Growing up,
how was it?
Growing up was fun. My secondary education was at
Aje Comprehensive High School, while my primary school was Aje Methodist
Primary school. Both schools are side by
side at Ebute Meta, along Borno Way which used to be called WEMA Street. That
was where I grew up in Ebute Meta. It was my grandma who brought us up –
myself, my elder brother and my younger ones. We were staying with her, though
my father was in Lagos, he was always travelling, always on tour. I lost my mum
when I was very, very young. Whenever my
father was around, he was always with us, playing with us, taking us to
different places, like the amusement park.
Can you
recall the day you lost your mum?
It was in September 1993.
Where were
you that day when you got the news?
I was with my grandma who, like I told you earlier,
was training us before my mother’s death.
It was my dad himself that came to break the news to my grandma.
How did you
react to the sad news?
The normal reaction when you lose someone you love,
but because I was young, you won’t compare the kind of feeling that I would
have then to what I would have now. If my mum just died now, the way I will
feel it is not the way I felt the other time. Then I just felt “oh my mother
died” and I cried.
Looking back
now, what do you think you would have benefit from her presence if she is
around now?
I cannot begin to count the benefits. There were a
lot of times when I was in school, in the university, that I really felt the
vacuum. A lot of mothers were always coming around bringing palm oil and other
stuffs for their daughters - that was when it actually hit me that I didn’t
have a mum. My daddy cannot bring palm oil, sugar, salt and those stuffs for me
in school. Though he was always coming to see, but it’s not comparable to the
impact of a mother. That was a period when I really missed my mum.
Secondly, when I was getting married, I felt that
something was missing and that is my mum. Though I hardly cry, but I felt the
pain deep in me. There are a lot of times I would remember her and I will cry,
in my closet though.
You are a
popular actress, being a star what does it mean and how has it affected your
life especially when you compare yourself with your peers that are not in the
movie industry?
Being a star affected me both positively and negatively.
Being a star has a lot of advantages-
Can you give
us some instances?
For example when I was still in school, whenever it
was time to do my clearance and the queue was so long and we were suffering
under the scorching sun, because of the fact that my face was familiar to the
officials in charge, he would ask the other students: can you allow us to attend to her, she is a
star and we cannot afford to let her stay in the sun for too long? Some people
said yes, some said no. but at the end of the day I was attended to on time.
Such are the benefits I get a lot of time. On the other hand, the negative side
of it is we spend a lot of money for the touts. They don’t want to know if you
have the money or not. Sometimes you might be going out without much in your
pocket; but they will still collect. Sometimes they will collect everything in
your pocket, they will collect at every junction, but we cannot help it. It is
the kind of society we have. I have been to Europe a number of times. When you
are there, they don’t ask you for money; instead, they give you gifts. Someone
gave me a phone – he said: what can I give you? He simply removed his SIM card
and he handed the phone over to me. In our own society, things worked in the
opposite way.
There was
once a prevalence of cultism in the institution you attended; were you not in
any way molested by cultists?
I was never disturbed at all. Though there were
times some people would come asking for one thing or the other, which is money,
and I gave the little I could, but I didn’t get into the habit of giving them
all the time so they wouldn’t get used to it and then take it for granted. When
I have, I give, when I don’t have, I told them off. I was never disturbed for
any reason at all.
Didn’t your
status as a celebrity got into your head?
I got into school relatively late, so when I was in
school I had gotten over youthful exuberance or any juvenile indulgence. I
wasn’t a kid anymore. Not that there were no others that are older than me in
the school, but for the fact that I got admission into university late, I felt
I was there to just study. So I wasn’t distracted by anything.
For you what
is the ultimate level?
I am contented with what I have. I don’t look
beyond my income and I don’t fixate on what I know I have no capacity to
achieve. Yes, I still see myself riding a Hummer or Range Rover jeep in the nearest future, but as of
now, it is a not a matter of do or die
for me to ride a jeep or live in an expansive mansion. I believe that things
will happen the way God wants them to. And the fact that I am not a lazy person
and I am still working, I have the conviction that the sky is my limit.
Why did you
go to the university late?
I always beat the cut off mark; but there was a
time they introduced this entrance exam, I am not that very good at
mathematics, so it always lowered my overall score. I wrote JAMB on two
occasions; one UME and another PCE, though I really did not want to go to the
polytechnic, I just wrote the exam to satisfy my father because he was insisting
that I wrote all exams. When I wrote JAMB, I beat the cut-off mark but couldn’t
scale the entrance exam, hence I did a
diploma course at Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. It
was the diploma that earned me a direct entry admission to study Sociology
where eventually I got my Bachelor degree.
