When Favour Ohozie, a (Nigerian) girl child, who is a literature student in Senior Secondary School (S.S 3) and was asked to join me and do a book review of the book: Predictable Future by Hannah Oyebanjo who has developed against all odds from a girl child into a successful entrepreneur, Favor was both high heaven and scared.—Scared because she’s an amateur in things like this. Can she handle this? Can she keep herself humble?
When the co-writer taught her cultural and creative art in her Junior Secondary School days, she was not only shy but also lacked confidence, couldn’t spell or read well, and had bad handwriting, so that’s an understandable ‘scaredness.’
She’s high heaven because she never believed that she would get to this stage where she would be asked to assist in reviewing a book by a person of the calibre of Hannah Oyebanjo: an Integrated-Marketing-Communication guru; one-time Marketing-Director, GSK and present M.D. Redwood Consult, with many heavyweight clients, would sue me if I gave their names.
But having another girl (who is [or was] struggling to believe she can succeed through paying attention to her studies despite the financial, moral, geographical, associates odds), assist in doing the review to encourage the girl (and boy) child is what Hannah would die for in her quest to help today’s youth stay moral and focused through her foundation. ‘Another female child’ is definitely still at the mercy of the odds in the twenty-first century.
This is what Hannah stands for, which is sensed in both a face to face conversation and her motivational publication: Predictable Future.—In it Hannah tells some of her own child girl stories that is almost a biography and kind of mirrors some of Favour’s ongoing child girl journey.
In Hannah’s ongoing girl child journey that turned into the successful adult she is now, there were many surprising bus stops. One of them was her male relationships including the ‘uncles’ trying to get her to do some ‘roughfu-roughfu’ even when they were married and how she was able to stop such attempts that might have truncated her destiny. This ‘roughfu-roughfu’ also extended to some female colleagues, who wanted her to buy into another type of ‘roughfu-roughfu’ popularly could lesbianism.
She had the strong voice of her mother (and father) and that of the Almighty etc. Words from her mother included: ‘“Girl, don’t disgrace me. Do not put me to shame. If you ever get pregnant, you’d have the baby! Your life will be ruined!”’ another voice by mama was ‘‘At a tender age in life I reasoned that there must be so much value in education because mama always craved it until her death. (She) was so strict to the extent that I could only study right in the living room, especially if with male friends. (She) would kill me should I get pregnant’’.
Other strong voices included ‘… my two closest friends had very enlightened fathers … Both were highly-regarded public figures and actually, headed parastatals. They also had enlightened mothers. One of these women was a very strong inspiration to me because she had an official car. Each time I visited their home and saw her car, I told myself I must work hard in life to be chauffeur-driven.’ ‘Mama literally made me believe that I would get pregnant the moment I had physical contact with a man.’ As silly as that sounds today—coming from an uneducated mother— it worked. Will today’s young ones in a drug-infested, ‘Coming’, ‘Dido Lobo’ and porno internet world listen to that?
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There is a serious moral decadence.—So serious that while I was doing online research, I ran into a Youtube video titled ‘Mothers of Yahoo Boys, Now have An Association.’
According to Adebisi Kolawole Shittu’s Moral Decadence Among Nigerian Youths As Future Leaders—A Socio-Cultural Regeneration: General Studies Department, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, An Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.5, No.2 Publication (February 2018); ‘a day hardly ever pass without some media reports of ethno-religion conflicts, examination leakages, student unrest, secret cults, sexual abuse, certificate forgery, drug abuse and other cases of indiscipline across the country. Observations reveal that the youths are bad today, not only because of the negative societal influence but also because some homes have failed in their primary roles of inculcating socio-cultural values to the affected youths.’
Shittu further says ‘prostitution, (immoral sex—addition mine), armed robbery, fraud, terrorism, kidnapping, ritual killing, street fighting and similar vices are now prevalent in the Nigerian society. A widely held perception which has been proved by research reports indicates that a high percentage of Nigerian youths who indulge in anti-social vices are products of lifestyles and practices that do not conform with appropriate and decent moral and cultural values that were transferred to the current generation of parents by the previous one. The extent to which parental irresponsibility is exhibited today will worry any Nigerian adult who is adequately informed about the threatening growth of a breed that has been properly positioned to promote vices capable of destroying Nigeria’s tomorrow.’
A female colleague informs that many young ladies (and young men) want to ensure they sample the guy(s) (or lady/ladies) first to know the one wey fit not only do the thing well well and also give me/am belle before they go grii marry.’ This is in line with comments on social media.
There is massive poverty, corruption everywhere that is making people do all manners of things—the various TikTok videos one sees today shows so. It will take Noah like efforts to keep any child safe and grounded and focused.
What Hannah’s mother teaches us is that our voices as single mothers/fathers, parents, guardians, teachers family friends, associates etc must be bigger and stronger than that of those who will mislead our children. She need not be educated. She was just one person. We are many, but we must work as a team. The forces against children are many. Helping the child whether male or female to understand the evil odds against them must come at an early age. Encouraging the child to talk about how they feel, tell what happened around them or to them when mummy and daddy etc were not around, letting them know that certain body parts are private and ‘uncle or aunty’ are not supposed to touch them there, why they should not watch some TV programs or read some certain materials, regularly at an early age, is necessary.
