19 Years and 4 Kids After, Razak Okoya and Wife, Shade Share Keys to their Successful Marriage

Shade Okoya, 40, and her 78-year-old husband, Eleganza CEO Alhaji Razak Okoya had the tabloids buzzing when they tied the knot nineteen years ago.

She was just 21 and he was 59 when they got married. 19 years and 4 kids later, the couple is still together and stronger than ever. In a recent sit down interview with City People Magazine, the couple share secrets to their successful marriage.

Whenever they are together, Shade, who once said if she had married a younger man, wouldn’t have lasted in the relationship, has a way of making the chairman beam with smiles all the time.

How did he feel about her turning 40?

“I feel very happy”, he explained “I feel very happy for her. We have been together for about 19 years. She has been a very good wife, honest, straight forward, and hardworking.

She takes good care of the home. She runs it well. I just walk in and walk out. I don’t know how she runs it. So she is very hardworking. She goes to the factory everyday. Before 7.a.m, she will wake up and do her duties and she will get to the factory by 9 a.m and she won’t leave factory until 6.30 p.m or 7 p.m.

She works throughout the day. She is hardworking. That is what encouraged me to set up the factory and work more on the factory.

Like I have told you. I am 78 years old. My interest is not as keen on it as her own interest, but because of her own interest, daily contributions and hard work and her going to the factory everyday, that is why we keep on expanding and we have so many products. Not only that.

We have a lot of staff. The factory is about thirty something plots, hectares. It is huge. It is fully developed. Please pay a visit there. Come and see it yourself. Our quality is high quality comparable with any standard in the world.”

Shade, who is the Deputy Managing Director of the Eleganza Industrial City, also revealed some amazing keys to the success of her marriage to the billionaire businessman.

You have been married for 19 years, how does it make you feel that you are in it and still counting?

I give God the glory. Just as children, marriage is not about having a special power. The success of any marriage lies in the fact that I am married to a good man. My marriage success is about God. I am thankful to Him. As you said, it going to be 19 years soon.

What has sustained Dr. Sade Okoya?

My family has sustained me. Most especially my husband. I want him to be happy and the fact that what he has going on in Eleganza is what he lives for. The passion and drive that my husband has for the manufacturing industries in Nigeria. I just love to make my husband happy in all ways.

I love my job. I think God did a total package for me. Loving your job and marriage. I thank my God for that. It is not by my doing. Loving my husband and my job has kept me going.

What is that thing that people don’t know about Dr. Sade Okoya?

Perhaps, many don’t know that despite being fashionable, I am a Laywoman when I get to the factory. When I go out, people see me as a celebrity. They need to see me when I am at the factory. You know, sometimes in life, we don’t get to choose what we want to be.

Though, I am not complaining. I love what I am doing and that alone is fulfilling for me. Some people will ask me, why do you manufacture? Why don’t you do other things that are less stressful? But I tell them, I love what I am doing and it makes my husband happy. This is me and it’s my priority.

What is the secret of a successful woman?

I think for anybody to be successful, one needs to be focused. You have to be determined. Being focused and being an achiever do not mean that you have any special thing you are doing that makes you different from others.

Some people work hard but have nothing to show for it. Why this?

That is why you must appreciate God for his mercy on you. I give God the glory and adoration. I have a good home and my family is a closely knitted one. I have a successful business and a good home. It is not because I was born in a special way. So, we should also learn to appreciate God.

Then humility has also worked for me. If you want to be successful, you must be humble. You must also be very prayerful. Prayer is the key to anything we do in life.

You just mentioned humility, why do you always kneel down for people despite that you are a wife of a rich man?

You can’t say because your husband is rich and you will now wear it as a badge. My upbringing helps me much. I don’t see any big deal in it. Though, kneeling down is a Yoruba thing, but I am used to it. I also notice that people like me, and I must reciprocate the good gesture that many big wigs see in me. I am not special.

They only like me because they like my husband because he is a good man. It’s not a self appraisal, If I send text in a day, people will fly in here. I am just honoured to be surrounded by wonderful people and they just take me for who I am. I thank God for that.

What has sustained you?

It is God that has brought me this far. It is God, who has sustained me.

We were here one day for an event and we learned you were fasting, do you do that to keep in shape?

No, fasting works for me. I don’t believe in any other thing than fasting and prayer. God is my pillar. Some people think you need to have a Special person to pray for you, but the question is, if that person is capable, he should have done it for himself.

This is what sustained me. I am 19 years in my marriage already, but people think I am just married for 5 years. I will be here Insha Allah till my old age Insha Allah.

Fasting for me is what I use to communicate with God. It may amaze you that I fast Monday to Friday except when I am not forbidden to fast as a lady. It is a normal thing for me. It is the only way I communicate with my God.

Also, in a chat with ChannelsTV in 2016, Shade opens up about having a lot more to offer than fashionable clothes, jewellery and makeup.

She also sheds some light on having a successful marriage, as well as saying that her husband’s hard work and generosity attracted her to him when they first met.

Watch…