I Know My Wife Is In Heaven, I Have No Shred Of Doubt, Says Mike Dada At Wife’s Burial

 It was indeed a sad day for the AFRIMA nuclear and extended family when the wife of the president, Mrs Modupe Temitope Dada was laid to rest.

Modupe Dada, Nee Baruwa, died peacefully on Saturday, October 19, and her death and burial has continued to draw an outpouring of sympathy and commiseration from across Africa. Following a well-attended ser­vice of songs and burial service at the Grace Assembly, Oregun, Lagos, Modupe, a renowned banker and Vice President of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) was committed to mother earth on Thursday, Oc­tober 24.

In celebration of a life well-lived albeit short, Modupe, who had been in a coma for 48 days, and died at the age of 48, was de­scribed by many in attendance as a jewel; a woman of virtue whose life was dedicated to ser­vice and giving.

It perhaps remains the reason why dignitaries from around Ni­geria and beyond converged in Lagos to bid her farewell on her final journey home.

Among the attendees were the former Minister of Infor­mation, Mr Lai Muhammed; Dr Bisi Onasanya, the Chairman of The Address Homes and for­mer Group Managing Director of First Bank Nigeria PLC; the Deputy Inspector General of Po­lice in charge of the Department of Training and Development, Frank Mba; media giant and politician, Aare Dele Momodu; President, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Eze Anaba; Mr Olalekan Adebiyi, the Chairman of Laralek Ultimate Construc­tion Limited; Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Lagos State, Mr. Gbenga Omo­tosho; Former Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Lagos State, Mr. Steve Ayorinde; Exec­utive Director, Sterling Bank, Mrs. Tunde Adeola; Former La­gos Commissioner of Tourism, Art and Culture, Mrs. Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf and Mr Gbenga Adefaye, erstwhile President of the NGE among others.

This is aside from condolence and commiseration messages that have poured in from the likes of Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Enugu State counterpart, Governor Peter Mbah; and former Gover­nor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode.

Saturday INDEPENDENT was live at the two services and here’s what the President of AFRIMA, and the Managing Di­rector of PRM Africa Marketing and Communications Limited, Mike Abayomi Dada had to say.

It’s difficult, it’s tough, but I know God is tougher. I thought I would get to talk about this when my wife clocked 50. I want­ed to have an opportunity to say a big thank you to her for being a true wife.

When I met her, my wife had three cars, and I had only one. But she stood up to say, this is the man I am going to marry. Even some members of her fam­ily said, where did you see this man with a big head, that of all the people in the world?

Imagine my wife at 48, how beautiful she is. Just imagine how she looked when she was under 30. This is the man I will marry whether you guys like it. Sometimes, I look at her and ask, “Have I not mistakenly married an angel?

When people die in Africa, we are compelled to speak about their good behaviours, charac­ter, and manners. This is not one of such. Many who have had contact with her can testi­fy to some of these things. My wife is the only one who will get an interest-based loan to repay interest and the capital not for herself, but to give to somebody or help somebody.

My wife is somebody that will stand surety for someone and that person will run away with the money. They will take her to the police station when the person has disappeared out of the country. When the person finishes the money and comes back to Nigeria to beg her, she will still bring the person back to the house....Read Full Article [Click Here>]

I have never heard my wife speak ill to someone or curse anybody. We have been togeth­er for over 20 years. Her friends are here, including those who at­tended primary school with her, she always wants everybody to be happy.

I told her to be selling ice cream since she wants everyone to be happy.

She was the best of me, and the best of me has gone. She was my organiser, my manag­er. It’s when you have someone who takes care of you, your home and everything, that’s when you have the guts to run around the world. You have more aspirations. Start a career that you want to pursue. Start those dreams and visions that you want to actualise.

I think I’m comforted in the fact that my wife touched lives. She impacted lives. In her office, the person who has been with her in banking for 21 years said my wife always has a small paper filled with names and amounts of money from 10,000 to 30,000 to 50,000

And she had that paper till her last days. My wife will give everything.

But in all, we will still con­tinue to give thanks to God, be­cause other things would have happened. We tried our best as a family to do whatever thing that we can do to make it work.

But God has a different agen­da. And it’s my prayer that the agenda will come to fruition.

I never knew that my wife was a celebrity. You might say be­cause of me being in the media, but there are people who are in the media that have not been like this. So my wife has impacted a lot of people.

A commissioner of informa­tion came to our house I think about four days ago and tried to console us. He said that there are people who when they die, people are happy that they died. He told us a true life story about a man whom when he was sick, people in the company where he works when that man was sick, people followed him up to the extent that the doctors abroad rejected him and they had to re­turn him.

When he died, they opened bottles of beer, drinking and re­joicing in the office. They even called their colleagues in other countries who had resigned and left to also toast with beer.

But God’s ways are differ­ent from our ways. And I be­lieve that it’s not the number of years you have spent on earth that counts, what is important is those things you have done in those years you have lived.