SHE'S MY BABY!!! YES, WE KNOW!!!
Oshodi was always a drama centre when my mum was selling there...no, not in a shop...by the road side. It coloured my entrepreneurship journey and made me street-wise. You can't rule out the drama that accompanied each day. It was a setting of unlettered women selling by the road side to support their husbands financially in order to help their kids through their tertiary education. That time, I was in school with two of my siblings. When my mum woke you at five in the morning...congratulation buddy! You have just won yourself a free ticket to see "ere-ori-itage" (stage drama).

If there's a 'customer', my mother would snatch my James Hadley Chase book and asked me to remove my hands from my pocket and convince the customer to buy her goods. She had to remind us always that we were not "butty" (affluent) and should stop behaving as one...but I can't let a course mate see me again after Simbi had seen me...but she couldn't tell anyone in class because I had once seen her too buying used clothes at gatankowa market. So it's 50-50.

This particular Saturday was drama filled. "Area boys" had come to collect their usual money. They asked, "owo bukky da?" I was rebuking the devil tempting me to ask who bukky was because, if the huge guy with black lips and red eyes like hot charcoal in my grand dad's cherished local iron that burnt my "ileya" cloth and primary school uniform when I tried to iron them myself should hit me, "walahi" hospital would reject me.

My sister observed that I was going to be in trouble, she quickly gave them three hundred naira but she was too afraid to ask for fifty naira change. After they had left, she told me they meant booking fee, "owo booking". That was just a build up to the dramatic day...

A beautiful lady was pricing "Dustin powder" from "iya oyinbo" (the name she got after giving birth to albino two years earlier)...phew! The little girl she was backing just slipped and fell.
From nowhere, iya Ogbomoso just surfaced. Her face was a replica of Gbenga Adeboye's friend who fought lion in one of his comedy album.

My brother was of the opinion that the person who made her tribal mark though was wicked but had a good handwriting because the lines were well drawn and neatly arranged. For me, the person should be on terrorist list, because eleven lines on each cheek was act of terrorism.

The lady was trying to pick her daughter but iya Ogbomoso stopped her. "She's my baby!" "Yes, we know!!!" The women replied. "If you're careless enough to let your baby slip from your back, you must face the consequences and what the situation demands to save your baby" iya Ogbomoso said.

"Naked yourself, start dancing round the baby seven times or else there would be problem for her when she gets married...she would be losing her husbands" the crowd started giving different versions of their beliefs. "I don't believe this! The beautiful lady managed to say as she cried. "It has nothing to do with your belief, 'alakowe'" said iya oyinbo.

The omo ibos, (as they call the Igbos in the area) started encouraging the lady to go nude, not because they believed in the superstition but because they wanted to see movie you can't see on AIT.

Dear friend, things get complicated when we refuse to cater for and guard jealously our brain-child. Some things we do kill our babies at conception or tender age. 'Its your baby! Yes, we know!'
You've got to birth the idea and nurture it. Don't mind the deafening and direction-less noise of the crowd. You've got to do what you need to do to save your brain-child. Follow the necessary steps...

*Think deeply and conceive the baby.

*Like a great mother, put things in place before the birth.

*The place of birth is not so important if you have vision and purpose. Remember that Jesus was birthed in a manger but He's world brand today. Henry Ford birthed and nurtured his brainchild at his father's garage. Facebook was abnormal baby when it was birthed in a college.

*Nurture your newborn. Get a good mentor to wash your baby thoroughly to avoid body odour in future.

*Guard it jealously from abnormal growth.

...just like twins, raising them is challenging but when they grow, you can point from afar to any of them and say to anyone with pride..."that's my baby!"

Written for Global Purpose Network

Odunmorayo Olalekan Matthew
Author of the new book EXITING YOUR RAT RACE
olalekanchams.oo@gmail.com