Lady Comfort Olumuyiwa Nwosu clocked 65 years old recently and her activist husband, Sir Sunday Nwosu along with their children deemed it fit to throw a surprise party to celebrate a woman who through thick and thin has remained a dependable rock to the entire family and community in which she lives. During a chat with MARY NNAH, the business woman, who went down memory lane, shared her dreams as little girl and the trajectory of her sojourn on earth
Growing up, Lady Comfort Olumuyiwa Nwosu, like every other young girl, had dreams. She was a simple girl but with a lot of dreams for a better future and of course, of becoming a great woman. She was the perfect description of the little girl that wanted everything – she wanted to go to school and graduate as one of the best students, she wanted the best job in town soon after graduation, she wanted to live a good life and of course she wanted a prince charming that will sweep her off her feet someday and thereafter, lives happily ever with him.
But life, most often, comes with surprises, some good, some not so good and other times; things may not even go as planned.
Born on April 8, 1956, Comfort’s mother died on the 16th of that same month, when she was precisely eight days old. Even though she hadn’t started having her dreams then since she was still an infant, her life automatically took a new turn. She started living with relatives from infancy and never knew what the future held for her.
“I grew up with aunties and uncles but they were not there for me. When my mother died, there were lots of promises but soon after everyone forgot the promises they made turning their back at me. I was mom`s third child. I went through a lot of difficulties in life. I have seen a lot of things which I cannot talk about but I just want to keep praising God for my life. I struggled all alone to survive in life because of the many difficulties I faced as a child. I had to get married at a very early age; I was 22; I wouldn’t have married at that age, if I had someone to pay my fees through school. I just had to get myself a husband because I didn’t want to be forced into living a wayward life, so I got married as soon as I could and settled down”, she recalled.
Comfort, as she was called then, was a little girl with big dreams – a girl trying to follow her dreams. So, taking that decision to marry early in life turned out to be the very best decision she ever took in her life because she eventually met her dream man who supported her dreams all the way.
“I got married at 22 years old but that wasn’t what I planned for myself. But I know God’s plans prevail in everything we do in life. In fact when I was going through all the tough times while growing up, I said to God, please what you don`t want me to do, do not allow it to come my way. I told God that I wanted to settle down and start having my own children instead of roaming the streets doing rubbish”, she recalled.
While recalling that nobody was ready to help while she was in her predicament, she said, “Neither uncles nor aunties; brother nor sisters were there for me. Not even a single person that called themselves family was there for me and these were people that my parents were so nice to while they were alive. But thank God that I didn’t regret any step I took even though there were a lot of things I would have loved to do then if I had the opportunity”, she noted.
Looking back at her life in the last 65 years, even though there were a lot of things she would have loved to do differently, she is still grateful to God as her life didn’t turn out as worse as she had feared.
“Of course, there were so many things I wanted to do differently in my life but I will not dwell on that because God has been faithful to me despite all odds. I am so happy and lack words to express myself. I am grateful to God that has kept me up to this time. I have passed through a lot but God`s mercy has been sufficient to me and every member of my family. God has been so good to me in everything. Now, I am very much okay because I do not carry burdens on my mind. I allow God to take charge of every situation in my life and that is what has kept me going and God has always been there for me” Lady Nwosu noted.
They say that the flower can only bloom when in an ambient atmosphere, so with much hope, excitement and anxiety, Lady Nwosu made attempts to get the best of education but it never worked as she lacked the support she needed then.
Taking her mind back to those ugly old days, she said, “I attended school when I was living with one of my aunties in Ile Ife then. I attended primary school and attempted secondary school for a couple of years but I could not finish secondary school due to lack of financial assistance.”
Little Comfort dropped out of school because the challenges were enormous.
“The challenges were overwhelming –no books, no uniform and nothing. It was like they just put me in a school and left me there to struggle all alone. And even then I used to leave home to school by 11 am because I would be forced to stay to finish all the house chores before I was allowed to school. By the time I get to school they would not allow me into class due to lateness. So, the pressure was so much on me and I had to drop out of secondary school.”
