The actress, OMOTUNDE ADEBOWALE, (AKA Adaku of Jenifa’s Diary fame) in a chat with GBENRO ADESINA discussed about her life, marriage and entertainment industry.
Q: Can you briefly talk about your educational background?
A: First, my name is Omotunde Adebowale. I am a Lawyer by training. I am from Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State. My educational background started at Isolo, Lagos. I actually went to nursery and primary school in Lagos. I went to Anglican Girls Grammar School, Ijebu-Ode. After that, I went to Lagos State University, Ojoo, where I got my Law Degree before I went to Law School.
Q: How did you find yourself in the entertainment industry?
A: Entertainment has always been what I love. It is what I enjoy doing. After I have worked for three years in radio stations, I knew I needed to have a career change. Entertainment is what I truly truly love and I am passionate about it. I started with Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). I worked a while there. I did have a brief stint with Metro FM before moving to Wazobia FM.
Q: In the course of our interaction, you said you have given Caesar what belongs to Caesar. What does that mean?
A: It means that was what my parents wanted. At all cost, they wanted me to study law. You know the parents of that generation. You can only say yes, because they will not accept no from you. I had to do that to satisfy them and I have done what is expected of me.
Q: Ordinarily, what course would you have studied?
A: Maybe I would have done Theatre Art straight up.
Q: Do you regret studying Law?
A: Not at all because it is a great foundation. There are many things that I know because I read Law. My legal background gave me exposure to know. The legal aspect of what I do make my mind to be opened. It gives me an in-depth knowledge. It helps you to be able to research. You know more things and I think those are the things that are helping me career wise.
Q: Who brought you into entertainment?
A: Nobody brings anybody into entertainment. I found my own way. I knew that this is what I wanted and I started to look for opportunity in that direction. I started looking for audition, I started looking for ways to know and that is what helps me going. Anything you want to do in life, once you take a step, other things will open up to you. I stopped legal practice first. I went for training with Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and that was where I got my first job. I was employed almost immediately after my course. That was what started my radio journey. So, that is what I tell myself. You just take a step. Once you have taken a step, you see that everything will align for God’s purpose to be fulfilled in your life.
Q: What challenges have you confronted on the job?
A: Entertainment is tasking. Like radio, everybody expect you to know everything. They want you to know about parenting, counselling, friendship, teaching and training. They want you to know about a mother, a sister and a lover sometimes. That means you have to continually read. You have to be exposed. You have to be knowledgeable. You must have information of everyone. And you know people are intolerant. They will say why will you say that? You do not know this. Some people asked me when JAMB is releasing result. What should they feed their babies? You can imagine, it is quite challenging but if you enjoy it, you will find it very interesting.
Q: How do you come about Adaku?
A: For those that know me on radio, know that I am called Loolo One. I am a Yoruba woman. Growing up, for me, I never knew that Nigeria has different cultures and different ethnic groups. I saw everybody as one. All our tenants when we were growing up were Igbos. I grew up like that. It was when we grew up that we allow ethnicity to separate or divide us. As far as I am concerned, it is one Nigeria. So, whether I am Adaku or Omotunde, I am still a Nigerian. I believe when Funke Akindele was writing the character, she had an Igbo person in mind but by the time she met me, she offered me the role and the rest is history. I thank God the way God has used that character to take me into another direction.
Q: In one of the episodes in Jenifa’s Diary, despite the fact that Jenifa was good to you, she accommodated you when you needed accommodation, but when it came to your turn to accommodate Jenifa, you threw her out. What lesson did you want people to learn from that?
A: Humans are fickle and human will always be human. You need to know that it is very easy for people to forget the good you did to them. But one thing we must know is that most of the time, people act based on their knowledge. To her, she is protecting what she has. She does not want anybody to scatter it. I know I might sound selfish. Many of us are like that but it is not a good character. It is bad that we do not reciprocate good with good. You do not push away somebody that has been of blessing to you in the past. But it is a lesson to everyone that humans are fickle. Humans can change. It is only God that cannot change and that is what Adaku did to Jenifa.
Q: You like food in the play, how do you feel about the impression people have about you based on this?
A: There is nothing to feel. I am very excited and happy. People enjoy what I am doing. I always tell anyone who says that I eat too much that thank God, it is eating I am doing not killing or engaging in prostitution.
Q: What lesson did you try to teach your audience when you rejected to voluntarily come with Jenifa from the UK despite the fact that you were an illegal immigrant?
