The first female Chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria, Ibukun Awosika, has advised couples not to allow money become 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 spanning the first 13 years of her marriage.
“When I say make the money of no consequence in your home, I’m speaking from personal experience,” she began.
Awosika recalled that at the start of her marriage, she was running a manufacturing company and securing contracts, while her husband, Abiodun, worked as a petroleum engineer in the public sector of the oil and gas industry at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
“My husband was a petroleum engineer working in oil and gas at that point, but working in oil and gas in public sector. One thing about him is that he is the most responsible and diligent man I know. We would never go broke in my family, it is because he is the most prudent and organised human being. Me, I’m a risk taker, but he’s a prudent, organised human being. We will never be hungry because he will make sure that we’re not,” she said.
She noted that her husband held onto a biblical promise from Amos 9:13 for years, believing his time would come. Thirteen years later, when smaller oil fields were opened to Nigerian applicants, he and a few friends applied and successfully secured one.
“A smart petroleum engineer married to a business-minded wife means two minds working together. He is sharp and fantastic at his job. In the end, he got his oil field. From that day till now, things changed,” she said.
Reflecting on the journey, she said her attitude during those 13 years shaped what followed. “Whatever way I behaved in the thirteen years before, I was about to reap my reward, 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 emphasizing 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.”
