Yeye Oba Oodua Title Gives Me A New Platform, A Rebirth In My Love For My People- Dr. Abiola Dosunmu
The appointment of Dr. Abiola Dosunmu as the Yeye Oba Oodua of the source—mother of kings in Yorubaland by His Royal Majesty (HRM), the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi is a testament to her good services as the Erelu Kuti IV, ceremonial queen mother of Lagos and Erelu of Egbaland. A diligent, and principled woman who has been playing her role with prudence over the years, Dr. Dosunmu devotion to traditional demands without neglecting her religious inclinations.
Dr. Dosunmu contributions to the Yoruba culture are not questionable. She has done a lot to positively project the Yoruba culture and race across the world, she has a good pedigree, rich background, and great antecedents.
She is grounded in the history of Lagos, which she shares to endear people to the rich cultural heritage of the Yoruba race. Notably, she is a direct descendant of Oba Dosunmu. Greatly influenced by her late grandmother, a high-ranking traditional chief from Owu, Abeokuta, she prides in the beauty of her desire to preserve the beauty of Yoruba culture and tradition, her strength of character, and the tenacity to excel in her personal and business life.
In this interview with AZUKA OGUJIUBA, she talks about her new title, women’s rights, women who engage in plastic surgery, youths, politics and leadership in Nigeria.
Q: What does the title ‘Yeye Oodua’ represent and its significance to the Yoruba race, the country and Nigerian women?
A: I consider this title a great honour, and a huge responsibility. I pray that God will assist me in achieving great things because, for a long time, my role as the ‘Erelu Kuti’ of Lagos makes me the mother of kings. According to history, ‘Erelu Kuti the first’ crowned herself as the queen of Lagos and also further crowned her two sons the same day. She removed her crown, gave it to her first son, and also gave another title to the second son as Oba of Lagos. She sat in the middle and ruled Lagos with them till she died. Since that time, for over 400 years, her descendants have been kings of Lagos which makes her mother of kings. So, my title as ‘Erelu Kuti’ makes me the mother of kings, not the mother of a king. I’ve had to play that role of being the mother to kings for a long time. It has become the law that any son of a female member of royalty can become king of Lagos, as opposed to just from father to son. But now, a son of a female member of royalty can be king of Lagos and it affects any kingdom that has come together under the umbrella of Lagos State—that is the role I have been playing for Obas and the people of Lagos State. But now, with the new title, it is much more significant in the sense that I have a greater platform to perform the same role as the mother of kings and the ‘Yeye Oodua of The Source’ of the Yoruba race, mother of crown heads of the Yoruba race, and it is an enormous responsibility and it is beyond Africa because the Yoruba race spreads all over the world. We have them in Haiti, Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean, among other places. So, the responsibility now is to take up the mantle, to add value to these territories and add value to the core Yoruba race, and one can’t do that in isolation, it means that the whole country and community will benefit from this values that one is expected to add to the lives of the people of the race. It’s daunting, but with the grace of God, one would give it a good run. I will do my best to make it work. I thank God that the imperial majesty deemed me fit to accord me this honour and this opportunity and responsibility, and I shall do my best, to the best of my ability to live up to his trust and the confidence he has in me.
Q: Who was the last woman that held this position before you?
A: The wife of our late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief. Mrs. H.I. D. Awolowo
Q: How long did it take you to plan and execute such colourful installation?
A: Kabiyesi (Ooni of Ife) told me about it last Christmas, and at that time, we had planned to start the coronation process by March because it takes a long time. But due to circumstances, we could not get it going. I think the preparations must have taken about two to three months but I am a very fastidious person and in every aspect, group, and the committee that put the coronation together, I was on top of it to be sure that everything worked. I never leave things to chance, because at the end of the day, we are all humans, I may be having a thought or an idea of how I want things to be, and the interpreter may have a different concept, and as a result, I had to be there to monitor how my concepts are being interpreted, so I guess that was one of the reasons it came out the way I wanted it to be, but it didn’t take longer than three months to put together. The Kabiyesi himself also played a very prominent role at the Ife end of it to make sure everything was impeccable—he was on top of that, and everything worked out well.
Q: Why did you opt for the water signature at the coronation in Lagos?
A: I am from Isale Eko and our main signature is water, and I also live by the water, so I always like to have water around. That was my concept, and I commend the event planner for being able to achieve it—she did an excellent job. She interpreted everything perfectly even though she had only a few days to plan because some other events happened in the hall before our event
Q: What are the values the Yeye Oodua holds dear, especially having seen it all?
