#FathersDay: Moradeke’s Father is Her One True Friend

We asked you beautiful BellaNaijarians to celebrate your fathers and help him a free spa date with ORÍKÌ Spa by sharing a compelling story about him.

There is a popular saying that “a mother is gold, a father is a mirror.” This perfectly suits the role of my father. The gift of life is priceless but having him as my father is a double blessing for me. I learnt everything about life from him, watching him love and cherish my mother endlessly, close and distant relatives, and friends too –  he goes hard for everyone.

My father was and is still my tutor. I remember when I was in nursery school and one of my class teachers wrote “She is brilliant and intelligent but she’s lazy when it comes to studying.” That was like pouring petrol on fire because, omo! My father became my personal tutor. Today, when I solve anything in mathematics and people call me “Efiko”, I smile because they do not know the amount of cane I received and the sleepless nights I had with my father.

After school was another school, and mathematics was the main focus. I dared not do wuruwuru to the answer because if baba asked how I arrived at the answer and I had no explanation for it, omo! I’d receive loads of beatings with no consideration that I’m the only girl. I literally ‘consumed’ Ugo.C.Ugo mathematics and had lots of sleepless nights with my father in preparation for my exams.

He didn’t have much but we enjoyed everything a rich kid would except travelling out of the country. He would wake up so early to drive us to school every day (all the way from Ikorodu to Agnes Road, Herbert Macaulay, Yaba) and still come pick us up at the closing time to his office.

He is my true friend – he’s always there, my personal driver – he never gets tired even when I attend shows/parties that will end past midnight. He’s my sexual educator, life coach, spiritual leader – he is all of these and more. He would always tell us that everything we want to become in life starts from the mind and can be achieved with total discipline. He is a disciplinarian to the core (I received some serious beating growing up but I appreciate it more now).

I remember when he had an accident that didn’t make him walk for a year, that was the first time I saw tears roll down his eyes because he heard me and my brother took public transport to school (I’ll forever cherish this moment).

To date, he is ready to sacrifice anything to ensure that his family and everyone around him is happy.

He is a leader par excellence, a loyalist, a realist, a never-say-never businessman, a hustler @broad_spec (we all got that from him, especially my brother). He’s a lover of God, a music lover (it’s amazing how he loves Kizz Daniel), and a very good dancer. He’s never a pretender and always emphasises that “a pretender has no identity.”

I celebrate him today and every day, and pray for good health and long life for him to enjoy all our money and care because he deserves so much more.

I, Moradeke, love you so much, daddy.