Women of Rubies
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#RUBYGIRLS| “MY GREATEST INSPIRATION IS MY ENVIROMENT”- ARINOLA LAWAL

Arinola Halimat Lawal popularly known as Lymar is a fresh graduate of Political Science from Olabisi Onabanjo University. She served as Student Union Government, Vice-President in 2016/2017 academic session and ran for Presidency in 2017/2018 academic session making her the second female to run for SUG presidency since the inception of OOU. She owns “Lymar’s Beauty Touch (Lbt Makeover).” Her favourite game is Politics.

She shares her “Ruby Girl” story in this interview.

Meet Me

I’m Miss Lawal Halimat Arinola , popularly known as Lymar. Lymar is an easy going person. Studied political science, in her early twenties. I love video games and I write stories. Lymar loves to look good and Lymar is a very ambitious lady. Lymar loves Islam. My favorite game is POLITICS!

 

My Inspiration

My greatest inspiration is my environment, why? I was born in Mushin, Lagos and I noticed that the lifestyle of most of its inhabitants is nothing to write home about. And there is a tag on everyone from Mushin as being a bad or low class person . So, this inspired and borne in me the desire to make a difference and let people know that intelligent, smart, and ambitious people can come from the ghetto.

Biggest fear

My biggest fear is losing my mom or dad. I don’t ever want to lose them. I love them so much.

Fashion item or accessory I can’t leave home without.

Earrings and necklace.

Go back in time to correct a mistake or time travel two years into the future?

I’ll choose to travel two years to the future.

 Best Quote
“He who fears to fall can never rise.”

Ambition to serve as  OOU SUG  VICE PRESIDENT  and it’s impact

It was quite challenging, but like my favorite quote says, “he who fears to fall can never rise.” My political inspiration came from Abike Dabiri and Ngozi Okonjie. They are both women who have made changes in the society. I also want to make a change and impact people’s life positively, and it was said by Thomas Hobbes that, “service to humanity is the best work of life.” Contesting as the SUG president was borne out of the fact that since the inception of Olabisi Onabanjo University, a female has emerged as President of its Student Union Government. I felt the need to break this jinx and make history. Although it wasn’t successful but an attempt was made which is the most important. Being the second female to contest for the SUG presidency is also an honour for me.

Why did you step down in your bid for presidency?
I stepped down because there was a mix up along the line.

What do you do in your darkest moment?

I pray.

Being a fresh  graduate, expectations and career path

I see myself working towards my dreams and becoming great in life. My own philosophy of life is taking risk to become great, and am ready to take risks anytime it comes my way. So, I have no fear and of course, yes I intend taking my political ambitions more serious outside school. Watch out.l

If given the chance to be the President of Nigeria for a day, what will you change?

This is a somewhat complicated question. There are so many important things that needs to be changed about Nigeria. Precisely, I would strengthen our level of security.

In the next five years

In the next five years, I should be living a well deserved life with my beloved future husband, making people happy. And my brand would have expand beyond expectation in a positive way in-Sha Allah.

If you were given the opportunity to address a group of girls five years younger than you, what will be your advice to them?

My advice for them would be not to join the calibre of ladies who “slay with empty brains,” that is in as much as they want to look classy and really good, they should ensure they have what to offer to issues and are goal driven. They should focus more on their dreams and avoid being infamous.

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#RUBYGIRLS| “SCIENCE IS MY PASSION, ART IS MY TALENT”- CHRISTIANA FAGBENRO

Christiana Boluwatife Fagbenro is a twenty year old undergraduate of Geology. She is a great artist, writer, song writer and performer of poetry.

Meet Me

Christiana is a jovial, strongwilled and outspoken young lady who loves meeting people and trying out new things in order to affect lives positively.

Hobbies

Drawing, painting, writing, singing-songwriting

My Inspiration

Music inspires me greatly, it goes through my ears and flows through my soul, bringing out a marvelling result. Also, basically anyone who is able to break a ground inspires me. Someone whose story makes me stronger, someone who never gave up.

Biggest Fear

My biggest fear is not setting my piorites right in life.

Being a Science student and still excelling well at Arts and Sports

Science is my passion. Art is a talent I developed and found joy in while Sports keep me active, gets me going, so, I find a way to balance it all up. Doing what I should at the right time.

Would you rather go back in time to correct a mistake or time travel two years to the future?

I would gladly go two years into the future, learning from my past mistakes.

What is that one thing you would love to change about yourself?

I cannot think of any. I’m not perfect but I’m great in my own ways.

What will you change as a one day President of Nigeria?

If a day is enough to change negative mentality or end corruption, I would do that

What keeps you up at night?

Prayer, art or when I’m writing.

 If you were given the opportunity to start all over again, will you choose to be a Science student or Arts student?

I would definitely choose to be a science student.