A: I have always been doing what I know how to do best—enhancing the lives of the poorest of the poor. I am or less in semi-retirement and I was groping in the dark about what I would want to focus on at this point with reduced energy, and of course, this recognition came, and this gives me a new platform, like a rebirth in my love for my people, because with this title I can add value to the economy, I can go round the Yoruba race to attract investment, I can devote my energy to conflict resolution, and that abounds here. I have done that in the past, but I now have a bigger platform with which I can continue with reconciliation, enlightenment on peaceful coexistence, energizing other people to add value to the lives of the deprived, encouraging women to come out, and give them support because we have in abundance, numbers of men and women who can take Nigeria to the next level, but we can also achieve that by electorates education, and helping them gain awareness of their rights, and awareness of how they can protect their rights. As long as we are not aware of our rights, what to do, and how to protect our rights, the money bags will continue to control the political arena. They don’t have the right and the might to do so if the people in their numbers say they want to protect their rights, you will find that well-meaning and sincere person will come out to contest elections and they will take Nigeria to the next level we must be determined to protect our interest, protect our votes, make our votes count, and follow the law. Unless we follow the law also, people will continue to take advantage of the law and make the law work for them. If you say you cannot manually count votes, then you don’t have to manually count votes, if you have to transmit the results electronically, then you have to do so electronically and if anyone is trying to cart it away of count it manually, people must rise and protect that votes and make sure it does not leave that venue until they have finished counting the electronic results, and by so doing, we will make a difference and the best man will win the elections.
Q: Over the years, you have maintained great skin, but many women bleach to have lighter skin, and plastic surgeries, what do you have to say about that?
A: This is a big issue. You know, we women don’t appreciate what God has done for us. He made us naturally beautiful. All you need to do is enhance that beauty with cleanliness, exercise, and eating right; when a woman eats right, observe a certain degree of glairiness, pay the price of cleanliness, and perseverance, because you have to persevere to look beautiful, it is not instant. Your skin will glow and you will be naturally beautiful. Everyone should look good including men.
Q: What advice do you have for young girls on plastic surgery?
A: It is just so risky and I wonder what it’s all about. For me, my advice to young people is to say- look, you can be just as beautiful the way you are you just need to do things in moderation and take good care of yourself you will bloom and enjoy having beautiful skin, beautiful hair, and you will have a beautiful figure if you don’t overeat. So what else is the beauty of a woman that they are struggling to artificially achieve? They can achieve it naturally and it will be sustainable and it will keep them healthy, so that will be my advice.
Q: What are your fond memories, especially when you were young.
A: Well, you see I am quite excited. I enjoyed Lagos in its early stage of development, where life was beautiful and you are not always looking over your shoulder, you had plenty to eat. People who first came here imbibe that beautiful habit and sharing what they have and being their brother’s keeper(s), being parents to all children not just your own because you can chastise a child that is wayward or misbehaving and the parents will thank you for it you know, the world was beautiful it was a closely knit community, it wasn’t like it was (not) flawed but we all imbibe the same culture and all over, of course, everybody looked out for one another. Lagos was innocent, you know we had a good life the security, we didn’t have fences in front of our house not to talk of iron bars and iron rods you know, even things the market were never excessively priced and everyone, if you price something here you know the next 10 groups will tell you the same amount and if someone is not there you know the price of what you want, you can leave the money there and you take whatever you want and when she comes her money will be there, that big market that is what it was, you know people were honest, people were kind to one another.
Q: How was nightlife in Lagos then?
A: Nightlife was buoyant we could go out, you know especially when we were just teenagers or newly-married you had Bobby Benson in Ikeja and people like some of us who live on the Island, we will go there, you don’t even start going (home) until after midnight (and) you may even come back about 6 a.m. especially when it is weekend, and you’re not afraid of being on the street at that point in time you, went if you feel safe and the kind of beautiful nightlife that we had we don’t have it anymore
Q: Do you think that we might still get the same kind of Lagos in the future?
