Ninety years is a rare milestone, and rarer still when the life it measures is one that has quietly shaped the destiny of a people. Thus, Dame Victoria Abiodun, mother of Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun, is celebrated for her longevity and also for the values she impressed upon a son now entrusted with the stewardship of his state.
Her story is sewn into his. From her cradle-side lullaby bloomed Governor Abiodun; from her stern hands grew his strength as a leader and from her prayers, the shield of the incumbent governor of Ogun State. Her story glistens the margins of her son’s acclaim; it is the very soil from which his vision sprouted, the silent paternoster that steadied his steps. Dame Victoria’s steady hands nurtured, disciplined, and guided Abiodun to full bloom.
Thus to celebrate her is to celebrate the virtues of motherhood at their most ennobling; it is to acknowledge that the strength of a society rests first in the sanctuary of a mother’s heart. Come October 15, Governor Abiodun will roll out the red carpet as Nigeria’s high society joins him at his family home to celebrate his mother as she marks her 90th birthday.
Indeed, ninety is no ordinary number for Dame Victoria Abiodun. It is the flowering of a life rooted in sacrifice and watered by unfaltering faith. Hers is certainly a crown jewels, of children well-groomed, character well-sown, and values carefully instilled across the years.
Madam Vicrtoria grew into motherhood as a woman riding the tides of circumstance; she stood firm against the storms of time, even as she grappled with the mantle of responsibility and dignified motherhood. In Victoria, parenthood found one of its most eloquent oracles: she is patient, firm, prayerful, and unbending in principle.
It is no wonder that from her womb and guidance emerged Prince Dapo Abiodun, the Governor of Ogun State, who embodies the temperance, foresight, and empathy of her tutelage. The story of her life is intertwined with his, not in shadow but in foundation, for every governor, every leader, is first a son, and every legacy begins in a cradle.
Dame Victoria was never the indulgent mother who saw discipline as cruelty. She understood that a child must be molded like gold in fire—tested and refined—until he gleams with character. The governor himself has often spoken of her uncompromising discipline. Behind her firmness, however, lay a well of tenderness. She knew that love without discipline breeds folly, and discipline without love breeds resentment. Thus, she struck the balance with a wisdom that only mothers of her generation carried in abundance.
Her home was not merely a house of walls and windows, but a school of virtue. Patience was taught not as a sermon but as a daily practice. Respect was not demanded, it was demonstrated. Faith was not a ritual, it was the rhythm of her living. To sit under her watchful gaze was to learn that life’s true wealth is not in possessions but in integrity, humility, and the fear of God.
The spine of Dame Victoria’s journey has always been her faith. It was her fortress in seasons of uncertainty, her compass in the fog of difficulty, and her comfort in moments of grief. She built her life and her home on the altar of prayer, believing firmly that every child must be dedicated, every step must be guided, and every future must be secured in the hands of God.
Governor Abiodun often recounts how his mother’s prayers shielded him. The mother who interceded when the night was darkest, the woman whose whispers in the early hours of dawn carried her children’s names heavenward. She believed in shaping the mind while fortifying the spirit, that her children might walk clothed both in knowledge and divine covering.
Ninety years later, her faith remains unshaken, and those who know her testify that she still carries that same aura of devotion, still offering prayers like a priestess of her household altar. To her, faith means much more than the cloak one wears on Sundays but a passion distilled into our daily breath.
Celebrating Dame Victoria is inevitably also the celebration of the man she raised: Prince Dapo Abiodun. The latter’s leadership style—calm yet firm, visionary yet grounded—mirrors the virtues instilled by his mother. The patience to listen, the resilience to persist, the humility to serve, the empathy to uplift—all these are the inheritance of a son schooled under the watchful eyes or a virtuous mother.
She did not raise him to seek power for its vanity, but to embrace leadership as stewardship. That he now governs Ogun State is testimony to her early insistence on diligence, focus, and service. Behind his public triumphs stands her private sacrifices; behind his visible crown rests her invisible labor.
To see ninety years is to sit at the banquet of longevity, where memories stretch across seasons and generations bow in gratitude. Dame Victoria’s life personifies divine grace and healthy living. Her days have been lengthened both for her and those who look to her as a wellspring of wisdom.
Her age, therefore, is a blessing, a lantern lighting the path for younger mothers, and reminding them that values endure even in shifting times. She remains strong in spirit, clear in thought, and graceful in presence, embodying the ageless truth that true beauty dwells beyond youth’s fleeting bloom, in the dignity of a well-lived life.
What Dame Victoria leaves behind is hardly confined to her biological children. Every person who has encountered her speaks of her warmth, counsel, and good example. Her influence radiates beyond bloodlines, shaping a wider community.
She taught that to mother a child is also to mother a generation; and that the values planted in one household can ripple outward to transform a nation. Dame Victorias’s life echoes the African proverb that a mother’s lap is the first classroom, and her legacy stands as proof that leaders are first nurtured at the hearth of the home.
As dignitaries, family, friends, and admirers gather to honor her at ninety, the celebration exceeds the years happily counted, and encompasses virtues lived and transmitted by the graceful titan. The Governor himself has spoken with reverence of her sacrifices, calling her his anchor, his shield, his teacher, his unshakeable support. In his words, one hears filial affection and the recognition that whatever laurels he wears rest first upon his mother’s brow.
Ninety years after she first drew breath, Dame Victoria Abiodun is celebrated as a living scripture of maternal devotion. She has walked through the valley of decades with grace, raising children with discipline, anchoring her family in faith, while giving her state and her nation a governor whose conduct manifest her training.
Her story establishes motherhood at its purest; to salute her is to salute every mother who quietly but determinedly builds a nation silently through her wards.
Every age soon becomes a memory engraved into the rock of time, but ninety years is a milepost of profound testimonies. Dame Victoria Abiodun, mother of Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, steps into her tenth decade with regal calm and matriarchal dignity that only a life forged through faith and fortitude can produce.