My brand in the next 5 years

I see myself with my degree, travelling the world, owning my own Art firm, an organization set at reaching out to most people through every dimension of Art, helping kids discover their talent. I see myself helping children, women and people who feel there’s no hope for them. I see my published books and I see myself at the peak of my goal still standing in Christ.

If you were given the opportunity to address a group of girls five years younger than you, what will you be your advice to them?

I would tell them to always set their priorities right. They shouldn’t give up on their goals, I would tell them my story and that behind every cloud is a silver lining. Lastly, I would tell them to always love themselves because there’s no better work of Art than yourself.

Want to be featured as our #Rubygirl? Send a mail to womenofrubies@gmail.com

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#RUBYGIRLS| “I HAVE BEING AMBITIOUS SINCE MY CHILDHOOD”-KOLAJO BLESSING

Kolajo Blessing is a 20 year old law undergraduate at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU). She is the First Female President of OOU’s Literary and Debating Society and also the First Female President of VeeCee Success Stories. Blessing is an excellent writer and a great spoken word artist. She shares her “Ruby Girl” story in this interview.

Meet Me!
My name is Kolajo Blessing Oluwabukola. I am 20years of age and a 400level law student of the faculty of law, OOU, Ago-iwoye. I am an indigene of Oyo state, Okaka town to be precise but I reside in Oyo town with my parents. Blessing is simply a girl who tries to find happiness in all situations and what I love doing most is making a caricature of everything around me, impacting in others is a part of me.

My Inspiration
If I am going to answer this question sincerely, my answer will be God as the source of my inspiration. I get inspiration generally from what comes my way, no specific person inspires me. I have been an ambitious kind of girl right from my childhood, I hardly settle for less, so, I choose friends and acquaintances that are in line with my goals and mindset. People of like minds that can keep me going regardless of the situation and these are the kind of people I am surrounded with, they all inspire me. I also get inspiration from reading about the life others, I read any biography or memoir I lay my hands on, at the end, I feel refreshed and the strength to keep going gets renewed.

Hobbies
My number one hobby is playing on words, and I do this every minute. Naturally, I am a very punny and funny person, this particular act tends to make the people around me smile and it makes some feel I’m not serious. Secondly, I love creative writings most especially poems, flash fictions and mythical stories. These are my major hobbies, others include, dancing, athletics and new discoveries.

Biggest Fear
Not being able to live out all my dreams. By the time I am old and death comes, I want to be able to say that “I have truly lived” so my biggest fear isn’t death or any other thing but realizing in my old age that I have done nothing for humanity.

Would you rather like to go back in time to correct a mistake or time travel two years to the future?
The past is gone, even the mistakes I made back then are part of my body of knowledge today, why will I want to change that? I will prefer to time travel two years to the future so that i will know what knowledge to acquire so as to dive through the challenges of that period before I get there, getting there will just be a smooth sail.

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
I will write 100 poems in a day.

If given the chance to be the President of Nigeria for a day, what will you change?
The outcome of the word “change” has been a disaster so far in the country. So, I won’t bother changing anything, I will just invest largely on research and fund the country’s inventors.

In a time when people pay less attention to improving their vocabulary, what is your reading and learning of vocabularies routine?

This question seems funny to me because I don’t have a time set aside for developing my vocabulary, because it is my lifestyle. As a spoken word artist that loves being satirical, I learn tons of small words and I get to decode big grammars from the small words, it helps me to be more punny. For instance the word “military”, is a small word, if I want to study it, the first thing I do is… How can I be satirical in its usage? “military” satirically, “meal eatery” they sound alike right? I have achieved what many might not be able to with that word.That’s what my vocabulary routine is like. I check the meaning of small words more than I do for big words.

Impact of being the first female President of VSS & Literary and Debating Society and juggling my academics 

Being the president of Veecee Success Stories  and the president of OOU literary and debating society totally streamlined my lifestyle and disciplined it in a hard way. When I was appointed, people said it will affect me academically and it did, but positively I had 4.50 last semester which I never had when I wasn’t the president of any association and I really had nothing to do. So, I arrived at the conclusion that it’s a matter of mindset, I determined back then that I will not lead an association that promotes success and be a failure academically due to tight schedules and I paid the price of hard work. Being a leader is one of the hardest task that I have been given but the most practical arena to learn so far I have learnt that “a leader should never be too small to lead and too big to serve.” As regards my rehearsals, that is a part of my lifestyle, I hardly get a separate time to rehearse for my performances, I make use of my friends indirectly, I rehearse while joking with my hallmates, as long as you have the words in your head putting them together in a punny, rhythmical and sensible way that passes an information will never be difficult. I also record my works on phone and I listen to them while moving around or when I’m stuck in a boring or irrelevant gathering, that’s part of the ways I rehearse too. As the first female president for the two associations, my dreams and goals were solidly on these two realities, I do not look down on myself because of my gender, whatever I set my mind to achieve, regardless of the gender barrier, I go for it fully.

