Renowned entrepreneur and pastor, Ibukun Awosika, has opened up about the early years of her marriage, revealing how she and her husband, Abiodun Awosika, navigated a significant income imbalance for more than a decade without allowing it to strain their relationship.
Speaking during a session at Celebration Church, Awosika recounted that she earned substantially more than her husband during the first 13 years of their marriage. Despite this disparity, she described him as a responsible and hardworking man who consistently ensured the family’s stability.
According to her, rather than allowing the financial difference to breed tension, they treated it as an opportunity for shared growth and partnership.
Awosika explained that while she was running her manufacturing business — sometimes securing modest contracts and at other times landing major deals — her husband was steadily building his career as a petroleum engineer with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. She credited his careful planning and disciplined approach to finances as the steady force that kept their home grounded.
“The other thing I can say to the girls is this: when I say make the money of no consequence in your home, I am speaking from personal experience,” he said.
“When we got married, I was a businesswoman running a manufacturing company and getting contracts. Some days, they were small contracts; other days, I could get a big break and make a lot of money. Based on who I was, I had that possibility.
“My husband was a professional petroleum engineer working in the oil and gas sector in the public sector, he was at NNPC. 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. That is just the truth. Me, I’m a risk taker, but he is an organised and structured human being, so we would never go hungry because he would make sure of that.”
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She further shared that throughout those 13 years, she continued to grow her business while supporting her husband’s professional aspirations. She revealed that he held firmly to a biblical promise from Amos 9:13, trusting that his breakthrough would eventually come.
“For 13 years, we lived our lives — I kept building my business successfully, and he kept building his career. In our church, we pick promises from Scripture, and for a long time, my husband kept holding onto the promise of Amos 9:13. I did not pay much attention to it, but in my spirit, I always believed he would be rewarded for the support of everything I did,” she added.
“Thirteen years later, when President Obasanjo decided to allocate smaller oil fields to Nigerians and asked people to apply, my husband and a few of his friends applied.
“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.”
Awosika recalled that the turning point came during the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, when smaller oil blocks were made available to Nigerians. Her husband applied alongside some colleagues and eventually secured an oil field — a milestone she described as transformative for their family.
Concluding her message, Awosika encouraged couples, especially women, not to allow financial differences to create division in their homes. She described money as a tool that should serve a shared vision rather than become a source of rivalry.
“Let me now tell you the real lesson. Whatever way I behaved in the thirteen years before, I was about to reap my reward, and I have reaped them big,” she added.
“So when I say do not make money an issue in your home, I mean it. Money is a tool. Use it to achieve things together, whether it comes from the man or the woman. One plus one is one. It is not mathematics.
“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. They will rule the world and do greater and mightier things.”