A: I am a die-hard optimist, and like I said, if we have the right government in place and we have economic buoyancy, and people are satisfied, there will be less crime, there will be less insecurity, yes we can have a good time again, but this time even better, because there are various ways of having a good life. Having a good life, having a nice life, having an education you know insecurity and lack of economic empowerment that is creating a lot of these problems but all of that can change overnight if you put the right person to direct the affairs and government of this country who are meaningful, who have love of mankind in their heart and who believe in live and let’s live and not wanting to cart everything away for himself and his generation unborn. Leave the coming generation to do their own thing, if you create a conducive environment, a level playing ground where the economy is buoyant, the roads are good, education is top class, people have food to eat, they want to go into business they can, they do want to go into manufacturing it is sustainable, the regeneration of unborn would make even much more progress because they will be empowered with good education and innovative idea. But when you have these narrow-minded leaders who just believe that survival is stealing and storing it for the generation unborn. We are not going to go anywhere, we will just be going round in circles because they’ll be no new investment, no new Ideas you know, and they steal this money there is a limit extent they can flaunt it and they are not investing in anything that will yield so even the money too will finish eventually, so, the youth of Nigeria and well-meaning Nigerians make sure this election works make sure of this election produce strong, (and) well-meaning leaders that will put the fear of God into everything they do and love of the people in their hearts. And you know, if they do all of these things they are the ones who will benefit the ovation of the people and they will even reap much more returns than just carting the little money and people are raining abuses and curses on them. So, I just pray that good people will come out and they will carry the day when we go to vote.
Q: The 2023 general election is close, what advice do you have for Nigerians?
A: I believe that there is enough awareness of what good governance means or what good leaders mean amongst the generality of the people or more especially amongst the youth, they know what good governance is, and a lot of them are highly educated (and) they know what they need. To make progress in life……they confident and they are educated, and they are confident, they are not afraid to let their views known, what I am just begging for and advocating is that they must all go en-mass and vote and vote the person they believe will take them to the next positive level not wrong change, because when you said change, we all said change thinking that it will take us to a positive level, what we want now is someone that will take us to the positive level and they know what it is, they know what they want, it is pity yes that we don’t have too much choice, but whatever we have let us make the best use of it, whatever we have on the ground let us take out the positive part of it that will impact the positively on us and the young people know it, at the end of the day whatever is wrong or whatever is not acceptable become enemies of all people of Nigeria, regardless of religion or tribe or affiliation or whatever, all of should look inward (and ask) what is best for us? and be bold enough to go out there and make that choice and stand by that vote, and make sure that that vote count. It is possible, it can be done, but it is a game of numbers and enough people must stand up and put together to defend something that they believe will take us to the next positive level. If you want to continue to play the money bag game and all that, well, we know where it has landed us and we just continue to rot in the hole where we have dug for ourselves, it is time for the young people who are beneficiaries of great education, great opportunities; the electronic age that you are living in, all the systems that can make things work and make things better, you should take advantage of it and not wallow in the filths that we have endured for so long from recycled leaders, we must stop recycling leadership, we must let new ideas come into leadership and this can only happen with young people having good opportunities to use their hard-earned acquired exposure education imagination, that can take us to the next level.
Q: It is expensive to contest elections in Nigeria. The election forms are expensive which deprives us of well-meaning youths who would love to contest elections, what is your advice to the youths?
A: I don’t believe in a defeatist attitude, I have told you that this thing, when we are ready as Nigerians to put in place good governance, yes you may have money, but numbers are bigger than money. If you say it truly, people truly believe that what we have been experiencing is not good enough, is not taking us anywhere and we want a change that can take us to the next positive level and the young ones like you said are all aware, clearly aware that they want a change. If you have enough numbers saying that this is what we want and somebody brings money he will not even dare to bring money because if you have enough numbers of people standing up for what is good how many are they going to buy and even if they have enough money to everybody, but if that is not our priority they will snub him and his money or they will take his money because it is our commonwealth and they will still do what is right. I was watching Osun election and I saw a group of women who tied their clothes on their waist and said that you’re not taking his ballot box away from here. We have been told that results will be sent electronically. Nobody will take it away from us. Some people think that the situation in Nigeria is hopeless, I don’t believe it is hopeless, I believe it can change one hour overnight we just need to put the right people there and protect it and even when they are there we must just not just sit back, we must continue to monitor them and protect our own interest because we put people as presidents, as ministers not go and do their own will but to do our own will. So when they are there and they are going wrong and we keep quiet, go to other parts of the world, once their leader misbehaves they are on the streets protesting, making them away, peaceful protestation, not violent so that the government itself will sit right and know that the people itself are not going to tolerate this nonsense but once we have voted somebody in, we go and sit down, even the opposition pack up and go and sit down and become complacent.
Q: What advice do you have for women who are in?
