Gov Ige’s letter to Funso, his daughter

Gov Ige’s letter to Funso, his daughter

Friday, March 10, 2017 9:21 am


Bola Ige

Funso Adegbola

When she was in a university in the UK, Mrs Funso Adegbola (then Funso Ige), daughter of the late Chief Bola Ige, former governor of Oyo State and one time Justice Minister, received a letter from her father, who wrote constantly to her.

Here is one of the letters. The document, full of encomiums, admonished Funso to stay clear of evil. This is a big lesson to busy executives (politicians, academics, captains of industry, others) that they need to create time for their family members. Below is the retyped letter and its original version (a scanned historical material):

25 October 1979

My big girl,

Please forgive me that I am not writing this in long hand, I am doing this dictation just a few minutes before some visitors come in to see me.

Thank you very much for your letter and I am glad that you have settled down.

With regard to money, could you please check from your bank whether your account has been credited with the transfer following the closure of my account. I think you should write both to your bank and my bank if they have not done so, you will remember that I gave you a copy of the letter that I sent to my bank last month.

We have almost completed the process for your fees and money will reach you soon. I will find some money to pay everything for the whole year so that you will have enough money for you and your brother.

We are all quite well. We have moved into the Government House since Friday last week, 19th October, 1979. Muyiwa, Sola and others spent the weekend there but they are back in the quarters because of their school. Mummy is here with me.

The letter

The letter

The letter

The letter

The envelope

I am sending this letter through Mama Kunle who is spending about a week with Leye in London as I understood this is his mid-term.

As I do not know your present telephone number, I cannot give it to her, but you might phone their flat opposite Harolds.

I hope you are enjoying your University. I have no objection to the clubs you have joined but I advise you to be wary of some of them which have political over-tones or under-tones.

I am not quite happy about the Black Alliance thing. I would prefer that you be active within the students union and not confine yourself to any ethnic or racial organisation. I would also suggest that you join the Literary and Debating Society and the Student Christian Movement. They are more likely to have such healthier influence on a student than organizations which are unnecessarily polarised, particularly on racial lines. I would also suggest that you join societies which relate to your studies, that is, French and Spanish.

Lastly, I advise you to make friends across all racial lines and more importantly be extremely careful about those you think that can make a kill of young girls who have just entered the university.

You will find many students, particularly male students who will appear to want to help or to be of assistance but whose real interest would be nearly to use the girl for their own selfish purposes.

You have remained good and chaste and it is your own interest and for the honour of our family that you continue to remain good and chaste. We pray for you every day and because we love you as the darling of our family, we know you will always do everything to uphold the good name of the family.

If there is anything that bothers you at any time, please do not hesitate to let me know. As you know, I am ever willing to be your most ready and understanding confidant.

With regard to my work, it has been quite hectic and busy but I thank God that I am coping. I also thank God that I have people who are honest next to me and I listen to them.

I am also fortunate to have our family, particularly Mummy and Daddy at Ikeja and Papa Kunle. Everything is fine and by the grace of God I will succeed.

Please keep in touch with Tunde as I want both of you to be very happy.

I love both of you very much.

Be good and God bless.

Daddy.

You can address your letters to Government House,
Agodi,
Ibadan

Cheers, my dear,

Daddy


Join The Conversation

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.