Popular Nollywood star, Aishat Abimbola, aka Omoge Campus, is ravishing. She has been in the warm embrace of stardom, since she acted in one of Wale Adenuga Productions series over a decade ago. Also, she has had her own fair share of the pains and gains of stardom. Therefore, in this no-holds barred interview with BABATUNDE SULAIMAN, she ventilates her anger and joy, while talking about a number of riveting issues.
Ambassadors (TMA), what specifically are the aims and objectives of the group?
Basically, we are not saying that the elders have not tried, but we have just decided to break away from the norm. In other words, we are saying that it is time we rebranded and repackaged ourselves. We are saying again that we should do some things differently and see what we can achieve. One of our goals is to reach out to the veterans that laboured so much for the industry, but who have now been forgotten.
Sadly, nobody remembers them anymore. But when they die, the next thing is that we will start singing their praises- and it will be too late to celebrate them. So, we have decided to celebrate these legends, while they are still alive.
Who are the people you have visited?
Actually, I am not part of a particular committee, so I may not be able to give you the details of what happens in any of the committees. But I do have an idea because there is usually minutes of meetings and feedbacks from the various committees. So, the Public Relations Officer, Yomi Fabiyi, will be in the position to adequately talk at length about some of these issues.
What other things are you also aiming at?
Well, it is a total package. It is about changing the way we talk, relate, our mode of dressing and our subtitling, among others. It is essentially about repackaging the Yoruba movie industry. Everything about us has to change. We have decided that we cannot just continue to turn deaf ears to the observations and complaints of the people.
What project are you working on at the moment?
I have a lot on my hands now. Because of this new arrangement, we have plans concerning our productions. In view of this, I cannot go ahead with whatever I am planning now, except we come to a round-table. It is more complex now. As the vice president of the association, I have to relax a little bit, fix some things and then carry my people along. There is no way I am going to do anything without carrying the other members along. We have to sit down, look at the work critically and repackage well before releasing it to the market.
I remember you said in an interview that you wanted to open a restaurant…
(Cuts in) Absolutely, I am interested in it. I love cooking and I am a good cook. In fact, I studied Hotel Management and Catering in the higher institution.
Are you saying it was not as a last resort?
My love for cooking made me study Hotel Management and Catering. I had been doing it even before I gained admission into the higher institution. After obtaining my National Diploma, I worked with the UAC Foods for a couple of years before going in for my Higher National Diploma. During my youth service in Yola, my friends knew that I was a cook. I would package food for the corpers who had no canteens where they were serving.
Which is your first love: acting or cooking?
(Laughs) I love cooking, but acting is a talent, which I am not ready to give up.
You just talked about your mum who passed on in 1984. But what do you miss most about her?
I have not gotten over the shock of losing my mother, even 30 years after. She was a disciplinarian and never left anything to chance. I was in primary five when she passed on. She never separated us from the house helps. We ate from the same pot, slept on the same bed and went to the same school; so, she was just one liberal person. That is one thing I miss most about her.
Could you recall the circumstance surrounding her death?
She wasn’t really sick. I remember that after she finished cooking, she went into the bathroom, but she missed a step when she came out. We then rushed her to hospital, where she eventually died.
Just like that?
Oh! So, you can now see what I mean?
Would you say it was not due to any spiritual attack?
My mother never believed in such things.
No, I want to know your own view.
Well, she could be hypertensive, but I am not sure of her medical status as at the time. But you can’t just attribute everything to spiritual attack. What if it was natural? The Bible says you will account for everything that comes out of your mouth.
Were you closer to your mum than your dad?
I was closer to my dad than my mum.
In spite of all you just said about your mum?
Yes, I was a dad’s girl. But as a lady, when you grow to a certain age, you find out that you need your mother more.
Why were you closer to your dad than your mum?
Actually, I am a triplet, but one of us (a male) later died. I think my mother was looking for a male child and she was blessed with three: two boys and a girl. But when she lost one of the boys, the other boy became the apple of her eyes. It is not that she didn’t love me, but you could see that she loved the boy more. But my father said Aishat is his mother’s name, so that kind of made him to love me more. He named me Iyabo on the grounds that his mother had returned, so he pampered me a lot.
Are you from a privileged background?
My mum was a cook, but my father was into fishing. He was a big fish seller and people used to come from Idumota and Isale Eko to patronise him.
