Encomium
MRS. Folake Abiodun Oyemade, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Sam and Sara and Omoluabi Garment Factory turned 50 on December 24, 2014.
She, however, chose to celebrate it on Saturday, January 10, 2015.
She also used the occasion to renew her marriage vow with her husband, Hon. Niyi Oyemade, former member of Lagos House of Assembly and former Commissioner for Commerce and Industry in Lagos State with whom she has been married for 24 years.
The birthday celebration and renewal of vow held at their ultra-modern edifice at Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Mrs. Oyemade spoke to ENCOMIUM Weekly on her 50th birthday and renewal of vow.
Congratulations on your 50th birthday.
Thank you very much.
How does it feel to be 50?
I just feel like me. I don’t feel any different. I don’t feel old at all. I just have this feeling in me that if at 50 I cannot live my life the way I want it then does not worth it. So, I resolved that I will spend the rest of my life pleasing God and myself and not necessarily the society.
There are so many societal norms in Nigeria that really do not go down well with me as a person. I told myself I am not going to be part of them anymore. I have tried to be part of so many things but I saw that they are not really working out for me.
At 50, I will never do whatever that does not go down well with me but I will please God. I will do everything and anything to please God.
Do you feel 50?
No. I don’t feel old. I feel like me. I still think like me. I still dress like me.
Me of 20, 30 or 40?
Me as I have always been. I am a girl inside. I am not a 50 year old. The gal in me just can’t die. I don’t know whether you get what I mean. Even at 90, I am still going to feel like me. I told my children that I am going to be the funkiest grandmother that ever lived. These are what I am used to doing. I can’t just change them.
What are those things that you are doing that do not make you feel 50?
I don’t joke with my exercise. I work out a lot. I try to eat right too. I am young at heart. I don’t stress myself unnecessarily. When I tell people certain things that I am passing through, they will say really? You don’t look like someone going through such. The Bible says, Cast all your burden at my feet and I will give you rest. Oh ye that labour and heavily laden. That is what we are told as children of God. I am naturally a happy person. The decision to be happy is personal. I treasure my happiness a lot.
There is nobody in the world that is going to make me sad because what makes a lot of people sad is mostly what the people around them do. I tell myself that whatever anybody is doing and enjoying it, why should I allow that to be a burden or problem in my heart. I don’t sulk and I don’t cry over spilled milk.
What was your childhood like?
My childhood was a very beautiful one. I still remember everything with nostalgia. I was brought up in a very strict environment because my parents were educationists. Though my mom later went into business, but once a teacher, always a teacher. That discipline was always there.
When I was very young, I used to think that my mother was very wicked. You can’t even please her.
Would you say your childhood was a privileged one?
To some extent because we did not lack anything. We all went to very good schools. We ate whatever we wanted to eat. We dressed very nicely and lived in a comfortable house. My parents left some property for us though it may not be enough to make us rich but it was okay.
What would you say was the most challenging period of your life?
Challenges only begin to come into one’s life when you get married. I will say that every challenge I had had been in my marriage. I have not had any challenge outside my marriage. It is my marriage that made me to know that aiye pe meji (the world is difficult).
What sort of challenges did you encounter in your marriage?
Every marriage has one challenge or the other.
Precisely, which one did you face in your marriage?
Every challenge every normal couple face. Like me wanting the chair to stay this way and my husband wanting it to stay that way. I thank God for my husband. One of the things I like about him is that he allows me be who I want to be.
For how long have you been married?
Over 24 years.
When would you say is the happiest moment of your 50 years of existence?
I will say when I gave birth to my twins. That is usually the best moment for every woman, when you have children.
How old are the twins now?
They are 18.
Where and when did you meet your husband, Hon. Niyi Oyemade?
At my former place of work. As soon as I graduated, I started business but as a young woman who has so much time on her hands, I joined the civil service.
Lagos State civil service?
No, federal civil service. I worked for only one year before I resigned. He was a friend to one of my bosses.
What would you say was the attraction?
He was just an extremely nice, amiable, respectful and caring person.
Sam and Sara has brought you prominence, when did you start the business?
I had some prominence before I started the company. I had a fashion house. We were the first fashion house to sell trendy sport wears. We had branches all over Lagos. That gave me a lot of prominence before we relocated abroad.
You had a restaurant somewhere around Opebi some years ago?
That was the first business I established when we came back to the country. I realized that it was not my kind of business because the stress was very high. It was too demanding. I wasn’t enjoying it. So, I decided to go back to my first business clothing. I have always been into clothing.
Sam and Sara is the leading uniform manufacturer in the country today, what is the secret of her success?
We are doing what others before us are doing but in a different way. I will not say we are pioneers in the business of making uniforms. I will just say that we introduced a new dimension which others did not have.
You did a renewal of vow with your husband today, what is the reason?
No special reason. We just want to celebrate the fact that we’ve been together for so many years and also to remind ourselves of the vow we made then.
What would you say has kept the marriage going for 24 years?
The fact that we understand each other. I understand him very well, he understands me very well too.
What would you say you cherish most about your husband?
The fact that he allows me be. He didn’t try to change me or try to make me be like him. He tried to understand me and accept me for who I am.
How has it been coping with him as a politician?
Coping with him as a politician has not been difficult because life evolves. We are always changing. He has always had politics in him. Of course, it was not that he was fully involved initially but when he did, I just had to cope.
Did you ever nurse any fear of losing him to any other woman?
Why should I?
What does it make you feel to have just completed your house in one of the most expensive estates in the country?
Whatever one’s achievement I think the glory goes to God. My husband and I give glory to God, glory be to Him.
Can you give us a conservative estimate of what it cost you and your husband to put up this edifice?
Let us just give glory to God. All adoration and glory belong to Him.
-TOLANI ABATTI
