Rosemary Olubode, the woman behind the impactful Rosemary Olubode Inspirational, an Instagram page, geared towards enlightening women on their primary roles to their spouse, has recalled her humble origins.
The Rosemary Olubode Inspirational initiator explained that she does not look like what she had been through. Born in the Jibowu area of Lagos State, 49 years ago, the delectable pharmacist survived vicious conditions as a child, confronted with hardship and scarcity of basic things.
Rosemary Olubode lived in a one-room apartment with her father and mother, who helped market goers carry load in Mile 12 International Market and Ketu Market, to help her struggling family. Her aunt and uncle also pushed the human occupants to four. They shared the room with big rats which thought the family rather invaded their own privacy, because of the condition of the environment.
Located in front of a collapsed soakaway, with faeces peeping through it, the family of Rosemary Olubode Inspirational’s host cooked their meals few feet from the irritating sight and had to queue every morning to use the public bathroom that served many residents of the over 1,000 apartments; the worse of which they perhaps occupied in the boys quarters.
“I will do a tour of the area I was born someday. In fact, that house had like 1,000 rooms, phase I and phase 2. Let me tell you, we were not at the main building; we were at the boys quarters, and when it rains, rain enters our house. We had a soak away in front of our house. When you wake up in the morning, you are facing the soak away that has collapsed. You will be seeing faeces. It was normal for us, we sleep with big rats that dug holes into our room, it was normal. And when my mum wants to cook, she would carry the stove outside in front of the soak away, it was as bad as that. I could describe us as Poorest of the poorest”, Rosemary Olubode recollected.
The initiator of Rosemary Olubode Inspirational, however, was a bright light academically. Her supportive mother and aunt advised her, that education was the only way to avoid such misery in the future. She attended Onoyade Community Primary School and Jibowu High School. She graduated with the best result in the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in 1993. The mother-of-three proceeded to the University of Benin (UNIBEN), where she studied pharmacy. Today like they say, the rest is history.
“My mum dropped out of school when she was in primary six. My mum was very intelligent, she is still very smart. She can remember what happened a 100 years ago; she would tell you how it happened. My mum was supportive, she provided me with all the books I needed. At a stage in her life, she had to go to the market to help people to carry load, so I’m grateful to God for that. She provided everything I needed, even though we were very poor. My mum knew the importance of education, though she stopped her education at Primary 6. I had books, I had everything I attended the best lessons in Lagos. When I was writing WAEC, I would leave Jibowu to attend extra moral classes my mum enrolled me in at Maryland. I would take public transport to go for my lesson classes. That was it. Even for my JAMB exam, there was this lesson today Idi-Oro. I had everything. We were poor but my mum knew the importance of education and I just had to be the best”, the Rosemary Olubode Inpsirational founder stated.
Rosemary Olubode, who is also a quiet philanthropist, deduced that through her past experience, one’s background is never an excuse not to pursue greatness and dream big.
“You can achieve anything that your mind is set at. You can and your background is not an excuse for achieving greatness. It is not. Look beyond it and push. Just push hard, you will get there and the sky will just be your starting point,” Rosemary Olubode said.
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