So, you have never tasted poverty?
When I lost the two of them, I suffered a lot. When my mum died, my dad couldn’t raise me all by himself; he was scared of raising me in Idumota, where we lived.
Why?
It was because I was a girl and there was this population explosion in Idumota then. People were just trooping into the Island then. In the 1970s, you would agree with me that Idumota was not as populated as it is today. We knew practically all the houses then. After the boom came and we started seeing people, tall buildings and so on. At that time, when people started trooping in, my father got scared, wondering how he would be able to train me there. So, he had to look for his sister and some other women to train me and that was the beginning of my trauma.
How?
Hmm! Though I have forgiven them now, I went through tough times in the hands of the people I lived with.
What did they do to you?
I have forgiven them, so I won’t like to discuss this again. The Bible says all things work for good for those who love God. So, I want to believe those things happened for a reason and maybe I am now realising the reasons they happened.
Do you have any regrets coming from a polygamous home, as some are wont to lament?
How can you say you regret being born into your family?
It may be as a result of their experiences.
Yes, but they went through it for a reason. So, I don’t regret coming either coming from a humble background or polygamous home.
But you just said you had some nasty experiences.
Yes. But even some rich girls go through bad times. In other words, the rich also cry. Have you not heard about that before? It is just the way it was ordained to happen and I have successfully passed through it. So, why should I regret being born into the family?
If you have to write the story of your life in a book, what are the significant events that will be highlighted?
The deaths of my father and mother will take prominent chapters. Besides, I will talk about the fact that I had to raise myself through school by engaging in commercial activities.
Was your father not helping out?
Would he kill himself? My mum left five kids for him before she died. He was aging; he didn’t have the strength he had in the 1980s; so, I had to support him before he passed on in 2002.
But when did your romance with acting actually start?
I told you it was right from when I was in primary school. In secondary school, it grew because I was a member of the literary and debating society and we were always partaking in cultural events. By the time I got to the higher institution, I joined one or two groups. But professionally, it was when I was in my HND in 2000/2001.
What was your first acting role?
It was Awerijaiye by Deji and Ayo Etiwe, when they were still a couple. I played the younger wife to Olofaina, while Yetunde Wunmi was the senior wife; Moji Olaiya was my stepdaughter.
How did you get that role?
When I acted in one of the series of Wale Adenuga Productions, I got the contacts of both Mr. Wale Adenuga and Uncle Anta Laniyan. So, I was always calling them afterwards. Then, one day, Uncle Anta called me and asked if I had Arabic knowledge and I told him yes, that I attended an Islamic and Arabic school (Ile Kewu). That was how I got the role in the movie.
It is obvious you are from a Muslim background. But today, you are a Christian. So, could you tell me why you converted to Christianity?
It is a private thing that I will not want to discuss. I know God is one and He is alive.
Would I be right to say you were probably a nominal Muslim before you became a Christian?
I am not talking about religion. Already, the country is almost divided over religious issues, so don’t let me talk about religion.
But this is a personal matter?
I don’t want to talk about religion.
Okay, in 2012, you were appointed the face of De javu, a hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos. Are you still the hotel ambassador?
I am still with them, but we are trying to review the contract. If it goes well, I will continue; otherwise, someone else will step in.
But it was rumoured that you were having a sizzling romance with the owner of the hotel, which facilitated the endorsement.
This is also a private thing. I am not talking about my relationship with people. I was the face of Dejavu, so what business does anyone have with that? If I have to date anyone, it is my business and not theirs. Even if it is my relationship, I don’t want to talk about it.
Why?
No reason, please.
Do you realise that it is the celebrities who give room for rumours about their lifestyles? I am saying this because if you give them an opportunity to react to an issue, they don’t, forgetting that they are indirectly giving room for rumours.
For crying out loud, how many people will one date? He is a very close friend of mine and that was even the last time I saw him. It is crazy when people see a lady with a man and they conclude that they dating. Also, when they see a lady with another lady, they say they are dating. What sort of crazy thing is that? I am a beautiful woman and I can date whoever I want to date; so, it is my business. If it is not happening, why will people rumour it? They have given me too many husbands now, including Uncle Jide kosoko. I beg make dem no spoil people home o. That man you mentioned has his own family, Ucle Jide Kosoko has his own family. For crying out loud, people just put pen to paper without finding out the fact. I can’t date Uncle Jide Kosoko for crying out loud. His daughter, Sola Kososko, and I are very close. She is like a sister; Uncle Jide Kosoko is like a father. It was even his wife ( Herienta Kosoko) who introduced me to him.