A: Well, two things, we have equal numbers of capable women as we have of men, so we are not short of deserving women who can lead this country to wherever we want it to be, to the very height, to make it the best in the world. So, if women, capable women are interested they should be bold and brave enough to come out. But most importantly, we women must learn to support ourselves, (because) without the votes of our women, these men who are leading cannot get there so if you find a capable woman, you believe in the woman, you must vote for other women, we must encourage them, we don’t support ourselves enough, so women must support women once she’s capable. You don’t support a man just because he’s a man. When you find a man you find two other women who are just as good or even better. If they come out and women see that they are good, women must support other women. And having said that, women elected women, women who are in position of authority, policy-making and all that when they get there you find the normal beautiful competent woman put in a position of authority, once she gets there overnight she tries to turn herself into *petri woman, overdressing, wearing too much jewelry, things that she didn’t have before, the way she don’t look before, she now looks that ways and sees herself above the people who put her there and I’ve heard women say to me, when I say look, you’ve got to vote for other women, they say to me look, you wear white, once you come to us, you play with us, some of these women when they get into those position, they treat us other women like dirt, they make themselves in inaccessible, at least the men will still listen to you give you a peasant to go and pay school fees for your children, the women you cannot even reach them, they are inaccessible so that is why we don’t like to support women, this is what the generality of the women tell me, market women all sort of women, they tell me the same thing so we need to enlighten ourselves about how we should behave and be supported of the people and remember why we have been voted into place, not to turn ourselves into penguins but to assimilate and be like the people who have put us there, in fact that is when we should tone it down, to find out that we are accessible, we are reachable, and they can give us support.
Q: You are from a royal family, yet still very humble. How would you describe your upbringing and the influence your royal lineage on you?
A: It is the grace of God; the way He made me, I think that God gave me a disposition that prepared me to accept the norm of my birth. My mum is also from Egbelaki from the royalty, and then married to of course my father who is the prince of Lagos so our upbringing was very tight, very disciplined, you know especially when you follow the, even if you’re not royalty, the norm of old days of a Yoruba family is that you have to be trained properly, the name of the family is imperative that you keep it at charge and all that and when you are royalty, it is even worse, so you are taught to observe a certain level of the decorum in everything you did, and you couldn’t step out of line, you couldn’t do what you mates do, you have to be above board and so by the nature god gave me is inquisitive, I love people, I want to know and I want to learn so it wasn’t difficult for me to imbibe some of these qualities so it’s sort of prepared me for the roles that I now found and entrusted upon me in the course of life. so, therefore, I like to share I like to give I like to know, and I never feel that I have all the answers, I like to hold my own ground but I will yield to a superior argument and what you are also taught as royalty is that you are there by the grace of God but your main and primary duty is to take care of your people and when you have to do that you have to identify with them, you have to be with them you have to understand their plight you have to understand their problems or else if you stay on your high course how do you help to solve such problems so I have no inhibition about feeling at home or anywhere I find myself, whether in a booker or the 5-star hotel or in the palace or in a house in Ajegunle, I am happy whenever I find myself and I am at home whenever I find myself and I’m happy to be with anybody regardless of class, creed, religion or tribe and I have friends across religion tribe sometimes people ask me how do you cope with Christianity and traditional practices.
Q: You are still a very active member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Victoria Ireland, Lagos, how do you combine that with your role as a traditional leader?
A: They all praise one Almighty God, which is the basis of the Yoruba religion and Culture.
Eat together and pray and sing to the almighty God and, interceding, so for me, that is my understanding of religion.
Our religion is the fear and worship of the Almighty God.
Q: What’s your advice to Nigerians who tribal centric?
A: I still believe in the younger generation; I know my children’s friends, they have friends across tribes, because, that is the culture of Lagos we grew up with. People from different part of Nigeria settled in Lagos and we all interacted. Each family have Christians, Muslims, traditionalists, and we are still family, we still do things together, we co-exist. If only everyone can imbibe what we do in Lagos, quality of life they found in Lagos, if what live in Lagos, things will be better.
Q: The Island is gradually being invaded by hoodlums, what is your advice to the government on how to handle the scary situation?
A: You know, many years ago, the area boys syndrome came into existence. In Lagos we did not know who… or we didn’t even have boys, but then there was a local government election in Lagos and you had already had infiltration of money bags at that time, so they called together few young people and used them to terrorize the electorates so that they could carry the day and after using these boys, at the end of the election they wanted to dismantle them, but you see they had already gotten used to getting peasants when they didn’t work, they were able to get extra money to do what you want to do, so, we couldn’t get rid of the area boys anymore. Unfortunately, there was that loophole and those enemies of progress took advantage of it, it was not the youths who did it, they took advantage of the deprived young people and misuse them and scuttled the well-meaning program of the youth at that point in time.
