Being a child in the Akinruli household was something to write home about. I remember Dad would take us to play tennis on a Saturday morning. As the youngest child, I would be his partner against my siblings. He won for both of us!  He brought education into anything he did with us. When he returned from his studies in Europe, he came back with projector slides ( no computers at that time) and we would spend hours just going through the projected images on the screen. Moscow, Stalingrad, London, Dad in the freezing weather... He would share story upon story of his travels and we never got tired of listening.

When we lived in Kaduna (northern Nigeria), we would make the 10-hour drive down to Ondo (south) during our holidays to visit our grandma, uncles, aunts, cousins, and other extended family members. Mum would make a packed lunch of jollof rice which we woke up smelling! Dad stacked cassettes to play during the journey and off we will go. We listened to Jim Reeves, Don Williams, Mariam Makeba, Jimmy Cliff and learned a lot of songs by heart.

From time to time Dad will shout "IS EVERYBODY HAPPY???"  and we will reply "YEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!" for as long as our vocal cords could endure!

Happy Days!