About three weeks ago, 27-year old Olajumoke
Orisaguna was a complete unknown on the
streets of Lagos, hawking bread. A loaf of bread
is about N100, and even with a full tray such as
she carried in her first public embrace of fame,
her whole ware for a day may not be more than
N3,000, with daily profit between N300-N700.
She had trained as a hair stylist, got married but
had to leave her husband and a daughter back
home in Ire, Osun state, to ‘hustle’ as it were in
Lagos. The life of a bread seller in Lagos is
easily imaginable: exposure to the elements, to
sundry abuse, including the possibility of being
raped by unruly artisans and bachelors, who will
offer to buy bread and something else along with
it, if the hawker is willing.
This was Olajumoke Orisaguna’s reality until she
ran into TY Bello and Tinie Tempah and her life
changed. Today, she has been enrolled as a
model. Her story has appeared in all
newspapers, on CNN, Huffington Post, and
virtually everywhere online.
Two companies: StanbicIBTC and PayPorte have
made her their brand ambassador. The former
even awarded her two daughters scholarships up
to university level. Her face has appeared on the
cover of magazines. She is now a student at
Poise Finishing School, an intern with two beauty
salons, and a motivational speaker, even if she
reportedly can’t speak English.
When she went to the office of the National
Identity Management Commission to get an
identity card, NIMC also cashed in on her new
found fame to use her to promote the agency:
“Olajumoke knows she needs to NIMC. She
walked into a NIMC centre yesterday unsolicited.
Olajumoke is smart. Be like her.” This must be
the most saccharine endorsement of Olajumoke
so far.
To crown it all, a construction company has
given her a luxury apartment in Lagos. From
hawking bread in Agege, she is now within
weeks, the darling of corporate Nigeria, the
poster girl for corporate social responsibility, a
landlady, and a role model. She had probably
never seen the inside of an aircraft, but a few
days ago, she was on a flight to Abuja to give a
speech!
Olajumoke and her husband
Mrs Orisaguna is Nigeria’s Cinderella. Hers is a
sudden, unplanned, unexpected, unprepared for
grass to grace, rags to riches story, a kind of I–
just-dey-waka-my-own-jeje-luck-come-jam-
me-tale. It doesn’t happen everyday. It is the
kind of accident that many Nigerians seek:
accidental fame and fortune. It is perhaps the
magical, miraculous, I-don’t believe-it-but-it-is-
true quality of this story that has captured the
public imagination.
Olajumoke was hawking her bread innocently in
Sabo, when she stumbled upon a photo session
by that gifted mother of twins, artist and
photographer, TY Bello, working on a series of
shots for the international hip hop star, Tinie
Tempah.
Olajumoke
We have been told that Olajumoke Orisaguna
‘photobombed’ herself into the activity. I guess
she just happened to walk by trying to sell
bread, and TY Bello who is a spirit in action
when she is at work, had a brain wave and took
her picture. Enormously creative, T Y Bello
thinks on her feet. When she has that her big
camera in her hands, she is an agile, inventive
artist.
Her camera is a weapon for interpreting space
and reality, and for discovering new meanings. It
must have occurred to her that asking the
international musician to pose with a bread seller
would give the picture a much deeper meaning,
inherent in the open contrasts and auto-
suggestions. It is that split second decision that
has turned Jumoke Orisaguna into a superstar.
The shot was brilliant, the result was impressive
with people asking: ‘Who is that girl? She will
make a good model.’ TY Bello took on the
challenge, and became Olajumoke Orisaguna’s
promoter, mentor, adviser, godmother, and
supporter, taking her to new heights within three
weeks. Nobody is talking about Tempah, the
main subject of the photo shoot; the focus is on
the wanderer who walked onto the set, the bread
seller who has taken the bread of the show, the
waka-pass who became the star. I understand
Tempah is quite happy; don’t be surprised then
if he composes a special song soon, titled ‘The
Bread Seller!’ or ‘Photobombed’ or simply
‘Olajumoke.’
Olajumoke signs with Few Models Management
Nigeria.
The Olajumoke Orisaguna story is a perfect
demonstration of the witchcraft quality of
photography and that single shot that has
changed a life may well be one of TY Bello’s
most remarkable efforts in her chosen genre.
But I find around Olajumoke’s sudden
transformation from person to brand, too much
capitalist hypocrisy and opportunism.
The brand is selling like hot cake, but the person
needs protection. I feel for her. I fear for her.
There is a sense in which she is a potential
victim. The brand experts now taking her from
place to place probably would not have even
patronized her. They don’t eat the kind of bread
that she sold.
Many of them don’t even know what part of
Lagos is called Sabo. They don’t buy their bread
