Alleged Trouble in Home Front...As Wife Drags Rotimi Babalola to Court
The catchy tune of Kenny Rogers’ song, Lucille, is one and only. The song tells the story of a family torn apart as the woman leaves the man with four hungry children and crops in their field. This is the same narrative that is reportedly playing out in the home of Dr Rotimi Babalola, a top executive at Chevron Nigeria Limited.
One of the most trending reports at the moment has it that there is trouble in what used to be considered the paradise home of Rotimi Babalola, the Chief Medical Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited. According to the report, Babalola’s wife, Mrs Adediwura Adebukola Babalola has dragged him to court in what may be considered the latest episode of divorce.
Unlike Rogers’ song where there is only an instance of confrontation, Mrs Babalola has allegedly accused her husband of unruly behaviour, nothing less than what one might expect of an uncultured person. She reportedly claimed that Dr Babalola has abandoned their matrimonial home to herself and their only child, and only comes around to cart away valuables, such as fridges, freezer, gas cooker, generator and solar panels.
Mrs Babalola also allegedly claimed that her husband has gotten physical with her on more than one occasion, inflicting both obvious and emotional injuries. Moreover, she alleged that it has gotten to the point where it may be labelled full-blown cruelty and wickedness, not the brief skirmishes that some households pass through on their matrimonial journey.
Based on all these, Mrs Babalola is reportedly requesting a divorce, along with several conditions. For one, she allegedly wants custody of their only child, a young girl. Secondly, she is said to be insisting on her husband returning everything he has removed from the house since January of 2021. Moreover, she requested the court to enforce a restraining order against him to protect herself and her daughter, while he submits monthly alimony of 1,000,000, among other things.
I need everybody to read this write up very well. You see, we are now a nation of pessimists. We have mostly given up and taken seats in the audience to be critiquing, lamenting and crying at just how bad things are. We are now worse than the doomsayers. We believe very strongly that nothing can come out again, that we should just sell ourselves into slavery. That it is over. The other day, a very prominent journalist who should know better sent out a picture of his boarding pass in handwriting as another evidence that it is over. That the country is finished and the hordes of Philistines latched on to that and kept pushing the very negative perspective of this great country. Now listen. Our problem is not that of leadership. Our problem is that of followership. What we have is yeye, spoon-fed and spoilt followers who are looking for superhumans as leaders. The kind that will come down and save them and help them get printed boarding passes. We are all a nation of mumu. Yes, come and beat me, we are all a nation of mumu. Now, I sit down with Dr Afolabi and I ask him one question. Just one question. “Why do you have this kind of confidence in Nigeria that you continue to make investments with long gestation periods in this economy? Your Marriott
Hotel, I hear, has a turnaround time of about 10 years or more.” He looked at me squarely into my eyes and said, “Duke of Shomolu, I believe in this country. I love Nigeria and will continue to do whatever I need to do to make the country strong.” I almost wept as I looked at this man. Is this not a man? Is this not a Nigerian like the rest of us? Why is he still standing when the rest of us are busy running to Canada to go and wash toilets? We are what we make of us. Nigeria is the people. It is not the leaders; it is the people, damn it! We don’t come out to vote and then we expect change. We don’t even try to build platforms and yet, we expect jobs to be created. Dr. Afolabi says it is not the government’s job to create jobs but to create an enabling environment for jobs to be created and sustained by the private sector. When I said this during the #EndSARS riots, didn’t they abuse my mother, didn’t they ask my side chick to stop providing services? One mumu went on twitter and called me a bastard. That is where we find ourselves as a nation. With the level of adult illiteracy, what do you expect but a mumufied population. Well I have ranted enough. Those who know will know and those who don’t know will never know. As for me and my family, this is my country and with mindsets like that of Dr Afolabi, we will rebuild this country, the rest of you can run away. Go!