My late dad was born in Akure, Ondo State to the late Chief Falajiki who was the Arofin of Akureland. He was the first son of his mother and one of the only two that survived out of nine that she had. The story of our surname as he told me was due to an incident that occurred when he was taken to be registered for primary school. As told by many parents, in those days you had to be able to fold your entire arm across your head to reach your ear on the opposite side to be deemed mature enough to start school. Well, having achieved this natural feat, here was my dad at the school standing next to his proud father. During the registration process, his father was asked for the surname of the young man but it was phrased like 'who is his father?'. To the proud Chief Falajiki, this seemed absurd as he expected anyone with eyes to recognize the dignitary standing before them. His reply was therefore not with his name but with his title 'Arofin'. The question was repeated and obstinately so was the reply. And thus began the life of Michael Olapade Falajiki as Michael Olapade AROFIN for all record purposes. Once written, there was no changing this.

His school life was one of excellence as he was a 'star' student. On finishing secondary school, he like others at the time had a stint of teaching whilst taking his 'A' levels which he aced. So good were his results that he was given a scholarship by the Catholic Church to study Economics at the University of Toronto in Canada. He was a student at the University's St Michael's College. Before leaving for Canada he married the late Julianah Morenike of the Obe family in Akure. Chief Obe at the time was the Oloro of Akure, a high chief of the town who was in charge of the much revered and fear Oro masquerade. They had their first child, Margaret Monisola before he left for Canada.

At the end of his studies in Canada he returned home as was the expectation and trend at the time. another member of the family was born a couple of years after his return, my humble self, Victor Olakunle. I was followed a year and a half later by my sister, Theresa Bolanle and my mother last child was born later on, Joseph Oladapo.

Michael Olapade had worked briefly with Batawa in Canada and this led to being offered a job on his return by Bata in Nigeria. He later worked with West African Breweries makers of Top beer owned and/or managed by the late Chief Adeyemi Lawson. From West African Breweries he joined Cadbury Nigeria Limited where he worked for more than 16 years. His working life was mainly in the Sales department and in Cadbury, his roles spanned Sales Manager, a short stint in Marketing and he left Cadbury as the Sales Training and Development Manager.

I believe my love of Research was generated from watching him do in-home sampling of various formulations of Bournvita and filling forms of his opinion of each. As Sales Training and Development Manager he used to bring home a projector and slides and practice his presentations whilst I was the sole audience. This must have influenced my presentation skills. He would ask for my thoughts and atimes even ask me to present things back to him to listen to how it sounded, this helped me throw away the fear of standing next to a bright square and saying what supports what is on the screen and not just reading what everyone in front of it could read anyway. He encouraged me to read, I was never denied money for 'story books' and I was often asked to sit by him to read my 'pacesetters' whilst he read his James Hadley Chase. He always used to ask me to tell him the stories I had just read and what I learnt from it.

Hey, it wasn't all easy peasy I tell you. Their era was one in which fear played a big role in raising children and I remember one had to leave the sitting room if one had to cough especially during the NTA network news. His key achievement was instilling in us the fire for education. That was one thing he didn't joke with, the four of us from my mum are all graduates. He made us believe in hard work. I once went with him to work in Cadbury on a Saturday and saw a much older man prostrating to him and calling him 'sir'. In his office, I asked him why someone older than him was greeting him that way. His response was, 'study hard and pass and people older than you will treat you that way, you will be their boss and they will respect you. Fail to study and you will be greeting and respecting people younger than you that way'. That was an eye opener for the 12 year old that I was at the time.