Not daunted, Lady Nwosu came to Lagos where she attended the Elegance Hairdressing School at Ogunlana Drive, Surulere just to ensure that her dream of becoming a great woman was achieved and in Lagos luck shone on her.
“I started in 1977 and finished in 1978. It was just when I was finishing learning hairdressing that I met my husband and we got married in 1978 as soon as I rounded off at the hairdressing school.”
After her graduation, she went fully into hairdressing business with full support from her loving and supportive husband, Sir Sunday Nnamdi Nwosu.
For about 30 years, Lady Nsowu recorded huge success in her hairdressing business, up till the day she decided to fold up the business due to the demise of her eldest child.
“When I lost my first daughter, I was so overwhelmed so much that I lost interest in everything around me and that was how my hairdressing business of 30 years collapsed. After some time, I went into soft drinks business and that is what I do till today.”
For Lady Nwosu, the most memorable day in her life is when she had her first child. Even though the births of all other of her children were fantastic experiences, her first child’s was most memorable. No wonder she was left so devastated when she lost her.
Interestingly, Lady Nwosu, a Yoruba from Ogun State is married to an Igbo man, precisely from Ikwuano Local Government Area in Abia State.
She recalled that marrying a man from a different tribe aside hers was very tough at first. It was really tough for her husband’s family to accept her and vice versa. But all she needed was a man who believed in her.
“It was tough at first! I don’t even want to go there. It is very tough to marry someone from another tribe especially when you do not understand his language. But in everything I still thank God. He prevailed over every difficulty for me”, she noted.
She however described her husband as the most loving and caring person she has ever met.
“My husband is a very nice man; a good father; a loving husband and he is good to everyone who comes across him. He is a father to everybody that knows him. He is an activist and has been doing this for a very long time”, she said of her husband.
Collaborating, her husband, Sir Sunday Nnamdi Nwosu, an activist and founder of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, who sat quietly while she spoke with this reporter, quickly chipped in: “We continue to pray for enduring marriage after more than 40 years. We don’t pray to be like Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, so that implies that we are satisfied with our relationship and we are in love. That speaks clearly when I said we don’t want to be like Bill Gates and his wife. It is a clear indication of existing love between us despite all challenges because there is no marriage without challenges and these challenges could be a threat to co-existence but what is more important is patience to survive such challenges.
“In a clear sentence, she is a loving wife and I am also a loving husband. I love her and I have no intention of separating from her or of taking another wife”, he added.
Sir Nwosu, who speaks Yoruba so fluently, reiterated that inter-tribal marriage is the unity that is needed to cement the sovereignty of the nation, adding, “If every other tribe can see it from that way it will be better for Nigeria. I strongly believe that this kind of inter-tribal marriages where we speak each other’s language is also part of the endurance and cementation of love between people and that is exactly what makes me joyful in this home.”
He revealed further that his son is married to an Akwa Ibom woman while his three girls are married to different tribes: “One is married to an Ekiti man while another is married to a Lagosian and the last married to a Benin person. We do not see anything wrong about inter-tribal marriages because we are all children of God and one way or the other, our prayer will be that the children that we bear wherever we find ourselves, should be good ambassadors of the source of their mothers. What is more important is happiness”, he noted.
Despite all that she went through, and even when it seemed her dreams weren’t going to come to fruition, she remained undaunted, pulled through and came out triumphantly, thus achieving her dreams of being a great woman and living a good life. And today, that little girl with big dreams lacks nothing!
For this conquest she had this to tell young people, especially girls who are struggling with life. “Patience and endurance is very important in all that we do in life. You have to be patient to be able to get to your destination in life. Patience and endurance will take you to your destination in life. You do not need to be in haste but be focused on what you want in life. There is nowhere you will go that you will not face problems; whether in marriage, career or education, there will always be one problem or the other. It will now depend on how you carry yourself and your problems. The most important thing is to be humble, patient and determined to succeed.”