What keeps you up at night?
My academics, prayers, poetry or worries.

Future plans

As regards what I do, I have so many plans to take my pen and voice to another level. Right now, I have two unpublished anthologies written by me the first one is titled “ONCE UPON A DAY AND OTHERS,” the second one is titled “HER BRUISE (ABUSE)”. I also have an unpublished novel titled “TO THE HOME THAT BLEEDS.” They will all be published when I have the resources to do so. As regards spoken words performances, I do not just see myself performing on big stages but I see myself promoting the world of poetry with that tool.

Advice to girls younger than me 

Search within yourself, identify your gift and passion and start making it your area of influence. Your voice isn’t too small to be heard.

Instagram ID: @kolajo_blessing

Want to be featured as a #Rubygirl? Send a mail to womenofrubies@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

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#INTERVIEW| “ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, ONLY THE STRONG WILLED WIN”- OLAPEJU UMAH

Olapeju Umah is the content creator at mile12marketwoman. A company that delivers every food and fruit item straight from the market to your doorstep, with over 6 years and hands on working experience in Information Technology, sales/marketing and business development from working in various industries including oil and gas, telecommunications, manufacturing and FMCG. She has been instrumental to various business expansion and start-ups and she currently sits on the board of various including Afrikwell oil and gas, Prestige college of music and Nigeria enterprises.

Since graduating from Olabisi Onabanjo University with a second class upper in Electrical Electronics Engineering, Olapeju has birthed four( 4) companies .She has attended various leadership and business trainings from Daystar leadership academy, WIMBIZ and other prestigious organisations. She is happily married to Daniel Umah and they are blessed with two boys.

The beautiful and very intelligent business woman shares her journey with me in this interview.

Childhood Influence

I come from a large family of 18 children asides uncles and aunties that stayed with us. My house was practically like a ‘boarding house”. So, as expected, for shopping, we would always do that in bulk. So I guess, yes, my childhood prepared me for this kind of business.

Meet Peju!

I studied Electrical Electronics Engineering in Olabisi Onabanjo University with majors in Telecoms. I am the 14th child of my Father and the 1st of my Mum. I am God’s ambassador on earth with interests in food, interiors and relationship. I am delightfully married to Mr. Daniel Umah with 2 wonderful boys as my heritage.

Inspiration behind Mile12 Market Woman

In the year 2014, my family moved to the ajah axis of Lagos and the first shock that hit me was the exorbitant cost of food items! So, since I have always done bulk shopping, I defied the distance barrier and continued shopping from mile12 market once a month. I then noticed that neighbors would tell me to shop for them whenever I am going. I did this for years until I realized this problem was unique to a lot of people living on that axis. That is how the company Mile12marketwoman was birthed.

Leaving my core for entrepreneurship

Work-life integration for me was tough with a nine to five job as I had started my family before graduating from school so my boys needed all the attention I could give. I quit after just a month’s work! I then knew that to remain relevant, I would have to do business.

Managing four businesses

For my interior décor company (Butter Slides), we operate as the contracts come. We have staff based on contracts. For the FMCG Company, its basically on auto pilot. We have put systems in place. Mile12marketwoman is the baby we are nurturing and by God’s grace, this baby will mature with no deficiency.

Work based challenge

One of the challenges unique to mile12marketwoman has to be supplying clients not within our coverage area. Due to the peculiarity of our goods (perishables), we do same day delivery after purchase. We shop for as much as 10 clients per market day and must supply all same day. We get calls from places as far as festac town and we cannot take such orders due to the limiting factor of distance. We are currently considering ways to solve this.

Positive feedback is my reward

The greatest reward for me has been the wonderful feedback from clients. It is extremely satisfying to know that our service is not only meeting a need but also feeding more people because most of our clients are always overwhelmed with the quantity they get and invariably have to share with others.

Mile12Marketwoman in 5 years

In the next 5 years, I see mile12marketwoman being a household name especially on the lekki/ajah axis. Ion 5 years, we plan to have served 5,000 homes.

Not giving up

Often in the life of an entrepreneur, there are times we feel like throwing in the towel and running back to paid employment. What keeps us going is the vision, the WHY, the passion.

Those who Inspire me

I have a lot of inspiration. One is my Mum. She is very hard working and has experience in various sectors from banking (27years in service) to establishing business in the transport and FMCG sector. My husband also is my number 1 supporter. For every “ridiculous” idea I come up with, he is always there to support. It might interest you to know that he is responsible for our catchy logo.

Entrepreneurial Journey

Entrepreneurship is definitely not for the faint hearted. Opposition will arise when you feel like you’ve got it all together. Competitors give you a run for your money but in all, it’s a game of gladiators and only the strong willed, smart, principled and God-favored win. I am one!

Being a Woman of Rubies

I am a woman of rubies because I am a woman of many parts. There is a whole lot more that I am made for. I am yet to scratch the surface.

 

 

 

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