After 46 years of marriage, 84-year-old man, John Olusola Ojo, who is a pastor has paid the dowry of his wife, Olabisi, who is 70 years old.
In an interview with Tribune, Pastor Ojo said he decided to honor his wife by going to pay her dowry in September, years after her family initially disagreed on their union.
Going down memory lane, Pastor Ojo said when he met Olabisi during his youth, he was very poor and also had come from a poor family background. Olabisi on the other hand, was from a priviledged home. At the time they met, she was living with her Uncle who was grooming her for one of his colleagues who worked as a driver at the Nigeria Railway Corporation. He said;
“When all persuasions to make my in-laws accept their daughter’s bride price from me failed, the General Superintendent of the Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria, advised us to go by statutory marriage through which we were certified as husband and wife in 1972. Few years into our marriage, my in-laws had a change of heart; since then we have maintained a good rapport,”
Pa Ojo says they lived so happily that his in-laws forgot to ask him for the dowry of their daughter.
On her part, Mrs Ojo said she agreed to stick with her husband at the time when he as poor because she knew she could afford to take care of the him.
“I knew I could take care of him, I concluded so because my parents were financially buoyant – my mother was a produce buyer while my father was a commercial farmer. But to my people, he was poor beyond redemption, they called him ‘one-man-one-jacket.’ It took much pacification before I was allowed to marry him. I thank God for his mercy on both of us, our children inclusive for whom we have become today. I have to thank Him especially for His special kindness to me.
Up till this moment, I have never had any cause to regret that I married my husband. Most especially, I am grateful to God that I am also among those women who were married traditionally; appreciating me before my people by paying my dowry. I am indeed happy that it happened to me,” she enthused.