If you are
not an actress what would you have become?
Initially I wanted to become a broadcaster. I love
to be seen on TV reading news; maybe that was why it was easy for me to become
an actress. But I also yearned to be a lawyer, unfortunately I did Industrial
and Labour Relation in my Diploma, so it was difficult to cross from social
science to Law. Then I said if I cannot do law, let me do Mass Communication,
which, unfortunately again, is an art course in OOU. So, I went for Sociology.
Growing up
in a polygamous home, what insights can you offer some of us that grew up in a
nuclear family?
The truth of the matter is that I will not even
encourage my enemy to go into polygamy. It’s not the best; even my father will
always tell you that. He is a polygamist, yet he wouldn’t advice anyone to go
into it. Not that we have any bitter experience, but it can never compare with
monogamy. I come from a polygamous home and now I am married, but I don’t pray
that my husband would ever walk in the way of polygamy, because I can’t just
imagine it, having another person to share my husband with, No, no. I can’t
just imagine it. Aside that, there is a lot of struggle. But the truth is I
don’t have any problem with my family, we live fine - that is the truth. But
you cannot rule out little misunderstanding, something that happens too in
monogamous family. Still I won’t advice anybody to go into polygamy.
While
growing up at what point did you start seeing yourself different from people
from another family?
I have always known from childhood that we are
different as a movie-making family. I have been acting since I was a small
child. I participated in Omo Orukan , a celluloid film, viewed at the National
Theatre between 1986-7. I remembered that I was in primary 1 when I
participated in that film. I have always seen myself and my family as different
from others in the society because we are known everywhere, even where and when
we seek to be anonymous. Even in my
primary school, when I had not started acting professional, they still knew. My
mate all knew that “that girls’ father is an actor”. Then my father would come
to my school for PTA meetings and people knew he was different. By the time I
got an admission into the university, I was already a popular actress. In the class, if they were contribution
towards a cause, they would want me to contribute twice as much.
When did you
start acting professionally?
I started acting professionally in 2001 when I
starred in Omo Olorire, produced by my father, Prince Jide Kosoko. Before then
I have been acting, I starred in Ola Abata. It was my father’s movie as well,
produced in 1999 and released in 2000. I also participated in Oko Irese, also
produced by my dad for Adesqueen production. It was released in 2001. I
participated in Omo Olorire (2002) and that was the film that shot me to
limelight. Between 1999 and 2002, I featured in my father’s films. From 2002,
other producers started beckoning. Iya Rainbow first called me for a role.
Alamu S’eniyan was about the second or third movie she cast me in. Same year,
Taiwo Hassan, (Ogogo) called me for his movie entitled Tolulope. In 2003,
Muyiwa Ademola called me for Ori, a movie that further gave me immense
popularity. The movies in featured in during that period gave me momentum -
Olorire first, followed by Abe Sekele (by Oga Bello) then Ori, all in 2003.
Since you became professional, how do you
pick your roles?
There are lots of movies that I don’t even like my
character. Others were not packaged well. Nowadays, I scrutinize my scripts
very well and ask myself: is this the kind of movie I can participate in? For
instance, some people called me for a job yesterday, they have called this
morning, they have been calling since three days ago but I declined their
offer. Before I would participate in their film, I must know who the director
is. There are some projects, when you see the script, you fall in love with it;
but by the time you get to the location, you ask yourself: why am I? A lot of
time I felt like returning their money, except that it would amount to a breach
of contract. So in recent times, I have rejected a lot of movie roles. When I was in school, it was easy to turn
down movie roles. Once I see the roles and discover that I was to play about 30
scenes – I will miss lectures and my time will be curtailed –I will turn down
the offer. The ones I used to accept were the ones that were not good enough.
Once they said, “come and do five scenes for us”, I would be interested in that
because I knew that my lectures wouldn’t be affected and I’d just be away for
one day.
How did you
get the roles you played in your father’s movie? Did he create those roles for
you?
No. He is a professional. There are times when my
stepmother would exclaim, “That’s my role!” but my father would tell her firmly
“no, I don’t see you playing that role”.
We are very strict when it comes to casting. In Olorire, I refused
vehemently to play the role of my character because then I hadn’t gotten my
admission into the university and my priority then was to become a graduate
before I took up acting professionally. But my father insisted he couldn’t see
another person taking that role. I went to the extent of getting another
actress to take my place. But he was assertive that I should take the role. And
then my father dictates. Once he tells you that you are doing it, that’s final.
