8th July, 2014
Eromosele Ebhomele
The lawmaker representing Ifako-Ijaiye Constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ipoola Omisore, has disclosed that at 36, he already had nine children.
Today, the 66-year old former President of the West African Outdoor Advertising Association, has 15 children and says it is hereditary.
He, however, warns people not to follow his footsteps because their situation may differ from his.
“Having many children is hereditary. My grandfather, the real Omisore, died in 1941. He was survived by 99 sons and 58 daughters yet ‘abiku’ (evil spirit that kills infants) worried him so much.
“I am the 58th child of my father and I have 18 younger ones. In my family number does not matter and we believe so much in education, even ordinary carpenter in my family might be a graduate.
“For those who come from a background of one or two children, if you try to copy me, you would regret it.
“My own is in-born and it is not deliberate. I had nine children at the age of 36, today, I have 15 children and almost all of them have graduated and are working. My first two children are doing well in Britain,” he said.
Omisore had lost his wife at the age of 39 and had to remarry, but he said it was easy producing such number of kids at that period because the country’s situation was good and he was comfortable having returned from overseas where he studied Advertising.
Asked if he still chased after women, something he said he was taught by his elder brothers as a child, he said: “I am a ladies’ man, I like them, they like me; until I get to the grave, I would not stop admiring them. So I watch what I do, what I eat and even my stature, which is natural.
“I would be 66 soon and it has nothing to do with what I do. If you want to be old, you would be old, if you want to be young, you would be young, it is a thing of the mind.”
In an interview with correspondents of the State House of Assembly, Omisore explained that his extended family in Osun lived a communal lifestyle while he was growing up.
According to him, children of the same age group moved together in droves and slept at any of the houses where evening met them.
He also recalled how they wore each other’s clothes, saying anyone who bought one of them a shirt just knew that he bought that shirt for at least 20 other children.
Ipoola Omisore also revealed that the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun, Iyiola Omisore, is his nephew, and that his father is a monarch in Ile-Ife.
“Iyiola Omisore was a member of the progressive family, but by error of omission or commission he got himself out of progressive politics; he was the Deputy of former governor Bisi Akande then in Osun State.
“He was in a haste to become governor, so he lost his bearing and got edged out of progressive politics. He moved to the PDP and he became a thorn in the flesh of our party.
“He is my brother; if you talk about radicalism, he is behaving like the Omisores, but he is not as bad as he is being painted. He wants something and he is displaying the attributes of his political party and I am displaying that of my party. I am an embodiment of progressive politics.”
The lawmaker said he is eyeing a return to the House, saying said his first and second terms as a lawmaker had afforded him an important place and role in the House which would remain beneficial to his constituents.
“Legislature is a different ball game unlike the executive where they say you can only serve two terms. The more you are here, the more you know the job. It was in the third year of my first term that I started to know what I should know.
“They had cheated me for long, and by the time I knew it, election was coming. By the time I came for the second term, I had been established. In your first term, you are a trainee legislator, in your second term, you are established and in your third term, you would be grounded,” he said.