Yesterday was the 8th wedding anniversary of Comedian Ali Baba and his
wife – they have been together for 16 years though! Ali Baba who says
marriage has brought him happiness, and fulfillment. Their marriage is
blessed with six children, including an adopted daughter.
In a recent chat with Vanguard, the couple excitedly shared their love
story, marital journey, likes and dislikes, weaknesses etc.
Read Interview Below:
What marriage has done to me
Marriage has been good. It’s a stablising factor, it helps one to
plan properly. It also redefines your responsibility pattern. When you
are a young man, you don’t have the kind of responsibility you should
have as a man. For instance, if somebody says ‘let’s go partying in
Ghana,’ you are ready to storm Ghana without anything holding you back.
But when you get married, you will no longer take that kind of
decision on your own. It means that a lot of things you do will now
have to be shared with your partner. Marriage also helps you not only to
reorganise youself in respect of how you want to live your life, but,
more importantly, how you spend the money that you make in your
business.
Meeting my wife
I met my wife after I had started my comedy business. She was my banker.
I met her while I was banking with the now rested Citzens Bank.
Proposing to her
It took a long time. For the kind of person that I am, particularly in
my own kind of business and also, in her own kind of profession, she
needed closure and a lot more to be offered to her. Given my kind of
business, you don’t blame her if she’s skeptical because of the
exposure that comes with it. I think sincerity of purpose was one of
those reasons that made her to accept my proposal.
How long I have been married
I have been married for eight years. But we have been together for over 16 years.
Courtship before marriage
Yes, courtship with a purpose, indicating that this is where I am going
to, and it would be nice if you would go with me. Unlike when you say,
‘this is where I am’, and your partner says, ‘okay, I am thinking about
it’. You will be compelled to convince the person that you are actually
going in that direction.
Secrets of the success story of my marriage
My wife has been the secret of our success story in marriage and God.
She is the glue that keeps holding us together. She holds the home
front, she also manages me. I am not the easiest person to live with,
considering the fact that I am an artiste and always on the move. She’s
somebody who believes in firm planning. She likes to do everything
according to plan. I am the kind of person that works on the fly and I
think on the fly as well. But she finally began to make me to fall in
line. She’s a stabilising factor in my life.
Having admirers in marriage
You will continue to have admirers even after marriage. It’s natural
that everybody gets attracted to what is good. And so, for anybody who
becomes a celebrity, you would see people who would want to associate
with you, not because of your real person, but because of the popularity
and cloud of celebrity that surrounds you. It’s a mix of all of that
and you decide on how to handle the situation.
Love at first sight
It was a case of getting to know the kind of person she was, and knowing
that she was a family oriented person. She’s also a very professional
person, and it took a cousin of hers to introduce us to each other.
Your parents opposing the union
Not at all. My dad’s main concern is whether she’s somebody that ‘you
are comfortable with, somebody who can support your dreams and make you
grow as you would want to grow. If she’s, then we will support you’.
Pitfalls in marriage
When respect is eroded and when the causes of happiness are missing in
marriage. If your spouse is somebody who likes to be pampered and you
do not have the means of pampering her or don’t have the time to pamper
her, it begins to get at her. So, in every relationship, once your
partner begins to want something that is
supposed to make him or her happy, it systematically leads to break
up of that relationship. But beyond this, issues of infidelity,
jealousy, incompatibility and inreconcilable differences could also lead
to break up of marriages. You need to know the kind of person you are
going to spend the rest of your life with.
What I don’t like about her
There are a lot of things I don’t like about her just as there are lots
of things I like about her. Sometimes, she pushes me too hard. She’s
like telling me ‘you can do it, give it a trial’. Sometimes, I resist
the pressure she mounts on me. But later, I discovered that after I have
done it, it actually works out well. She sometimes feels I am not
where I am supposed to be yet. And the pressure is not about her,
rather it’s about where she feels you are supposed to be, and you are
not. That’s positive. But there are some people who can’t take that.
Hanging out
We hang out a lot. She’s always a busy woman, but as much time as we
have, we hang out. She dances very well, but she’s not the partying
type.
Attraction
A lot of things attracted me to her. Apart from being a professional,
she’s a stablising factor in my life. She has great sense of humour, she
cooks well and she’s a very pretty woman. She understands the thespian
in me, having read Theatre Arts as her first degree. Above all, she
normally sees where my dreams are going.
Advice for young couples
Getting to understand themselves. For a lot of young artistes, it’s not
knowing who you really want to settle down with because fame has crept
in. You find it easy to settle down with somebody who wants fame to set
in. But when you now become popular, you do not know who really loves
you for who you are, or because of the fame. What I’m saying is that, as
a celebrity, it pays if you get married before you achieve fame. This
is because, as soon as you become famous, a lot of distractions and
camouflaging will come into play.
Break up of celebrity marriages
I don’t have issues with that. To me, your happiness in marriage is key
to every thing. That is not to say, for every flimsy excuse that you
have, you walk out of your marriage. But if the person you finally got
married to, turns out to be somebody totally different from somebody
who you thought he was, or totally different from who you expected the
person to be, you are in such a situation where the person is key to
your happiness, you prefer to be away from home in order to find
happiness than to come back home and break down.
His wife speaks:
Our relationship
He was a customer and I was his banker. I was drawn to him because he
had the ability to simplify big issues and introduce laughter into
difficult situations.
What I saw in Him
Although he is a comedian whose business is to make people laugh, he
always believed that being funny is a serious business. There was that
seriousness in him and determination to turn his laughter business into a
major commercial success. As his banker, it was my duty to give him
valuable financial advice along that line.
How I met him
I met him at work, he was a customer, I gave him the same kind of advice
I gave to all the other customers. I counselled them on how to
properly plan their finances and generate wealth for themselves.
Attraction
I became interested in the person that he was. It was not about marrying
Ali Baba, it was about marrying Atuyota as a person. I saw his
qualities; the fact that he would make a good husband and father. In
addition to that, his ability to make me laugh gave him an edge because I
love to laugh.
Female admirers
At such times I walk away and just watch from afar. I cannot do anything
about that. We go for events and people turn up and want to take
pictures and all that. It comes with the territory and I give him that
space because he needs it.
