- Speaks about marital life with ex-Osun deputy governor
October 29, for most people, is just another day on the calendar. But not so for Prince Michael Tunde Ponnle, founder of Nigeria’s first fully indigenous cable company. For the boss of MicCom Cables and Wires Limited, October 29 is a date that steers nostalgic feelings, being the day his beloved wife, Engr. Olufunke Ponnle, passed on exactly 10 years ago.
To his credit, he has set the day apart to celebrate the life of his departed heartthrob, and anyone in the know of the great asset she constituted to him, their family and humanity in general would not be surprised at the impelled not just by the affinity they shared as husband and wife but the circumstances of their meeting before they engaged each other in a blissful marriage that lasted 47 years.
A decade after her death, it would seem that the force or influence of time has done nothing to lessen Prince Ponnle’s affection for the frontline female engineer. Indeed, if the attention he has given to the anniversary of her death in the past 10 years is anything to go by, it is safe to say that the boss of the popular Ada Golf Course in Osun State has demonstrated more love for her late wife than many men do for their living partners.
Explaining why his love for his late wife has not waned a decade after her demise, the MicCom boss attributed it primarily to the place she occupied not only in his heart but also in his life.
He said: “Whatever I am or whatever MicCom is today, we did it together. Because of me, she studied engineering as well. So when we started our engineering business, we were together. She did one thing and I did the other. She was managing the factory while I was going out for marketing. In everything, we were really, really compatible.”
Prince Ponnle also said the fact that he managed to survive in her absence is something worthy of celebration because many people, including their children, who knew how close they were, had feared that he would not be able to survive the shock.
He said: “We were so close that my children thought I would not last one year after her death. So that calls for remembering her every year.
“The first seven years when I was alone was terrible. I moved to the village and played golf, but golf is not something you do 24/7. Even if you play it every day, it is only for four hours. So when you are back to the house, you are lonely.
“And in the village, there is no one at your level. So it was a very lonely life until maybe the lady herself sent somebody exactly like her to me in the person of my present wife (former Osun State deputy governor, Titi Laoye Tomori). Their behaviour, their Christian pattern, their prayer life, everything is the same. So my children always say ‘your wife sent somebody to you’.
“Since she has been living with me about three and a half years now, there is no difference. Sometimes, I think she is a reincarnation of my late wife. So I thank God I have no cause to regret, and the children are doing well.”
Asked about his marital experience with the former Osun State Deputy Governor, Prince Ponnle said: “Our marriage has been very interesting and helpful. It is a lesson to young people like you that when you are marrying, you should take your wife as a partner and not as a slave.
“If there is a disagreement between you, settle it with her and give her confidence and she will help you. The idea of second or third wife should not come in if you love each other. If you love a woman, she will be faithful to you.
“Money is the root of all sins and the root of all problems between husband and wife. Once the issue of money is out of it, 75 per cent of marriage problems are solved. I don’t care what my wife does with the money. She has children, so whatever she bought either to my knowledge or without my knowledge belongs to the children.
“So for young couples fighting over property, I think it is because they don’t see the future. When the future comes and you need a partner and the property is there, you will see that it is your children or your relations that will benefit from it.
“So why not take it as important from the start, but not so important as for one to cheat the other?”
Asked how easy it is to manage a wife of the caliber of a former deputy governor, he said: “That is why I said she is God-given. She is so humble that you would not know she was once the deputy governor of a state.
“My relations are always surprised when they come around and she kneels down to greet them. She is a typical well brought up Christian lady. I would even say she is more humble than my late wife.”
He believes that with more people like her current wife in politics, the political terrain would be less dreadful.
“If we have more people like her in politics, our politics will be better. I hope she does not quit politics but remains to teach other women the morals that you do not have to sell yourself to become something,” he said.
Incidentally, the former Osun State deputy governor is on the list of the campaign council for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the head of the grassroots women mobiliser.
Asked how prepared she was for the task, she said: “Of course, I appreciate that it is a huge task. But if my presidential candidate is somebody you know well, you will realise that he is not a difficult product to sell to the people because of his good nature and antecedents.
“God willing, he is the next president of Nigeria.”
The Nation