from hawkers; they would rather go to
supermarkets or confectionery stores. Before luck
smiled on this young lady, many of those now
posing for photos with her would never have
noticed her presence.
Olajumoke becomes a brand ambassador for
Payporte.
There are definitely many of her type, still
hawking bread, or some other items, some even
sitting in front of the bank, with a baby strapped
to the back, but they may never be noticed or
helped. The same companies that are using
Olajumoke to talk about corporate social
responsibility, are actually joking, they know that
this is not CSR; it is brand exploitation!
And it may not last. There is nothing in
Olajumoke’s background or exposure that has
prepared her for the life of glitz being imposed on
her. The skills she has acquired as a bread
seller and hair stylist may not carry her far in the
cruel world of modeling. When this blitz is over,
she will need to compete for jobs and attention,
if she must remain a model.
She will have to learn sooner or later, to survive
on her own. She will have to maintain the luxury
apartment that she has been given. She has
been taught fancy dressing, including the magic
of make up and those magical colours that
change a dull face into a phallus-teasing one do
not come cheap.
She is at best an art work that other people have
created: she has been made up into a siren, her
hitherto dull skin now glows, in one photo, her
hair had a queenly allure, they have given her
new clothes, jazzing her up, to look feminine and
sensual, and they have taught her how to smile
in a tempting manner. Wow. That smile!
The sorry part of it all is that her narrative is
quite innocent and hauntingly brief, as is the
case with all overnight sensations. The capitalist
hypocrites will soon find something else to excite
them, just as the media will find a new story.
It probably would have been much better to help
Olajumoke Orisaguna set up a small-scale
business, to take her off the street-life of
hawking, rather than this world of sharks into
which she has been thrown. Perhaps the best
that has been done for her is sending her on
internship at beauty salons. She could at least
set up a beauty salon of her own and live happily
thereafter.
In a normal society, no young woman should be
on the streets hawking bread in order to survive.
In a normal society, Olajumoke Orisaguna would
have been given the opportunity to go to school,
and have a proper career. She is being given, all
within three weeks, the kind of empowerment
that society has denied her and many like her,
but how about all the other Olajumokes who
may never ‘photobomb’ their way to luck?
Her new life is a reminder of what she could
have been but which she could not become
because of the kind of society in which she has
found herself. She should never have had to
hawk bread to support her husband and children.
Her husband! Yes, Mr. Sunday Orisaguna. I have
seen him in the photographs, either carrying their
baby, or just putting up appearance. He looks
lost, confused, overwhelmed, harassed and
uncertain. He must be wondering what has
happened or is happening to the woman he
married.
There is a clear difference between Olajumoke,
the wife and bread seller, and Olajumoke, the
model and celebrity. While Olajumoke is
beginning to wear designer clothes, her humble
husband is still managing his one-day-me-too-
go-jam-luck attires. His wife has been sent to
finishing school. By the time she finishes, I hope
her new persona will not finish her marriage.
Olajumoke is now learning to speak English, but
her husband is a humble, sliding door installer
who probably speaks only Yoruba. In our kind of
society, given the social level and cultural
background of the parties involved, it won’t be
long before the demons will begin to crawl out of
the woods, from in-laws who may begin to
psycho-analyse Olajumoke, to family members
who will scrutinize her every gesture, and friends
with whom she hawked bread and has now left
behind.
Lack of clarity over role interpretation and the
new persona could also confuse the young
mother. She needs a different set of skills to
manage new relationships, especially the new
friends coming her way, including those
lecherous uncles who may show up and seek to
exploit her innocence.
The people turning her into a sex symbol should
also tarry a while, and remember that she is a
married mother of two. She needs counseling.
And her sliding door installer husband, who has
featured in her fairytale so far as a hanger-on,
no matter what happens, should not be made to
slide away. Sunday Orisaguna should also be
counseled, given new clothes, taught English and
sent to finishing school. He should not be left
behind.





thenet.ng/2016/02/olajumoke-orisaguna-the-nigerian-cinderella-reuben-abati-writes/

Yawns.
Height of joblessness... See epistle of life because of bread seller wey no dey baff well..

Hiss*

Seems Ruben has found his voice

Not hating though..... enof already