Lasun Alagbe
Once a soldier always a soldier? Welcome the new Iyalode Akinrogun of Ibadanland, Colonel Adenike Akerele (rtd).
Her title roughly translates to Woman Officer to the Ibadan General.
She was among the seven chiefs that the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Olalekan Balogun Alli-Iwo, installed on Friday.
While Akerele is accomplished in many areas and has a robust profile, the way she met her husband, as she once narrated in an interview with ‘Nigerian Tribune’, is instructive:
“I got married to my husband in 1985 as a young girl. I met him as a divorcee. What brought us together was that he had these little children that I fell in love with. He retired from the Air Force. For three years, I was a big aunty to his children, they would come to my hostel, I would cook for them and take them to lesson. There was no relationship between me and their daddy at the time. After three years, the mother was ill and I went with him to Abeokuta. “When we left there, we came to Ibadan to see my daddy. He was in the car but my daddy said “go and bring your husband to greet us.’’ I told my dad he was not my husband but one uncle in our church. When he got down to greet my daddy, he (daddy) gave him two pounds to buy fuel. He was financially buoyant but my daddy gave him money. We left and on our way, he asked me to marry him. I was angry and got down from the car. To cut a long story short, we later got married.”