So I had to take the role. And it was that movie that shot me to limelight.
What is the
next level?
I see myself becoming a director someday.
As a member
of Cherubim and Seraphim Church-
I am no longer a member of C&S. It was my grand
mother that introduced us to the church, because she brought us up, but when I
am grown, I joined the Redeemed Christian Church of member since 1995.
What do you
consider the most trying period of your life?
I stayed at home for five years before I got
admission into the university. It was like hell then. Though I was doing certificate courses, but
it wasn’t like the real university. Then I was being called for movie job, so I
became distracted; sometimes there were forms that I was supposed to obtain,
but I would keep procrastinating till I eventually missed the opportunities.
Before my four-year degree programme, I did a two-year diploma course. That
experience hurt me.
What is that
fondest memory you have of your mother?
Three days ago, me and elder brother were
discussing some few things our mum taught us. We remember a folk song – “Talo
bami r’omo mi meta: jalo lo jalolo”. My brother said “didn’t you remember it
was Iya Sola [our mum] that taught us that song?” I said “My mum? I can’t
remember her teaching us that song.” We started remembering other songs that
she taught us. We remembered a lot of thigns about her that day.
Are you shy?
Forget the fact that I am an actress. I always have
stage fright. When I see a crowd, I can easily forget everything I want to say
and I will start stammering. But I think I am outgrowing it now. When it comes
to my work, and I take the stage I become transformed.
Talking
about relationships, what lessons did you learn from your past relationships?
I don’t have a lot of relationships
How many did
you have?
Hundred ni (laughs). The truth is that I didn’t
have a lot of relationship before I met the man in my life. Then, I used to
visualize my dream man. I wanted to be a lawyer and I was thinking that my
husband should be a doctor; I always dreamed that my man should be dark
complexioned (after all I am fair-complexioned) but in life we propose, God
disposes. My husband is not fair-complexioned, but he is not dark either, so I
ended with a man that is somewhat fair. I dream of a doctor for a husband, but
he’s an architect. Talking about past relationship, I didn’t have any.
That is
difficult to believe. How many men did you date?
I dated like hundred (laughs). Really I didn’t have
that experience. The man that is my husband has always been with me since I was
in secondary school. I remember the first JAMB I wrote, we were doing the
running together. At that time, he was already a graduate.
Your father
married four women-
Eyin le’n ka o - You are the one counting for him.
When the
other women came, how did you feel?
To be realistic, I am not pretending and I don’t
like pretending. I didn’t feel good. I thought in my mind that he was making a
very big mistake. I was not bold enough to call him and tell him that “Daddy,
what you are doing is wrong”. Why would he go and marry more than one wife?
Okay, I lost my mum and my first step mum – My mum was my father’s first wife,
and together with his second wife, my father lost both of them. He was still
young then and the truth is it’s only logical for him to remarry another wife,
which nobody would blame him for doing. But going for two again is what I
really disagreed with him. He shouldn’t have gone for two. Why? Why would he
think of two? One would have been okay for him.
What if your
brothers choose to follow your father’s footstep?
I’d be there to advise him, to let them know that
they are derailing. Aside that my father, as long as he is still alive, he will
never support such. I told you earlier that even my father will not encourage
anyone to go into polygamy; it is not the best, that he survived it, that is
why we are happy, it is by God’s grace. But for real, we have a lot of
polygamous families that are the worse for it.
How much is
your first earning as an actress and how did you spend that money?
The first money I earned - I can’t remember the
title of the movie now but it was produced by Adebayo Salami (oga Bello) but
not 1980s Omo Orukan - I was paid N3, 000. When I got home, my father shared
the money; he gave my step mum a share, he gave my brothers and sisters and I
took the rest.
Why the sharing?
It is a tradition among the Yorubas that when you
make your first money, you share it among the members of your family who will
pray for you to have a successful professional career.
How much was
your share?
Abut N1, 000, but it was a long time ago.
You gave
your life to Christ when?
In 1995, then I did my baptismal in the Redeemed
Church.
What is your
baptismal name?
I have a Christian name from childhood and that is
Janet.
You use to
have an Islamic name-
I still have it. It is Wasilat. My father is Joshua,
but he’s also Abdul Rafiu, because we came from a Muslim background – my
grandfather was a Muslim, but we are Christians because of my grandmother, who
was a Christian, and who brought us up the Cherubim and Seraphim way. But my
husband is a Muslim, though, he’s not dogmatic. He is liberal.
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