by Chinwe Okafor

The fact that she has not just an album, but two, is scary.

Nollywood screen diva, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, is one actress who has continued to up her game. The entertainer spoke to Vanguard about her daughter’s venture into entertainment, and how she has stayed off scandals, among other issues.

 

On her defunct reality TV show: `Omotota, The real me Season 2’ has been ready for a while. Funny enough, I have been stalling on signing it. I just feel like the time isn’t right. It’s very intrusive. I’m a private person, though a lot of people won’t believe it. I work when I need to work and go home when I need to get back into my home. The Season One was very interesting though it was hard on me.

I have teenage children now so I have to be very careful. I have to think about them first and see how it affects them because I don’t want my kids to get carried away by all of that. It might come back because there is a lot of pressure on me, but I just want it to be at my own time and when I am comfortable.

On daughter being in the spotlight: Not really. It just happened. She is just a natural fit. They wanted a mother-daughter campaign anyway and so the whole challenge was, – will she be up to it? She was interviewed and they actually fell in love with her more than me. She almost took my job. Luckily for me, it had to be a mother-daughter campaign.

On her daughter marrying early: I don’t care much about it. It’s not something I think about. It’s not my cup of tea. I know people want me to think about that because I got married early. What I always say to people is all fingers are not equal. The fact that I got married early doesn’t mean   my daughter   must get married early. My mother didn’t get married early. It doesn’t have to be hereditary.

If I like the guy and we feel like she is mature enough to handle it and the person is responsible, then why not? We can endorse it. I don’t regret anything. Everything is a blessing to me. I won’t stop her, but it just has to be the right person. I married the right person.

 

 

 

 

On trekking comment: Really, I am not against any kind of sport. It is okay if you want to do anything. My point is, it’s either you do it for nothing and say “I am having fun” or you do it for something reasonable.

Don’t just do it for something that pisses people off. People ask if it is my business. It is my business because we are glorifying these people that are hurting us. If for example, I say I am trekking to celebrate a Boko Haram member,everyone will pounce on me. Why should I celebrate that?

Recently, people were angry because Time Magazine said the Boko Haram leader is one of the most influential people, but they forgot that they are talking about influence and not that he is being celebrated.

I was shocked that people didn’t understand what I was trying to say. What I meant was that, at this point in time when we are going through so much and we are trying to let these people know we are suffering, putting all our energies into making them feel like kings is not cool. The truth of the matter is that you are probably trekking because you don’t have fuel anyway.

 

On Friends in the industry: Everybody is my colleague. I don’t have very close friends in the industry. We don’t live around each other to start with, I live very far away from so many people. Secondly,I am not too much of a party person. We probably won’t see often. I am also not very good at visiting people so we probably won’t have that kind of bond.

 

On being in shape: People’s mouth keeps me in shape. I use everything as motivation. More realistically,I will say prayer. It sounds very weird, but that is the truth. Everybody knows I don’t diet, I can’t diet to save my life. I love food. I am a foodie. I don’t eat all the time, but whenever I eat, I don’t joke with it. It has to be prayers because that is the only thing I do really.

 

On marrying early: I don’t think so, because I don’t think there is any man that can handle me apart from my husband. Not because I am a bad person, it is because I am a very strong personality. I can understand why a lot of female artistes find it very difficult to find the right person.

When you achieve some kind of success, you become really confused as to who really loves you for who you are. It’s not really easy, it is very hard finding those people who really love you. If you are not a very grounded person, you can also contribute in some kind of way to your own problems and so I might have contributed to my own problems.