She became an octogenarian few weeks back but this quintessential style and beauty ambassador on her 80th birthday celebration didn’t look a day older than 60. Like a bejeweled crown, Opral Benson who proudly bears her sobriquet, ‘Yeye Oge’ to the admiration of all and sundry speaks with Senior Reporter, Anthonia Soyingbe on life at 80.
Happy at 80
Actually I feel great , luckily for me I got no illness or anything in terms of what some people feel at the age of 80 , so how it feel? I feel good, I feel happy, I feel blessed and I feel that God has been with me.
Yeye Oge
Well I don’t know but I feel content and happy with myself and I think your inner feelings make a difference to your outward appearance. I don’t get involved with things or people that will put me down or make me unhappy. I think if you are happy with yourself you look good. I try to stay on top and in control of my joy and happiness.
I would say yes. I think I have achieved whatever God expect in me to achieve .If there is anything else he wishes me to do, I shall wait and see. But then I’m thankful but I don’t go about thinking that there is something else that I need to achieve that I haven’t. I am thankful and grateful to God. I have also been very lucky to have met people that have been good to me in the course of my life journey.
Young at heart
I work with a lot of associations and I meet a lot of young people. I’m a matron or trustee to a lot of clubs and organizations, so I interact with a lot of the younger generation. I encourage them and help them out with things they want to do for their communities. It certainly makes me happy to interact with them.
Beauty School
Not in the day- to -day running of it, I have somebody who manages it but I am still the overall operator and proprietor. We are going to be 30 years old and I think we have done quite a bit for young men and women who are out there, working for themselves.
They are now employers of labour and have people working for them. At the end of the day, i feel blessed that i have been able to reach out and do something to empower people to help other people and i think through my beauty school, I have achieved just that. The school has been a great blessing to me and 30 years of it has not been an easy task because we have been able to keep on improving. We have been the shining star in the beauty industry in Nigeria. I have a line of beauty products but have sold the business. At a time, I had thought about going back to it but then the manufacturing environment had not been that good and I didn’t want to get involved in that headache.
Although I believe as you grow older, you shouldn’t keep getting yourself from venturing into new things. My products have made a name for themselves and have sold and is still selling, we have our perfumes range also and fragrances. I think I have done quite well. I was the one that started with Johnson’s products, Chicago .When it came out, it was the rave .
Life without TOS Benson
It’s been lonely without him but God is in control .He’s been gone for seven years now and of course I miss him terribly but who are we to question God? we are not going to be here forever .We are going to go back someday and I’m thankful for my late husband’s life .I also thank God for pulling me through these far since he left me.
Less partying
I haven’t withdrawn from social life; I go to whereever I want to go. I go to the events that I think are worthwhile, the ones that I know that I can make some kind of contributions to the society
In touch with Liberians
I am the consulate for Liberia in Nigeria today. I am starting a Liberian -Nigeria Beauty business relation .Even though I am now Nigerian, still a part of me is there in Liberia. I still have family and friends there. It is where I was born and brought up and so yes I do keep in touch especially more than before because now, I am acting on official basis. The President had appointed me in 2011 as the Consulate for Liberia in Lagos and I am doing my work.
Nigeria is home
Why are you saying home? I have been in Nigeria for 50years so why are you calling Liberia home? Nigeria is also my home .When I’m in Nigeria, I think about Liberia and when I’m in Liberia ,I think about Nigeria so I do have two homes.
Good dancer
I get on the floor and do it. I feel I have the strength and if I have the opportunity to wriggle and exercise my body and bones, why shouldn’t I dance?. It has happened so many times and after my performance, I could hardly believe I did it!
Have you ever had an instance where the audience did not applaud you after your performance?
No, that has never happened to me
Yes! In London, I did just an informal performance. I had actually gone to an event and there was no poet around to perform. So, I introduced myself to them and they asked me to go ahead to perform. I did and they liked my poetry, my concept and performance. I was thrilled, too.
I think reactions vary from people and places. In New York, it was at a finger snap and series of it. While in London, it is a very conservative lifestyle, in terms of giving applause. They would applaud your performance, but not with a loud bang. However, I was able to judge my performance by their comments, which were insightful and constructive. It elevated my creative psyche. I must say that Nigerians are very boisterous and passionate people who overtly display their emotions as well as show appreciation for whatever you do. Nigerian audience is very dramatic when it comes to giving applause at any giving time
Nigerians and poetry
Honestly, I guess it will take some time. It will be a gradual process. I think there was a time, in the era of our founding fathers, when it was acceptable to be a poet and we actually had dedicated venues for that, but now, unfortunately, we have lost it somewhere along the line. There are lots of literary pieces going round. But, venues like Terra-Kulture and Goethe Institute still cater for poets and aspiring ones. Maybe, because there is no immediate and huge financial reward from it, all the same, we will keep trying to get people to love and accept it.
I think generally, not many poets make enough money. But, I think there are some outstanding poets on the international platform who have been able to structure their works into business mode. Those are the people who give us hope, that someday, even if only 100 people are successful among them, one could luckily be one of them. I think, generally, not many of the poets make enough money. So, they are also engaged in some other ventures.
Certainly, a poet can do that. Why not? I write songs. I actually started out with songs before I went into poetry. A lot of poems that I have done had come with their own music. They come into my head more often with music.
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