How?
She was the one that called me for Eje Adegbenro because she had my contact- Uncle Jide didn’t have my contact then. She practically commanded me to come. She said, “Aishat, where are you?” And I said I was going to a location. But she said, “You are working with my husband, so you are not going to any other location.” Two hours later, I was at their house at Abule Oja then. So, that was the first time I went to their house. It was in their room that they fixed my nails and hair, and I started working that day.
So, I will only be the worst girl ever liveth, if I have to now go back behind her and start sleeping with her husband. Won bi mi dada, mi de tun tun ara mi bi( I was well raised). So, I won’t go about sleeping with people’s husbands. There are too many men on the streets; and at the snap of my fingers, I will get any man I want, instead of going after people’s husbands.
Do such rumours bother you?
It used to bother me because I hate people lying. I would rather not talk about anything than lying about it. But when people start giving me another definition of myself that I never knew existed, I just pray to God to deal with them accordingly, because He knows them. It is no longer my case; so, I just hand them over to God. We are in a country where people don’t think before they talk. I know I don’t have some press people as my friends. But I don’t like it when people just publish some stuff because they want to feed themselves or their families. Well, if I start cursing them, that might be too small compared to the punishment God may visit on them.
I once read that you said you would not get married until you have graduated. So, this suggests that you are an independent-minded person…
I am an incurable optimist. If I have to achieve something, I don’t mind if I have to starve to realise it. I have always said that I would not make anybody cry because I want to laugh and I won’t go indecent because I want to achieve anything in life. So, it doesn’t destroy my dignity, once it is good with God and man, I am good to go.
You married late…
(Cuts in)Not too late. At that time, I felt it was late because all my siblings had been married. But today, I have come to appreciate God more. This is because there are people who are even older than I am now, but are still looking for the fruits of the womb. So, I will say I am privileged to have them at the age I did.
If you had your way, would you have married much earlier?
If I had my way, I would have married at 21.
So, how old were you when you got married?
Eh, eh, you want to calculate how old I could be.
Do you have any regrets marrying late?
Not really, but it is just that I would have loved to have my kids much earlier. Again, it is not just having a child, but I was particular about not having a child outside wedlock. That was really an issue. I don’t want anybody to look at my child and say he is an illegitimate child or that his mother had him out of wedlock. I don’t want that for my kids because when they grow up, people are still going to say something about them. Even before the child was conceived, I had had plans that I was not going to get pregnant by the way before marriage.
How psychologically were you before you got married?
How psychologically prepared can one be with a man? You can never be so prepared for a man. That is the truth. You never can know a man. The woman body has millions nerves and a man can conveniently get on each one of your nerves. How much of a man do you think you can know? It doesn’t matter how long you stay in a courtship. I have seen people who got married after 10 years of courtship, but they went their separate ways after 15 years of marriage. I have also seen people who courted for about four or five months and they are doing very well. So, one cannot be adequately prepared for a man, psychologically.
You seem to be talking from experience.
Yes, if you care to know, I am talking from experience. But I don’t want to talk about it.
What kind of man were you praying for before you got married?
I know where you are going to. You are going diplomatically into(pauses) and you are taking it gradually. Yes, every woman wants a man that she will make happy and who will make her happy in return. That is all.
So, did you get that?
I thank God for everything.
So, at what point did the crisis begin to rear its head in your marriage?
Did I tell you there was a crisis?
How about the several reports that your marriage crashed seven years after?
Did you say my marriage crash seven years after? Where did you read that?
I am a journalist, so I should know.
At this point, I will humbly opt out of this discussion. That marriage is a no-go area again. I am not asking any questions about my relationship or marriage.
These days, when they write about stars whose marriages have crashed, they mention your name…
Did they actually write that? I have not read it.
You may not have read it and in any case, how many newspapers do you read in a week? So, if tomorrow, you read it in the newspapers, what will be your reactions?
When I come to the bridge, I will cross it. By the time I read it, I will react accordingly.
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