•Princess FOLASHADE OLATILO Tells City People
Many don’t know Princess Folashade Olatilo, the lovely wife of ace Broadcaster, Prince Bisi Olatilo. Only few people have even met her in flesh. She is one woman that Bisi Olatilo does not joke with. The big news is that she turned 65 last week. She celebrated it last Friday. But truth be told, she does not look 65 in any way or form.
When City People visited her a few days back, she wore a simple top over black pants and looked so trendy. From her dressing and conduct, you won’t know she is a grandma. She still drives herself. And she is still up and doing. She has always been a homely person, who is very good in taking care of her home front. She is not only a wife who has kept her marriage to BOS boss aglow for the past 41 years, she is a Mother and Grandmother.
How does she feel turning 65, we asked her.
“I feel great. I feel happy. Life has been good. I feel on top of the world. I thank God for everything. Its all God’s doing. God has been marvellous in my life. God has been manifest in my life. Because in everything I just don’t know how things happen, I just don’t know how things fall into place”.
“God is the one doing all the wonders. I don’t know how. I thank him. I give him honour. I give him glory. I give him adoration”. Yes, I am 65, but inside me, I am not 65, because I believe God is living in me. And once you have God in your life, you will feel younger healthy, happy, and other good things.
What are the lessons life has taught her at 65?
“Life is good when you have God in your life, when you take things easy, when you sit back and look at life from where you are coming from, where you are and what God has reserved for you in future. Life is good in everything once there is God in your life. There may be storms. There maybe other things, the strong wind will blow but with God’s grace you will be okay. Its God’s grace. God is the one doing everything. When you are going through some issues in life or you are passing through some difficulties in life, you will sit down and think about how it is going to happen”.
“In a situation that someone cannot help, you will put it in God’s hands. You think of it small, look right, look left, front and back, then you will see that there is no hope from anwhere, except God”.
“Once you are in that kind of situation, just put everything in God’s hands. Say God, I have handled everything. I am going through right now into your hands, take control of it. And He will surely do it, once your mind is clean, once your mind is clean, your hand is clean, and you don’t put your hand in any devilish thing, God will surely rise up for you”.
We asked her how it feels being married to a super celebrity like Prince Bisi Olatilo. She burst out laughing. “That is a big question very, very big question”. Why is it a big question we probed further. “Well, Bisi Olatilo? Hmmm! He is a man of the world. He is of different things entirely. So, atimes, I will say God, I hand over this man to you. I have handed him over to God. He too, he doesn’t even worry. Any small thing, he will say my wife is a prayerful person. She will pray for me. My wife can pray and raise the dead.
The remaining for her now is for her to go and open church. That is Prince Bisi Olatilo for you, and for whom he is. I thank God for his life and for everything, for God’s grace in his life, because it is not by his power. He too, knows God loves him”.
She has been married to him for how long now, we asked. She smiles again. “Our marriage will be 41 years in December 19”. What has been the staying power? “It’s God. It’s God all the way. I don’t know ooo. Its God that is doing it. It is not by my power ooo. I keep thanking God for everythingg that he has been doing in my life, in my family, in our endeavours, every way.”
When she talks to young people who want to be like her and she mentors them, what advice does she give them to make their marriages work like hers? “I use to tell them that this marriage is not what you can toy with or you think you can run into it and run back. If you run into it, you will run back. So, I always advice them to prepare their mind very, very well.
In those days, our own marriage is Gods doing. Because when we met, my husband did not have anything. He was staying in a room with one of his friends in Lagos. In 1979, we both tried to travel out, in those days. Those were the days when they used to give them visa’s at entry point. So, we left Nigeria, we got to Healthrow Airport. They interviewed me and interviewed. At that time, we were not married yet. At the end of the day, they said we should come and open our boxes. I opened mine first. Then, he opened his own. They saw a school prospectus in his box. He was repatriated that year, in 1979. After about 2 weeks I had to come back to Nigeria because of him.
He had moved to Lagos then. He used to stay in Ibadan before but he now started staying in Lagos with his friend at No 4, Taoridi Street, Surulere, around census area. That was where he went when she got back from London. He stayed there. When I came back, I went there also to stay with him.
So, we started in a room, one room, face me, I face you, with his friend Lere Ojo, of blessed memory. We stayed there for about a year and later he got FRCN job.
It was from there we started our life.
It was tough. But we survived. I thank God. All what we went through is history now. It was rough and beyond our imagination, the way everything turned round today. But I thank God. I give God the honour and the glory”.
