Trained as an engineer, Tunji
Okunsanya runs M.I.C, a funeral home in Lagos. Also one of the celebrity go-to
undertakers, he tells how his father influenced his change in career.
It is all about hard work. You
believe in God first and then you believe in yourself. You turn what you can do
into action. The truth is a lot of us are doing what we are not versed in.
Identify what you can do, what is within your capability, and what you know
that if you are woken up from sleep, you can give correct answers to questions
to it. If you find me in oil and gas, then there is trouble. It is not my
field. As a journalist, if I see you doing something that is not comparative to
your job, you are in trouble. I believe very much, in what I do and I
dedicate myself to it. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is dead bodies.
The business started with your father.
Did he coerce you into it
My father started this business next
door to where we are currently and I went to a school, Christ Church Cathedral,
down the road. After school, I went there daily to work. My father made us
realise that there was no free lunch even in Freetown! If you told him you did
not have money to buy anything, he would tell you to go and sweep the floors of
the shop.
Were you not scared of playing
around coffins
I would even play hide and seek with
friends and hide inside a coffin. Initially, my father was making church
furniture and he made furniture for brides. In those days, it was traditional
for every bride to go to her new home with a stool called ijoko iyawo.
He did that until someone asked him to make a casket. That was the beginning of
the story and what we have here today is the continuation of the story.
You read engineering…
Yes, that is true but I never
practised as one. I went to a technical school in the United Kingdom offering
degree programmes. Getting a degree was just a way to make me independent and
not that I really wanted to practise. I worked in one company for two weeks and
one day, I just decided not to go again.
Why was that
I saw my father working and I told
him to allow me assist him. He refused initially and said people would think I
went to England for seven years and I did not read. He did not like it
but later on, I formed my own
company from his company. The name of my father’s company was Magbamowo
Industrial Company. So, all I had to do was pick the first letter of each word
to arrive at MIC. This was in 1982 and I started. I have since realised that
whatever you do, your children would copy from you.
Growing up, did you get funny
reactions from people when you introduced yourself as the boy whose father
makes coffins
Up until date, I do not go where I
am not supposed to go because people think, ‘what is he doing here?’ You
know I am synonymous with death. If I tell somebody today that I am travelling
to the East, the first question they will ask me is, ‘who died in the East?’
even if I am going there for leisure.
Did your profession pose a problem
when you wanted to get married
I do not think a profession should
be a hindrance to what you do as long as you have a focus.
Just like your father did not
convince you, did you have to convince your son to also join you in the
business
No, I did not. He saw what I am
doing and he liked it. If he did not like it and there is no money in it, there
is a name.
You are in an unusual industry, has
it affected your perception of life
When I see people on the streets,
when I see the way some behave- going about with bodyguards even at funerals!
They are not even remorseful; You see everybody scampering to get out of their
way. When I see such doing, I just stand back and reflect. What is the
difference between them and the person we just put six feet under? What we need
to do is to take care of one another, to be our brother’s keeper. We need to
understand that life is not permanent, it is borrowed.
You have seen all manners of
corpses; do you betray emotions on the job
Of course, I see this more as a
commitment than a business. You have to understand that no matter how old,
nobody wants death to come and when it does come, you are an agent to make it
easy for them.
I was just wondering how you solicit
for business. People are mourning and you actually go to try to make money off
them…
This business is a hard sell so we
do not solicit for business. People come to us because of what they have seen
us do. We have been around for a long time. When people know that you give your
best, they would look for you. There are times we do funerals pro bono;
there are times we take up responsibilities pro bono. At some point in
time, MIC was picking up bodies on the streets of Lagos. It was a working
partnership with the ministry of health and at no point in time were we paid or
did we request for any payment.
How about the superstitions
surrounding corpses
What superstitions? There are no
superstitions when you believe in God. It is what you want to make happen that
you believe in and what they fear. I do not believe in all that and I was not
born into it. I was born into a Christian home. If the light is off and I am in
the midst of dead bodies, are they going to grab me? In all my years of
business, I have never seen somebody who is dead that woke up. I do not
even have nightmares because I am used to seeing dead bodies in my dreams so
what nightmare will I have again? I treat them well so they have no reason to
knock my head. I will not scream and say I saw a corpse in my dream and head to
a spiritualist. What cannot talk cannot have power you because the soul is
gone.
What are some of the challenges of
the trade
If you are expecting me to say I
have challenges handling a body then you are wrong. The kind of challenges I
have are the normal challenges every other businesses face such as poor power
supply and uncommitted staff.
Why are you always dressed in black
That is because most of the time, I
am working and black is significant with mourning. I can be flamboyant in my
dressing and I wear other colours depending on the occasion.
How do you relax
I go to church and I relax on the
job. Even when I am carrying a body, I am relaxing. I wish I could go to the
gym because I am getting a bit fat now that I am closer to 60. I was born at
Massey Hospital some fifty something years ago.
You have planned other people’s
funerals, have you planned yours yet
Fortunately, I am in this line and
my kids see what I do. You plan yourself as you get older and we have people
who plan their funerals before they die. They even choose the clothes
they want to be buried in. My children know what I like to wear but it is
always good to plan beforehand because in most instances, your kids will not
give you what you want. My children should bury me the way I live.
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