COMMOTION IN THE AJIBOLA FAMILY

When you ever feel that your family is dysfunctional then you have not seen the Ajibolas. The feud between their families began as a joke, a little tussle you are supposed to think will end in a few days, however in ten years the little a had become so large.

It started all when they were burying their mother, Mama Ajibola in the small town of Ilesa. It was not the burial itself that was the problem but the rice, yes rice😂

The final wish of Mama Ajibola was easy, she wanted all her children to prepare the well known Ofada rice and bring it to burial but everybody could not decide who exactly should cook the food. The first daughter who was the eldest called Aunty Dupe, said it was her time to cook it because she was the first to learn how to cook it. The second daughter Aunty Funke claimed that she was the favorite cook of Mama and always put the right pepper. Then came their brother, Uncle Gbenro who told them that women were not supposed to cook on such a day, that men were to do the cooking so that it would be prestigious.
When the argument was over, there had been three varieties of pots of ofada rice at the burial and still not one of them had the right taste.

However, that was only the beginning. The family began to quarrel over who should inherit the sewing machine of Mama Ajibola, the old Singer machine with one leg and sounding like a rat each time it was in use. Initially, everybody laughed at it but laughing gave place to screaming, and screaming to insults, and insults to open hostility. Soon afterwards, the sewing machine became the most contested item in the entire Osun State. Meetings were held, even elders intervened but the Ajibolas' would not hear, there was divisions among them.

By 2018, they were so bad that they do not attend family events together. When one party is getting married, the other party would act like they did not know about it. They even began to attend other churches because they do not want to see each other on Sundays. On one occasion, when they were attending the naming ceremony of a cousin, Team Dupe and Team Funke both appeared at the same location. The sick infant kept on crying during the incident, some said it was the child just reacting to the family tension.

It was seven years into the feud that things began to change. Titi, the daughter of Aunty Funke was engaged to a man in Lagos. There was a lot of excitement initially until they discovered that the man, Wale, was the best friend of the son of Uncle Gbenro. Team Dupe told her that we should not get married as we could not intermix our blood with traitors and the team Gbenro replied that they do not want any drama people in their lives. Poor Titi was confused, she was in love with Wale but her family drama was transforming her wedding into a battlefield. Finally, one day she got tired, she had left them a voice note in the family WhatsApp group, a voice note that would be remembered in history.

The voice note went thus "Good evening my people, this is Titi and I just want to say something. All of you are mad.”
Five minutes of silence followed in the chat.
"Yes I said it, you all are quarrelling over a sewing machine which has been out of commission since 1995, you have made family meetings wrestling matches. In the meantime, the foreigners are mocking us. I am going to get married and unless you people settle this mess, I will invite none of you but strangers to my wedding and tell them my parents were killed in a war"

That message shook everyone, even the seniors who never verified their phones began to make calls. Following some telephone calls, sittings and adamant silence, a final family meeting was made. Their old family house was used and the sewing machine that had been broken was standing in his corner mute and dusty. No one said anything at first when everybody came, the atmosphere was heavy.

And then, to my astonishment, little Ireti the 10 year old granddaughter of Aunty Dupe, came went up to the sewing machine and said "You are fighting about this, aren't you?, it doesn’t even have legs", her words broke the ice.

Someone laughed, then another person. Soon the room was filled with laughter, I mean the real, hearty laughter which had been absent for ten years. They began to relate tales of Mama Ajibola, how she would sew clothes at night without charging any money for it, how she would chase lizards out of the kitchen with a wooden spoon, and how at all times she was yelling "Go and live in the bush, you cannot love your family".

When the laughter ended Uncle Gbenro got up, cleared his throat and said "Let us put an end to this fight, I don't want the sewing machine any longer, I do not want it". “Good,” said Aunty Dupe that's the reason I wanted to use it as a flower pot. Everybody laughed again, eventually they resolved to give the sewing machine to a local museum which was named "Mama Ajibola's Legacy". The curator wanted to reject it as it was broken but after he listened to the story why it was broken, he took the object joyfully.

When Titi's wedding came, the Ajibola family came in grand style they all turned out in matching aso ebi yellow and blue. They danced, ate and photographed together as a unit just as they used to years before even the husband of Titi said, "This is the family everybody has been talking about, you are Nollywood part one to five". Since then the Ajibolas had vowed never to separate again, they went to the extent of renaming the family group name from Ajibola Family Wahala to Team Forever United. Regarding, the sewing machine, it is still standing proudly in the museum, and there is a small note beside it, which says "This machine taught a Nigerian family that peace is better than pride" and indeed, since that time the Ajibolas have enjoyed peace and less ofada rice that is good to eat.

Thank you for staying with me this far, I hope you had a good read, see you next time 🤗

Note: All pictures are generated on Meta AI