Dele Momodu, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has opened up about his humble beginnings and how his inability to get a job made his late mother wonder if witches and wizards from his father’s village were after him.
TheNewsGuru.com(TNG) reports that the veteran journalist while recalling his sojourn with the late MKO Abiola and his deceased wife, Doyinsola, the pioneering female journalist opened up about his mother’ perception about his choice of university course, saying that she questioned him about wanting to be a “Babalawo” because he choose to study Yoruba in the university.
According to Dele Momodu, he visited Doyin, whom he referred to as “Iya Paper,” when he came to Lagos in search of a job.
He said, “I will like a day a big thank you to Iya Paper, that title is not original to me, the patent for that title belongs to Chief Mrs. Adebisi Abiola.
“Daddy had told me that if you want to be a polygamist, you must be a competent polygamist. So if you must be the son of a competent polygamist, then you must know how to navigate and meander in the home of a polygamist.
“So we will start from upstairs and go to mummy’s apartment, Alhaja Kudirat, then we will come to Chief Bisi Abiola and finally to ‘Iya Paper,’ who was my boss at Concord.
“I came to Lagos in 1988 in search of greener pastures, if I can borrow that cliché, and I was desperate for a job. I studied Yoruba for my first degree and I couldn’t get a job as a teacher.
“My mother was wondering if I wanted to become a Babalawo or why will I go to a university and studied Yoruba?
“Then I went back to do a master’s in Literature in English and I still couldn’t get a job, and my mother was wondering if witches and wizards were after me from my father’s village in Edo State.”