introvert?

Well, you know children of the same parents cannot be the same. For example, my blood sister is an extrovert. Even when I was single, I did not like going to parties so much. It was when I met my husband that I stated going to parties with him. My friend, Iyabo, Prince Toye’s wife, and I were going to parties together and Prince Toye was the one taking us to family parties.

 

Are the two of you still in touch?

Yes, we are still close

 

What do you love doing, which you do passionately?

I have passion for touching lives. I started my philanthropic gestures during my childhood as revealed to me by my mother. This passion of assisting underprivileged persons, which is inborn for me, became pronounced when I was the wife of the military administrator in Lagos State and wife of the governor of Osun State. This passion continued even after my husband left public office and I hope to continue assisting the underprivileged and the downtrodden for the rest of my life.