Off course, all these might be air in smoke, if the parent or who so ever, do not create time for the child. Parents should not be too busy—mummy and daddy etc chasing their career, leaving the child to chase its own with ‘uncle’ (and aunty’s) help.
One God’s voice, it is the same, though it must be stronger than our parents etc—especially with atheism growing.
Some religious (book review) critics and organizations within and other side Christianity with different views on the holy book might disagree with (some of) her (biblical) interpretation, but all will agree that strong morals is the (part) way out of the many woes affecting us as a nation and by extension, globally—one of the Holy books does say ‘Righteousness is what exalts a nation, but sin is something disgraceful to national groups (or the whole world [addition is mine]).’
You almost do not want to blame the men; outside lack of self-discipline and thinking any woman will fall into their arms, a relook at Mrs Oyebanjo’s photo in her younger days—very attractive. It is a wonder she never let it get to her head. Do we learn from it? Many will say, beauty is the downfall of many girls, young ladies and full-blown women. Hannah shows it is lack of self-discipline and morals. I do not think Hannah told it all. She likely had the likes of Randy Crawford’s etc hit songs like ‘Never Being to Me’ to help her—especially two parts of the song that said ‘… (she) have seen some things, a woman is not supposed to see’ and ‘… (she has) been there crying for the unborn children that might have made (her) complete. (She) took the sweet life, never knew (she) bit bitter from the sweet.’ Thus we do need good friends. Oh, yes, she mentioned some like ‘the Animakhus’. Find them, keep them.
Hannah is not left without mistakes like allowing herself to be ‘… exposed to female friends that could have had very negative influences on me.’ Hannah said ‘During my very first year in the university, I shared the same room with two other girls, … Soon, my girlfriend started sexual discussions and went really deep …, my two female roommates were together in bed … They often enjoyed such ‘romantic’ moments together throughout that semester.’
Hannah should have changed rooms totally—think of it; it was one of the same friends that ‘went straight into the father’s room and brought out videotapes. … all pornographic films. Somehow, I could not stop her. I enjoyed watching the video too, but then I invited some lustful feelings.’
In today’s world, they could have planned for her; put something in her drink which would have had her sleeping off and the girls or the boyfriend or ‘uncles’ could have used that opportunity to doing their ‘roughfu-roughfu’ with her like a boyfriend did with his girlfriend ‘A’ after the girlfriend’s friend ‘B’ to helped him drug ‘A’ so that he could have canal knowledge of her as reported by one Nigeria’s leading newspaper in 2019 or so. God alone knows how much that boyfriend paid the ‘B’ or how he convinced her to drug ‘A’—that reminds me of a similar that happened to Diana Armstrong aka Diamond, a character in the film ‘The Players Club’, written and produced by Ice Cube in 1998; where Diamond’s rival was paid to perform cunnilingus on her. So the case of drugging is not a new thing. Hannah was indeed lucky not to get drugged.
The lessons: never go to anyone’s house alone, especially when it is that of the opposite sex or when others are seeking to date you. Know your friend’s mindset like your backhand. Delete immediately friends that can truncate your future. Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes!!! She made them. Alas, we are forgetting she too is human. For those who feel it is impossible to re-find the right way, they are wrong. Until death they can.
Then to think that Hannah knows campus boys food—ehwa ganyin (marched beans), ‘… because it could keep me filled for long periods. I just needed to keep “topping it up” with water’, shows that poverty or little finance is not enough to push any into ‘runs’ like: Slay Queen-ing, Maga-rizing, Yahoo-plus etc, as we see today—find the right alternative to staying alive and focused.
There are questions hanging in the 2006 edition not answered the 2016 revised edition; what happened to all those ‘uncles’ them? What happens when she runs into any of them—abi we go first knock Hannah door like ‘Ajeri them’, before she tell us? As social beings, we like aproko for laughs.
Speaking of laughs, with the told and untold things she went through could Hannah still be feeling the pains or feeling depressed unknowingly?—How has she being able to handle it, many years after? I would have loved to see that expressed here.
Would have also loved to see if (and how) she succeeded in installing these godly virtues with her our children, who are now graduates—I wonder what they really feel about their mother’s godly view after all many seem to be excelling even if they are not godly. In fact, society is full of such successful people.
Hopefully, she will succeed in her quest though ‘up-mountainous.’ Since she has succeeded with herself, we are sure she will with others—It starts with her own, then the likes of Favour who is further seeing she can make Hannah’s way.
I must say it’s a great read.—Hannah bared it all so that young ones can excel the right way. Your time, shelf or electronic device should bare having it for your consuming.
For how to get the book etc ‘visit’ www.predictablefuturefoundation.org or e-mail: [email protected] or 0803 306 2129/08056629786 (text only)