Q: You were really fashionable growing up, does wearing just white clothes bore you sometimes now?
A: Not at all. I actually find it quite exciting and quite interesting, because you wear one colour and you don’t want to be an eyesore to everyone or be displeasing to people who are looking at you so, I realize that I have to vary it, even if it is one colour, I need to vary the style, and I need to change the way it is adorned, I need to have varieties and so that keeps me on my toes also, to keep coming up with new ideas and a new concept of white so, I find it exciting and I do hope that I have been able to keep the people who are looking at me so interested enough, not finding it boring, you know, so I interpret it in so many different ways. My consolation is that I have a lot of followers who also imbibe some of my dress sense and style or also white, so it gives one confidence that perhaps one is doing something right, you just continue to re-invent it and makes it interesting and exciting.
Q: Many Nigerian women believe that marriage validates them, as a result, they endure abusive marriages, what is your advice for them?
A: Marriage is a beautiful state to be in and that’s also the way it was ordained; and everyone should strive to find a life partner to enhance their lives, and when you are able to achieve that, it is a great thing, it is a good thing, and it defines both the man and the woman because they are supposed to be a helper to each other it’s not one-sided. I think I don’t know, maybe also through culture, we have lost that understanding that marriage is not one-sided. You are both together to enhance the life of each other and to a point that both of you are woven into one and one cannot do without the other. Marriage is not that that without the money cannot exist or without the woman, you cannot exist you are two strangers who have agreed to come together and add values to the lives of each other and if along the line you feel you have made a mistake, you need to be able to stand up to it, it does not take away from who you are because you are special made creation of the almighty God who has endowed you with so much talent and opportunity to be whatever you want it to be in life. Because there are some people who have not been opportune to marry, that should not stop them from attaining the best that they can be or utilizing the talent the almighty has given them to be the best they can be. So if anyone thinks that you cannot exist alone without a partner, that’s indolence, that’s hiding, that is laziness, hiding behind marital status. You have seen great women, great achievers who never even got married, forget marrying and divorce or separation, who never actually did. So anybody who is hiding behind marriage for not being recognized for who they are is from indolence, from pity excuses, because a fastidious outgoing person of excellence can only be a joy to their husband or a husband a joy to the wife. While if you are a person of excellence and an achiever it will speak for you, it will give you a space within the environment. So when a woman says that doesn’t take her seriously and if somebody wants to be beaten to death and all that its shear out of indolence and laziness because if you discover along the lines that perhaps I have made a wrong choice you can agree to disagree, there is nothing wrong with it
Q: Should these women who are in such marriages walk away…?
A: You don’t need to walk away, you can agree to disagree, you can even have an understanding and remain friends.
Q: Which is your favourite food?
A: I love ewedu and chicken stew and then of course my favourite combination will be either amala or steamed rice so, and I haven’t changed I still love my ewedu and amala, despite the fact that I have diverse kinds of food that I love both continental and local but they remain my favourite.
Q: How about your favourite perfume?
A: I am not going to tell you that, I have the secret perfume that I have been using for almost 50 years and you know, but that I think I shall package it, you will have a new private perfume.
Q: So, which is your favourite holiday destination?
A: There are so many beautiful places in the world that I go to. But the one that when I don’t want to bother myself or think about where to go, how about I just go to the South of France, (I will) go to Monaco. Monte Carlo, Udinese, just by the waterfront, look at the food, the french food is good, their accommodation is perfect and the ambience is just relaxing and lovely so when I don’t want to bother I just go there straight.
Q: Looking back, is there something you wish you did, that you haven’t done?
A: Having said that I have since discovered that you can have a beautiful holiday even in Lagos. Lagos at night is beautiful. Just block your mind, go into one of the five stars hotels where they can pamper, you eat what you want, go to the swimming pool, go to the beach, Lagos is so beautiful.
Q: Do you know about Lakowe?