A: Jenifa’s Diary teaches a lot of morals. When we did Jenifa in London, it is the reality of a lot of Nigerians and Africans in diaspora. They do not have paper, they are relying on maybe marriages or illegal marriages and some other funny ways to stay abroad forgetting that sometimes it is better you are back home where there is prestige, where you have family, where you have your roots than for you to be abroad where nobody knows anybody and where the law can hold you any time. Look at Jenifa, she went home by herself, but Adaku was deported. The little thing Jenifa had, she was able to gather them together and go but Adaku was taken from her boyfriend’s house and threw into guardroom and from there to Nigeria. What did she gain? At the end, she regretted all the evil she did to Jenifa. It is another lesson life teaches us. Whatever we do, we gain.
Q: If you are to advise the Nigerian youth, what will you say?
A: I will say that it is not going abroad that makes you. It is you as a person that makes yourself. If you are hardworking, focused and diligent, you will see that you will get all that you desire. So, don’t worry yourself. When you look at Nike gallery in Lagos, which school mama go, yet she has put Nigeria on the map in arts and culture. What more can we say? There are so many role models that succeeded here in Nigeria. We should just focus on ourselves.
Q: Who is your role model?
A: For me, role models are different in many areas. If it is business, I have role models in the media. I have Abdul, because they are doing things I would love to do. If it is in acting, I have the likes of Bukky Ajayi and Joke Silva. Those are the people that inspire me. In comedy, I have Ali Baba.
Q: What is your best food?
A: Ogi and moinmoin. I can eat it anytime I want to relax. Ogi is a relaxer. If I drink ogi, it relaxes me, it makes me sleep. I do not need to take medicine to sleep.
Q: What did you learn from your parents?
A: I got my humour from my mum. My mum is very funny. My dad is a great entrepreneur. He is a painter and he is very dogged on the job. Those two things influence me.
Q: Are you married?
A: Ah! Well, I am a single mum and I have four children. I have three sons and a daughter. My daughter is Oluwafunmisara, my first son is Oluwamurewa, my third son is Oluwaranlasimi and my baby, Oluwanimilo.
Q: Why did you leave their father?
A: I do not like to talk about it but you journalists have a way of making people to talk about things they don’t want to talk about. Anyway, the separation is mutual. It is just when two people are just different and we know it is better we are on our own than be together and be a negative influence to our children. I do not have a story of domestic violence. But I tell people, there are so many things that affect children. It is not domestic violence alone. What about emotional abuse? There are many other factors people do not think of that can affect individuals.
Q: Can you say that the way we see marriage in this part of the world affected your marriage?
A: I think Africans have better understanding of marriage than the whites because we are more grounded in culture. Our mothers stayed with our fathers despite the challenges of their lives. They were beaten and battered and they still stayed there based on culture. But if it is foreigners, they will not stay. Any small thing, they are gone. Africans have patience, long suffering and resilience. So, the issue is that we have to accept what life throws at us. Many of us are not proud of the decisions we made when we were younger. But the best thing to do is to do better from when you know rather than blaming others for your fall. If I have failed him, he equally failed me. We both failed each other. That is how I see it. If a marriage brakes, both of you have issues.
Q: Are you thinking of re-marrying?
A: Yes, I am thinking of re-marrying. I love family. I really love family. Because I failed at it once does not say that I cannot try again. Let us wait and see what God will do. It is not that I am carrying my chair, sitting out there and shouting and calling a man to come. No. I am living my life as God is helping me. Let’s see what God does in the future. If it happens, let’s give praise to God, if it does not, life continues.
Q: So, can I take you home as my second wife, my wife will accept you?
A: I cannot be a second wife. I cannot destroy other women’s homes. I will not be a second wife to anybody because I know that no woman will be happy if her husband brings another woman to her home. So, I will rather remain single like this than be a second wife.
Q: What does it take to be a single mother?
A: It is very challenging. Society demonises single mothers. The society makes you feel that you are at fault. People think you are out to destroy people’s home. It is not what you bargain for but that is what life has thrown at you. I think the society should be more sympathetic. Single mother is the one doing the job of two people. She is the one taking care of the children. I wonder why the society always considers single mothers to be loose people. There are many single mothers who have single-handedly raised their children. Some never remarried. So, why will somebody say they are this and that? It is very challenging because you have to take decisions for two people at once. It is a challenging job but it is not impossible to do as long as God is helping you.
Q: Why do you always look for a man to marry you in Jenifa’s Diary?
A: Adaku is like many Nigerian women. You know a lot of people have low self-esteem. That they do not even know it is a sickness. Low self-esteem to me is a sickness because if you do not have a good esteem of yourself, you will not have value in yourself. No confidence. You are at the mercy of people. You will even be at the mercy of those that should even be at your own mercy. That is why Adaku feels that she can bribe men to love her. There is no man that you can bribe to love you. If a man does not love you, there is nothing you can do.
