Don’t make money an issue in your home — Ibukun Awosika

The first female Chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria, Ibukun Awosika, has advised couples not to make money a source of conflict in their homes, stressing that unity and understanding matter more than financial status.

Speaking during a sermon at Celebration Church International, shared on Instagram by Pastor Emmanuel Iren on Wednesday, she said her message was drawn from personal experience.

“When I say make the money of no consequence in your home, I’m speaking from personal experience,” she began.

She recalled that at the start of her marriage, she was running a manufacturing company and securing contracts, while her husband worked as a petroleum engineer in the public sector of the oil and gas industry.

When we got married, I as a business person running a manufacturing company, getting contracts, I could get any kind of contract. My husband was a petroleum engineer working in oil and gas at that point, but working in oil and gas in public sector,” she said.

According to her, their different personalities kept the home stable financially.

“Now if we never go broke in my family because my husband is the most prudent human being in this world, that’s just the truth. Me, I’m a risk taker, so I can take risks, but he’s a prudent, organised human being. We will never be hungry because he will make sure that we’re not.”

She said they held on to a biblical promise for years, citing Amos 9:13.

“Have you read Amos 9? Go to 9.13. We kept picking this promise for a long time because in our church, we pick promises.”

Thirteen years later, she said smaller oil fields were taken from major oil companies, and Nigerians were invited to apply.

“13 years after, they took all the smaller oil fields from the big oil majors and asked Nigerians to apply. Now, if you’re a smart petroleum engineer married to a business-minded wife, the two minds will work together like you can do this and all of that, and my husband is sharp and fantastic at his job.”

She said her husband and a few friends applied, and he secured an oil field.

“So anyway, he and a few of his friends applied. At the end, he got his field, and from that day till now, please go and price furniture and price oil. Let me now tell you the real lesson.”

Reflecting on the journey, she said her attitude during the first 13 years of marriage shaped what followed.

Whatever way I behaved in the 13 years before, I was about to reap my reward in the years after, and I have reaped them big.”

Reiterating her message, she urged couples to see money as a tool.

“So when I say to you, do not make money an issue in your home. It’s a tool. Use it to achieve the things that you can together. Whether it’s on the side of the man, on the side of the woman, one plus one is what? Is one.”

She concluded by emphasising unity in marriage.

“You haven’t found a team until you find a team of a husband and a wife who understand who they are in Christ and work together as one. Nothing can stop them.”

culled from punch