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THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012
Chief (Mrs.) Funke Arthur-Worrey, popularly called Aunty Funke, was born into the Ogunmade Royal family of Lagos. She holds a Diploma in Social Studies from the Ohio State University, Columbia, USA and Paris Academy of Fashion Designing. A holder of several titles, the former president of the International Women Society (IWS) and Ikeja Lions Club, among others, speaks with KEHINDE FALODE about her life at 85, love life, family and other sundry issues.
‘I was shocked the first day someone called me Mama’
•Chief (Mrs.) Funke Arthur-Worrey
W
HAT was your growing up like? I was born into the family of Mr. Ezekiel Akindele Davies of Isale Eko. I was raised in Lagos. I also schooled in Lagos but got married in England where I had my children. I came back in 1966 with my husband, the late Chief Steady Arthur-Worrey. He was a lawyer and I was his secretary for many years. Thank God, the marriage was blissful. I see myself as one of the luckiest women in the world to have met a man called Steady. He passed on about five years ago and I am still missing him dearly. He was good and friendly with everybody and was well-known for his sense of humour. He never knew how to play pranks on people, but he liked to tell you about history and it turned into curious things to listen to. Before I travelled overseas, I worked with Arrie and Bonner. When I came back from England, I worked briefly with the defunct Phillip Petroleum. After some time, the pressure was so high in my family that I switched to importing bags from Korea. So, I left a beautiful job and we got this shop which we named Bluegate, and it is still on, even though it changed hands through many Igbo traders. It was the place for fanciful shoes, bags, children wears and books then. But now, things have changed. I lost my baby girl, Biola, at the age of 10 in 1957. She was so brilliant, so loving and she was everything to me. As young as she was, we were so close. She understood me and was special to me. I loved her. Since then, I don’t know what happened, I kept looking at people that lost their babies like that. I got involved and I talk to them because I was feeling their pains. That must have been the lowest point in your life? Yes it was! From there, a very good friend of mine said there was this club that started in 1957. They called it International Women Society (IWS). They catered for widows, children and orphans. One of my friends, Deji Alakija, encouraged me to join the organisation. She is still alive. From there, I got involved with the charity projects run by the organisation. I was
so involved that I at one time or the other served as the secretary and treasurer. The same lady introduced me to the Dining Club, one of the prestigious clubs of the era, where we met every week and the money we raised went to charity. From there, I joined the Lions Club, and they did so much work. My husband was the one that joined Lions and became the governor. We travelled round Nigeria and I was involved in raising funds. So, I have been combining all these with raising the children, looking after my
husband as a wife in Nigeria, and I felt better. It was good. I enjoyed myself. Lagos was so close then. We knew each other more or less before the capital was moved to Abuja and things changed. Then there was the explosion in the population of Lagos. Nowadays, you can hardly visit someone who had just relocated to Ikeja from Olowogbowo. But thank God, Governor Babatunde Fashola is trying now to make that possible. Then, we used to visit our relations in Badagry with ease, and it was the playground for Lagosians. I pray that Governor Fashola will give us the honour of flying boats. So, even if we don’t go to Cotonou, we can go to Badagry and Lome and have good meals. How would you compare the social life and standard of living then to what obtains now? The cost of living is very high now. At that time, there was not much money, but then, we had all the discipline from the colonial masters to cut our coats according to our sizes. There wasn’t much noise about a civil servant having houses here and there. Unlike what obtains now, as a civil servant, government must know how you spent your money. For example, if you are earning N4,000 as monthly salary and you own a car that costs N8,000, even your neighbours would say, ‘Isn’t that Funke who earns so and so amount? Look at her in a Mercedes Benz.’ People were disciplined. We didn’t have much money then, but what we had, we managed. And even though we might not be able to spend our holidays in England, we would spend them in Jos because the city of Jos was the favourite holiday ground then for most civil servants. And Lagos was
beautiful and people were very happy. But now, what upsets me most is that when you turn on the radio or television—I am not even talking of Lagos alone, I am talking generally about the world—you don’t hear anything cheerful. If it is not about war in Sudan, Iraq, even in France now with their election, you don’t hear anything worthwhile. How much more at home? So, you don’t feel happy. You feel this is another country and not the place where everybody looked after the other. I feel sorry for the younger generation, because things are so different now. Cost of living is so high. A couple starts happily, but then, they have to pay rent; they have to send their children to school and good schools are not cheap. And some of them are living in high rise buildings where there is no water or electricity to power the fridge. The leftovers in those days, we saved everything in the fridge or freezer. Now, there is no light, water or road. Thank God, we now have LAGBUS (BRT). It has helped a lot. But then, the population is much. Lagos is the place where everything works. If it is not 100 per cent, at least, 80 per cent, for which we count ourselves very lucky. You don’t look your age. What is the secret? To be sincere with you, I don’t know. But I guess it has to do with the gene. My father at that time looked after his white apparels because he was a produce examiner at the Federal Ministry of Trade and Commerce. Despite his old age then, he still went out on his bicycle in the morning, and you needed to see his khaki, which were well ironed! He taught me how to do so many things. Maybe that was where I got it from. How does it feel to be 85 years old? It is great, because in those days, we looked at the people who were celebrating 60, 65, 70 and
‘I’ve paid dearly for being frank’ •Dudu-Orumen
Godwin Dudu-Orumen is one of Nigeria's frontline sports analysts. His TV programme, The Best of Football, was very popular in the 90s. He tells GBENGA ADERANTI why the programme went off air and why he shunned the law profession in spite of his training as a lawyer, among other issues.