Prince Bisi Olatilo once narrated how he had to practically kidnap her and ran away with her before he was allowed to marry her. Is this true? (She bursts out laughing) “That is true. That is a story for another day. It is a real story.
You know my father (may God bless his soul). He was a typical Muslim. From what I saw when my immediate senior sister, Mrs. Adebola Lafimihan, got married to a Christian in 1978 that day, my daddy was doing Abo Mecca (coming back from pilgrimage) so he saw it in the newspaper then, that her daughter, got married at Baptist Church, Orita Mefa in Ibadan. My daddy was dissappointed because he wanted my sister to marry a Muslim.
And, due to their journey, he noticed that this journey was not going to be okay. So, she just pulled herself out of the relationship then. Then, she met this Engr. Tunde Lafimihan of blessed memory. Then, they started one way or the other at Ibadan there.
They got married. My daddy was celebrating Abo Mecca, that same day.
My daddy kept telling everybody who came that day that, can you imagine how the daughter of an Alhaji went to marry Kiriyo. He will show them a copy of the newspaper that carried it that day. That day, the story affected him.
So, I saw that one, and I made up my mind, then after. They later brought gifts from the husbands house to the father of the bride, my daddy chased them away. They ran, they nearly fell down. The tray on their head nearly fell down also. So, that day I cried and cried. I said wow! I made up my mind that day that I will not marry Kiriyo.
And the Muslim boys then were not serious, one way or the other. The fear was in me that I will not marry Kiriyo. So, when my daddy passed away 45 years away, I met Bisi. He was working at FRCN then.
We talked and discussed. I asked for his religion he said he is a Christian. And mostly like that, when I asked you for your religion and you say you are a Christian, I won’t say anything. I won’t say no. I won’t say yes. Inside me I know that is the end of the relationship. But when he came and told me he is a Christian, I said to myself haa! Kiriyo. My mind said, let me give him a trial. He was the only Christian boyfriend I had then. That was how we started. They didn’t want me to marry him at the initial stage. My immediate senior sister (May Her Soul Rest In Peace), she didn’t want me to marry him. So, my husband saying he kidnapped me or carried me away to marry me is true.
Because there was a day my sister came to meet me in that one room apartment. When she saw everything, she was disappointed. She said so this is where you came to hide. She went on and on, bla, bla, bla.
She said, oya, lets go. I followed her. After that, the whole situation changed. Before we got married, I started staying with him.
At the end of the day, she asked me to come back home. Mummy Anona (May Her Soul Rest In Perfect Peace) talked to my sister, Mrs. Adebola Lafimihan that she should leave us. She was the one that pour oil in the whole situation. She told my sister to take everything easy. That she should leave us alone, that because Bisi is staying in one room does not mean that will be the end of life.
That is how we started. I later converted to Christianity. I thank God coming back to be a Christian. I lost my mum when I was just 40 days, after birth. I was a 40 day baby when I lost my mum. I lost my dad to at any early age. It was so traumatic. Imagine when you don’t have mother and father.
I lost my dad at the age of 21 in 1977. It was 45 years last May.
It was May 19, 1977 I lost my dad. When you know that you don’t have anybody to fight for you, just take God, hold on to him tightly for everything.
I lost my late sister early also. So, everything was on me. But God maneuvered everything and I came out of it strong. When we started the journey of life, I sat down to think about it. This Christian and Muslim issue. But God knows the best.
It is God that has made our marriage work, because my husband is a difficult person. And I am tough to. And he knows it. When we start our differences, I will say Mr Man what is going on? When the children were growing up, no father, no mother, no sister, no brother, things were rough then. Bisi will wash nappies then. I will do the looking. He will do other things. Once he passes his boundary, I will say Mr. Man come back home, what is happening? It is strange. Go and tell them outside, that this home ooo, does not belong to anybody.
No way. God will not give them chance. He will laugh and laugh.
So, I always tell the young ones that marriage is a serious matter. They need to make up their mind. What is behind marriage is more than what you will see. Atimes you will be tired of everything, it will seen like you should let the children have their own lives the way they want. They should be determined to make it work.”
“I am from a polygamous family and I know what I went through. Marriage is not what you can take lightly. You should prepare your mind. The young boys and the young girls should make up their mind, especially the women. Because the woman is the owner of the house. You have to do everything to make sure the marriage works.. Do your best and leave the rest to God. It is only God that can build a home. No man. No woman can build a home. But the women should know that she is the owner of the house 24/7. The man’s own is to provide. Bisi used to liken men to tippers. When they carry sand they will come and pour it at home. Bring money home for us to spend. We need this, you will provide. We need that, you will provide. The man is the provider. That is what I see about marriage.
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