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SUPERMOM EPISODE SEVEN FEATURES TALKING DRUMMER ARA& ACE MOVIE PRODUCER CHICO EJIRO'S MUMS

The Supermom reality TV show (celebrity edition) heat is still on. Featured in this week’s episode are the mums of popular talking drummer, Ara and ace movie producer Chico Ejiro.
Enjoy their stories!

If you want to know to what length a mother would go for a child on the verge of seeming self-destruct, ask Alhaja Monsurat Olumuyiwa, the mother of acclaimed talking drummer, Aralola, the story of how she almost fell victim to convicted, infamous man-eater, Clifford Orji, because of Ara.
Some days before the lid was blown off his nefarious activities, Olumuyiwa had typically gone in search of Ara who had made the studios around their neighbourhood her second home. While recalling her stories of sacrifices and sufferings and narrow escape on this week’s edition of the Supermom Celebrity show, she says, “All her brothers are graduates; she was the only one who said she was dropping out of school to concentrate on music.
I and her father could not reconcile with that because she could have acquired whatever degree she wanted but Ara chose music.”
On one of those heady days, Ara had characteristically not returned home and there was no GSM in the country then. Out of sheer maternal instinct, Olumuyiwa hopped into the car with one of Ara’s brothers behind the wheel. She was desperate to find her only daughter.
She was however less concerned not oblivious to the danger that lurked in the eerie darkness of mid-90s Oshodi, Lagos. Her child means so much to her. As they inched towards the Charity bus stop where Orji reigned supreme, two flashlights emerged, flagging down the Olumuyiwas’ car a la policemen. Time was around 1am. The hosts of heaven had retired for the night. And the hounds of hell had taken over.
But fate had decreed that the hapless matriarch would not make up the numbers on Orji’s list of victims. As the car slowed to a roll, two men on either side of the road maniacally ran towards it. Instinctively, Olumuyiwa knew these were no policemen and just as the assailants made to open the car, she screamed and her son stepped off the brake as the car gathered frenzied speed in nano seconds.
Still, she went in search of Ara that night. Thankfully, today, Ara, with her signature mermaid-like hair is the most decorated and recognized talking drummer from Africa.
She has toured the world extensively, performed for the Queen of England and President Bill Clinton at different banquets; and performed alongside global music icons like Stevie Wonder and Wyclef Jean. She is a holder of the Freedom Key to Miami-Dade County, USA. With the benefit of hindsight, it was not by accident that Ara (meaning mystery or wonder) was so named. Her mother recalls that she knew from when Ara was a baby that she was an unusual child.
“She started walking by the time she was seven months, which is a rarity till this day and yet, had no tooth. So, when people are visiting, I would strap her to my back so that people won’t see her walking and start asking questions. But I thank God for what and who she is today.”
But the colourful singer drummer who hails from Ondo town in Ondo State isn’t the only one with a Supermom.
On this episode also, Chico Ejiro, one of Nollywood’s most respected producers, with a repertoire of about 500 movies, says he owes his success and that of his siblings; Peter and Zeb, pre-eminent filmmakers, to their mother’s relentlessness, Mrs. Eloho Susan Ejiro. A hard working woman who was forced to train her three boys all by herself after her separation from her husband in 1971 while in Equatorial Guinea, she went through the entire gamut of sufferings without letting her faith flag.
The challenge of taking care of three boys alone plagued her that she engaged in all manners of trading. She sold garri, ogogoro and even her wrappers to raise money for her children’s fees. Borrowing became the order of the day since all the money she made from her sales put together wasn’t enough to pay for their fees.
But she ensured that they went to school against all odds. In the midst of their penurious existence, she knew her kids were entitled to some form of leisure. Thus, because she had no television in the house then, she would take her children to the cinemas whenever she could. Unknown to her, she was unconsciously arousing a passion in their heart for the movie industry.
Today, the three brothers have made their names as Nollywood greats and they are stopping at nothing to show their Supermom how grateful they are for weathering those stormy and uncertain years. The Supermom celebrity edition airs on the prime time and network belt of Africa Independent Television on Saturdays, and on many other terrestrial television stations across the country.

