ACTOR MUYIWA ADEMOLA’S MUM SPEAKS – ‘‘I THOUGHT MY SON WILL END UP SELLING PALM OIL’’

Mrs Ruth Ademola is the mother of top Yoruba actor, Muyiwa Ademola who owns Muyiwa authentic school of drama in Ibadan, Oyo state. She was a prominent business woman in Ibadan. Not quite long, particularly during the burial of her late husband, Prince Isaiah Awofe Ademola, she spoke to Yoruba movie reporter about her thought over Muyiwa’s career and her feelings about her husband’s demise.

Excerpts:


How do you feel about your late husband?
It’s very sad to lose your love ones, but glory be to God that he didn’t live to bury his children or his wife. I believe that old age was responsible for his death because his family took care of him. His death was so painful because he was a God-given fellow in the family.

What do you miss about him since his passage to glory?
I just have to accept my destiny because it has been written that way. He was so caring and I am going to miss that about him.

How did you meet and fall in love with him?
We met according to the way we were supposed to meet and he wooed me. That is all. We met here in Ibadan when he was a contractor but after our union, he switched over to Railway Corporation as one of their prominent staffers. We got married years back during the era of Adelabu Penkelemex and I started having my kids 10 years after marriage.

Were there no pressure from his family during that 10 years?
There were pressures but I accepted my fate, and waited for God’s time which finally came to pass.

What were you doing then?                                                                                                 
I was a business woman, I sold palm oil and my children also assisted me in doing that particularly muyiwa. Each time they return from school, they already knew what to do. Muyiwa would hawk palm oil while his brothers and sisters would go with either salt or nylon at Jumat mosque in Oja Oba, Ibadan. Muyiwa would always ask me to buy quality one because of the customers he had.

Do you mean if not for movies, he would have ended up selling palm oil?

Yes of course. I thought he would end up selling palm oil because he knew the in and out of the business and he was famous with it in the market before he ventured into acting. He’s a very industrious person. He always opted to work because he knew how much would be his income. He used to take my money as well and whenever I asked him, he would promise to return it the following day, he always paid back.

What do you think he used the money for?
After eating at home, they have no opportunity to chew on the street like others because they were not taught with that. He probably used it in buying things needed in school because anytime they ask him to bring something in school, he used the money for that because his father wasn’t always at home due to the nature of his job.

At what age did he stop hawking palm oil?
I can’t recollect the actual age but he stopped hawking after his secondary school education, thereafter, he started acting.

What was your opinion when he told you he was going into acting?
His father didn’t allow him but whenever he came to me, I did permit him because he would tell me that he wanted to visit Baba Legba at Agbako and that’s all

As a good mother, how did you convince his father?
I did all I could to convince him but he insisted he was not interested.

How did he feel when Muyiwa became famous through acting?
He was happy especially for having a child to exhibit the glory of the family and glory be to God for that.