A: I don’t even have to go that way, if I really want to enjoy the sort of thing that I want to enjoy when I am in the South of France, I can do it here in Victoria Island. Try to see Lagos as a holiday destination, it is the most beautiful destination. Take for instant, Eko Hotel, you have the signature, you have different rooms, the rooms are clean the decor is impeccable the rooms are cooled, air-conditioned and then when you want an outdoor, you go to the poolside if not you can go out, and go to the beaches around, and you can go to the art market forget the hustle and bustle of the third mainland Bridge and all those, even tonight go for a ride on the third mainland (bridge), it is just the insecurity going out at night, have you seen Lagos at night? When it is beautifully lit, the lights the skyline? the lights? You can be anywhere in the world it is beautiful and I then I was in Ife the other day and it’s not because I am now Yeye Ooduwa and I went to the Ojaja resort, and at night the whole place was so beautifully lit, and then you have a lot of greens when you want to walk around, you have a pool, it is just so serene and so peaceful, I think I’ve got my work caught out for me, there are so beautiful holiday destinations here in Nigeria, and here in the Metropolitan city of Lagos, you can have a beautiful holiday and I think we must look into it.
Q: Do you have any woman who has influenced you in any way?
A: In my case, I have been influenced from very early years. My first awareness of myself as a human being was at the feet of my grandmother at two years old. So, there’s no such a woman (would not influence me), and she was strong, and her compound was like a whole village and she had so many staff working for her, importing, (and) exporting food from the North to the South and fresh, perishable goods, (rich in) in proteins, take whatever (you wanted), she had hundreds of them, and of course at that time that I knew her, she didn’t have a husband anymore, the husband was dead. She was the mother of my mum, who had four sons and a daughter and my mother was the youngest. She had four sons, trained them, and they are all achievers, she was strong and controlling her environment and making money and you know. She was the one I said went to Hajj, in those days they use camels for over three months. She went and she brought back brass pots and the things you can cook and even human beings can swim (in), grown adults can swim inside. You know, I have a retinue of strong women in my family that I have unconsciously emulated to believe that a woman can do whatever she wants to do and that a woman must be fearless and not be intimidated by anyone because she can just achieve like anyone and then of course as I grow up, as I became older, there are (other) women that I admire. But those who actually that I knew in my formative years, who formed me into what I am today are women in my family, starting from my grandmother and mother was equally strong with her achievement, my aunt was a principal of a school where her husband was (far) way in Benin as a medical doctor, where he was working and she was a principal of a school and she was controlling her environment, so I grew up amongst very strong independent women who had made a strong impact.
Q: Do you love Flowers?
A: Oh, I love flowers as you can see I always have flowers around. There in my other place, you know it is a garden within a garden. You know how my flowers are usually white.
Q: When you are not busy how, how do you relax?
A: I don’t keep appointments beyond 7.p.m. unless it’s dinner or (meeting) my friends or whatever, so from 7p.m. I have plenty of time on my hands to do whatever I want to do, (like) read a book, watch the Tv, play music, you know that’s what I do in my free time, I love music and if the opportunity arises, I want to dance so, I just do things that make me happy and relaxed and see the beauty of the grace of the almighty my life, because when I sing when I dance, most of the time I turn to move towards praising and thanking God for my life you know, even when I listen to contemporary music, you know, I still end up (praising) you know, and when I hear some of these songs they echo in my mind. For instance, I was at mass yesterday, the music was, the songs were particularly nice, they are still echoing in my head till today even as you talk to me, so, my muses in life are very simple, things that give me joy are not too complicated.
Q: What are your prayers and wishes for yourself as you assume a new position?
A: To be a woman, well endowed by the Lord and who is also appreciative of the graces of God that she enjoys or she has enjoyed, that will be my prayer and that will be my wish for everybody, just love one another, do the good that you can do now because you may never have an opportunity again you know, just do the best you in everything you do, anywhere you find yourself, do as much good, no matter how difficult, you have to be generous you cannot hoard. Just do as much good as you can, and how do you do good, you share what you have, you show yourself, your resources yourself, to add value to the life of others, (and) if I am able to achieve that, then I will thank God forever and I will know that I won’t have to do too much for Him to accept me and take me to where I will be praising Him all the days of my life, not all the days of my life (but) for all eternity.
Q: What’s your greatest fear in life?
A: Is it fear? I doubt if I really have any serious fear because I leave it all to the Lord (and) whatever happens it is His wish. So I am hardly ever afraid, whatever happens to me is His wish and because I’m trying so hard, striving to do His will, so He will always protect me, that is my belief and that is my true belief so I don’t have any fear really because all things are in His hands, not anybody, if you are afraid because you believe somebody can, you know, I try my best to please Him so I am not afraid.