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SUPERMOM REVIEW

Founded on jaw dropping true-life stories, the Supermom show aired consecutively for the past 10 weeks has made a big statement on television. The tear-jerker which is now a choice programme has been a channel of lessons and eye-opening experience to millions of followers.

Broadcast at 9pm on the Nigerian Television Authority and African Independent Television stations on Saturdays and Sundays respectively, it boasts of influential sponsors like Procter&Gamble, Promasidor and Dufil foods; makers of Ariel detergent, Onga seasoning and Indomie Noodles.

The first episode was devoted to a review of the maiden edition and a recap of promotional activities for the new season. However, to spark off participation from viewers, two interesting sub-segments were introduced. The first, ‘Hug for Mama’ compels viewers to snap a picture of themselves and their mothers in an emotional hug to a designated email address and stand a chance to win N50, 000.

On the Celebrity Supermom segment, awesome stories of celebrities whose mothers have been instrumental to their success are shortly narrated. Stories of artistes like Psquare, Wasiu Alabi, Clarence Peters, Taye Taiwo have added glamour to the show.

Also, entertainment icons like Joseph Benjamin, Tiwa Savage, Waje, Femi Adeyinka, Halima Abubakar have as a matter of custom been a host on each episode of the show.

The stories in episodes two to eleven have been quite enthralling. The storylines though poles different are thematically similar as acute poverty, struggle, pain and hardship remain the order of the day. Driven by their labour-ward experience which often comes to recall, they have gone through thick and thin to make their children a remarkable success. With no atom of support from their husbands or relatives, from the sale of their personal effects, to working on people’s farms to pay school fees, they’ve managed to sail through murky waters.

These are women who according to Sola Fajobi, Executive Director, Digital Interactive Media, do not look like they can lift a stone but have performed heroic deeds for their children. As in the case of  Mrs Aishat Adedeji, a 58 year old trader featured on the 6th episode who took the pains of backing her son to and fro school when he became paralyzed and hinged on seeing her child walk, took him to a sheu in a distant village, even when her husband withdrew financial support, she worked on people’s farms, begged to pay for local medicine and also to survive. With the child strapped to her back, she decided to trek miles home, a good Samaritan however came to her rescue when the stress unhinged her mind.

Adedeji’s sacrifices are one in a million and such that have a profound effect on her children. Rather than get a pat in the back, their far-reaching efforts have been deemed unappreciated by their husbands who later abandon them for other women or in rare cases die untimely.

Asides been preoccupied with their children’s well-being, they look beyond their humiliation and run from pillar to post for their husbands. On the eight episode, Sidikat Kareem, a Lagos-based trader asides hawking pepper and cleaning people’s houses became a transit beggar to bail her husband from the hospital. She spent all her income paying bills and procuring drugs for him. One her way home one night, she was waylaid, beaten blue black and had all her money taken. Inspite of all these, she sought other survival means. Indeed, a mother’s heart is a patchwork of love.

There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own. This maxim best explains the decision of Folajogun Adesona a 61 year-old trader and a competitor on the tenth episode to adopt two additional children despite having eight to cater for. When her husband died, her unfriendly inlaws denied her access to her husband’s property, forced her to withdraw her children from private to public schools. The once happy family wallowed in poverty, she had to engaged herself in all sorts of jobs to survive. She sold fruits, firewood, became a bricklayer, sold cooked food and many more.

With all these harrowing experiences, one would hardly believe that their meagre income sponsored their children through university. As viewers continue to vote for their favourite mothers who will make it to the final stage, at the 12th episode mothers who have qualified since the inception of the show will be granted a private broadcast. Three mothers will be shortlisted and viewers would inturn vote for the mother who deserves to be the next Supermom.

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