Why I Had A Low Key 50th Birthday – Consumer Rights Advocates, SOLA SALAKO

Not many people know that Consumer Rights activist, Sola Salako is 50. We can gladly tell you she is. She turned 50 a few weeks back and she had a low-keyed celebration with friends and family. She told City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE how she felt turning 50. Below are excerpts.

Recently you turned 50 how did you celebrate it?

It was very low-key. Normally my birthdays are open house, but my siblings and friends went a step further. They created a nice set up in my house. There was a lot to drink and eat. I woke up that morning and I saw all the decoration. I didn’t plan to have a party. It was small, simple and nice. Just something to mark the day.

What went through your mind on the day you turned 50?

I was so happy. I was thankful that I was alive to see 50. It is a great privilege. When you are young you will think 50 is far away. When I woke up it dawned on me that I am actually 50. I am alive. I am well. I am at peace. I was just glad. On that day, I danced. That was how happy I was, that I was alive to see the day. All my friends showed up.

Did you get that feeling that you were growing old, and that you were crossing to the other divide?

I don’t know how to grow old ooo. In my mind, I feel like I am 25. It’s only that, energy wise, you will show down. I think age is something of the mind. I still don’t feel 50. I don’t know if I look 50 but I don’t feel it. It is because I get my mind involved in so many things. Nothing changes. There is so much of the world to discover. As long as you are learning you can never be old. And I am always learning. So I don’t even know what it means to be 50. Somebody has to remind me that I am 50.

Tell us about your growing up years. Where were you born? Schools attended?

I was born in Ojuelegba in Lagos. I grew up there, I lived there, I went to school there, I went to Our Lady of Lords Primary School. It is on Clegg Street. Then, I moved to Epe Girls High School. I was in Boarding School for like 2 years. I could not cope because I was not a village girl. My parents pulled me out back to Lagos. I went to Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School, where I got my school cert. Then I went to FSS Lagos. It no longer exists now. I did my lower school. Then, I got admission into UNILAG. I did my First degree in English. I went to serve. For orientation, I went to Gongola but I served in Lagos. And then I went back to UNILAG to go and take a Post Graduate diploma in Mass Communication. I finished the class. I finished my courses. I did everything but I did not submit my Thesis. Because of that, they did not award me the certificate. I can say course completed but I did not meet the prerequisite for the certificate because I did not submit. I was working so it was difficult working and going to school.

How did all of these prepare you for later years?

I don’t know. I think I went to school because I needed to go to school. Maybe now there is more being done to help youths to be career oriented. When we were going to school, we just went to school. I wanted to be a lawyer. That was my dream. But I didn’t get enough to go into Law and they offered me English in UNILAG and I took it thinking after 1 year I will change. I enjoyed University life and I never changed.

Now, I am glad that I didn’t study Law. I would have been too regimented. What I do now has a whole lot of Law in it. I have taken a certificate in legal drafting when I was Commissioner at Lagos Law Reform Commission. If I had studied Law I probably would have been very bored. But I am still thinking of going to take a post graduate diploma in Law. I realise that what I do now I can’t walk away from Law. I am at advantage being someone who has a Communications background. Law is tedious. What I do now is not as tedious. I am not wired to be like that. But people always ask me. Are you a Lawyer? Because what I do. They say I think like a Lawyer and do what lawyers do.

What sort of a person is Sola Salako?

I don’t know. I am just me. I am a very happy person. People say I have gra, gra I am very assertive. And I have an opinion. It has not served me well, a lot is this clime because women are not supposed to have an opinion around here.

My parents didn’t bring me up as a woman. My mum was gender blind when it came to her children. May God rest her soul. She saw you as a human being first. All of us, male and female she brought us up together. It wasn’t until I left my house that I realised that women behaved differently from men because we all did the same thing together. We did the same chores. She allowed us to be anything we wanted. I am opinionated because of that’s the way God wired me. I have an opinion. I am very inquisitive. I am very friendly. I hate injustice. I will stand up and speak up for people even when I was a kid. That is what has moved me in the direction of what I now do. I am calm. I don’t know if I am nice. But I am considerate. And I can be very loyal. Those are the things I know about me. Somebody else will need to tell me more about me that I may not know. I am effervescent. I am opinionated. I am gragra.

How do you unwind?

I play scrabble a lot. I am a social media freak now. I like to learn new things. I watch a lot of Yoruba movies, the epic ones. The ancient ones. They are more real to me than foreign movies. I like to see the culture. I like to see how we grew to be where we are now. I get the village feel from TV.

How come Sola is still single @ 50?

I don’t know. I guess maybe we have never found somebody who could deal with this girl. (Laughs) But it’s not a problem for me. A lot of people think there is something wrong with me. I don’t think so. For me, marriage is something that happens because you meet someone that you can’t live without, kind of.

But how come you’ve not been able to find that kind of person with your exposure and lifestyle?

Yes. But it’s not that easy. Like some people have said, maybe I don’t take it seriously. I have been accused of not taking it seriously. But I also don’t think its a do or die matter. I feel that everybody has a destiny. That God already planned your life before you got here. If it is written in your destiny that you are going to walk that path, you will. If it’s not, you will not. It’s not the purpose of life. There are so many other reasons why God will bring you to this world. If marriage is one of it, it will make it happen. I still think I will get married. But it will be because I want to, not because I have to. Maybe my orientation to it is different from what obtains here. So, people think I am too Western. But I have never gone to school abroad. I went to school in Nigeria. So it’s not as if society influenced me. I think it’s just a function of me been exposed to Gods words, understanding God and coming to terms with the fact that in life everybody has different timing and I am a contented person.

That’s the main issue. I am happy as I am. If tomorrow I get married I will be just as happy. I am not the kind of person who thinks I should put any life on hold. Because one thing has not happened. Nooo! Then you will never get those time back. So I just make the best of every moment of my life because that is all I have. I don’t like pretence. A man must like me the way I am. If you don’t like me the way I am good luck to you. Whoever is going to marry me must take me for who I am.

What sort of a person would you like to flow with?

Somebody who is kind. Kindness is a very key word. I have watched a lot of relationships go to the dust because they just stopped being kind to each other. Because if you are kind to someone even when they offend you there is a way you will accommodate each other. I think somebody who is kind is probably my only consideration and of course some who plays Scrabble. I love to scribble a lot. He has to know how to play scrabble. I am hooked on this scrabble app that enables you to play with anybody in the world. So whoever wants to marry must be able to do that so that we can be friends.