How I met and fell in love with Gen. Buhari—Lagos big gal, Yetunde Babajide | Says “I can cook any soup” + The story of her humble beginning

Mrs. Yetunde Babajide explaining a point to the GDA
I ran into this lady three weeks ago
while visiting a top society lady friend whose son is getting married in April.
This very influential society woman had invited me into her palatial home
somewhere in Gbagada area of Lago,
South West Nigeria to discuss how our blog can help report the wedding ceremony
of her son which promises to be a grand one in Lagos.

Perhaps, she saw how we
covered and treated the wedding ceremony of one of the daughters of her friend
and oil baron, Princess Omolara Osipitan
of First Royal Oil and that drew her
interest to us. It was while in her ambience I was introduced to Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Babajide who I
later knew to be a business woman, life coach and grass root politician of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Party in
Lagos state. 

She is equally into real estate and
philanthropy; she is the MD/CEO of Yefadot
Nigeria Ltd
a real estate development firm with Head office at Ojodu area
of Lagos and founder of Total Peace
Organization
an NGO that cares for the better life of the ordinary people. Mrs. Babajide who is well connected, is
also the woman leader of the Buhari Support Organization (BSO) a vanguard
in support of the candidacy of the All
Progressive Congress
Presidential Candidate, General Muhammad Buhari.
Five days after our first encounter I
was invited over to her office somewhere in Ojodu area of Lagos where she was
having a social meeting with members of her political movement The Buhari Support Organization (BSO). She
granted me an hour fifteen minutes audience which turned out to be a very
interesting one on her life and why she is in love with General Muhammad
Buhari. Find a quite moment with your favorite drink as you read the story of a
woman who can be literarily described as “Master of None” in major endeavors of
life. Read the story of Chief (Mrs.)
Yetunde Babajide
on your Africa’s number 1 Celebrity encounter blog Asabeafrika. Enjoy!
Mrs. Babajide to the GDA….’I think a lot of Nigerians need re-orienataion on the issues of life’

My Life….

Quite nice being with you today, we
have heard about your movement Buhari Support  Organization and what you are doing for the
Presidential candidacy of General Muhammad Buhari, can we have a brief of your
background?
My name is Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Babajide; I am
from Ile-Ife in Osun state but my parents lived in Ikire, that is where we were
raised but we are indigenously from SooKo
in Ile-Ife, Osun state. I am
from a family of ten, the fourth child of both parent and the first daughter of
the family. I have three senior brothers before me and the other junior
siblings. I was trained as a teacher because I went to a teacher’s training
college and equally went to a college of education before I came down to Lagos.
Later I enrolled for a degree in Business Administration. I can define myself
as a woman of so many parts; I like to find myself in men’s shoes despite the
fact that I am a woman. I have a lot of things that I am doing for a living,
maybe that has to do with my upbringing. I am from the source Ile-Ife. I have a
lot of things that I am doing for a living. A lot of people who are familiar
with me can testify to the fact that there is nothing in this world that I haven’t
tried or that I don’t know how to do. If you say I am a cobbler, I will say
yes, because I know how to show shoes. You only need to show me something once
and the next time I have put it into practice. 
I am also a professional driver; I have been driving since 1976. Then I
was the first young lady, unmarried in my town that first drove a car from
where I hail from. Then, I was a single lady and I was already driving a car.

“A lot of people who are familiar
with me can testify to the fact that there is nothing in this world that I
haven’t tried or that I don’t know how to do. If you say I am a cobbler, I will
say yes, because I know how to show shoes”.

A portrait of Mrs. Yetunde Babajide in a coperate outlook
A photo frame of her only son, Seun after his graduation from a United Kingdom based University

My First Car….

How old were you then?
That was a
little bit after 14, I started driving. Today I am a professional driver
because I learn driving in Nigeria and I equally learn driving in the United
Kingdom.
Which was your first car?
A Volkswagen Beetle car, brand new; that
was around 1982, I bought it then for N1100. That was my first car. So, today,
everybody knows me as a professional driver.
What other things do you do for
living?
 I am also a surveyor by profession. I went to
learn survey because it is something I am interested in doing and I know how to
do it very well. And at the same time, I am a professional dry cleaner. I did
dry cleaning business for good undiluted 18 years and of course that was the
major occupation that helped me to train my self and my only child. I have only
a son to the glory of God; that is what He gave me.

“If I am in a particular place, it is
either I am reading, I am writing or I am preparing a project or doing an
intellectual work. If I can not do that then you find me either on a campaign
ground or a site. And that is why I was able to do the political aspect of my
life successfully”.
Mrs. Yetunde Babajide with Asabeafrika’s Gbenga Dan Asabe

More Awards for Mrs. Babajide

How my parent raised us…

I am quite surprised at your ability
to do so many things, how would you describe your life as a growing child. What
were those things that shaped your early life?
Thank you
very much for that question; it is an interesting one; my growing up was not on
a bed of rose but it was quite an interesting one because I had the opportunity
of growing in the arms of a much disciplined parent. Both my father and mother
were disciplinarians. I pray if there is another opportunity for re-incarnation
I will like to go through them all over again. My father is late, his name is Alhaji Ahmed Adekola, he was a very
humble man; he was a father and a mother at the same time; and for reasons best
known to the creator of heaven and earth, my father is equally the only child
of his own parent, you know I told you I had an only son. My father had only
ten of us and he taught us and guided us with the best philosophies in life. He
groomed us in a way that I didn’t have to learn dry cleaning from anybody, when
we were growing, my father didn’t put a barrier between a male and a female
child. He brought all of us up the same way; so, we all knew how to wash
clothes because we did what we call family washing every weekend. Whenever we
are to wash clothes in those days, we put the entire laundry out at the same
time, our mother’s, fathers’ and ours. We will take our laundry to Asejire
Dam
along Ibadan-Ikire Road,
and my father will make four tables and he will make about four of us to be
ironing the clothes as we wash and sundry them. He taught us that and
eventually that was what I picked up as a profession. And that was what brought
me so far to this level before I diversified.

Mrs. Yetunde Babajide with more members of her BSO group
Some Awards given to her for her Philantropic gestures

What about your mother?

For my
mother, she is a food vendor, she operates a canteen. Her name is Alhaja Sarat Adekola. So, my mother, a
homely woman taught us everything. She will tell us that if you have a big
portion of meal, you must endeavor to eat small in case of the day you don’t
have anything. I grew up in a mud house which my father inherited from his own
father but to God be the glory, God used me to turn that mud house into a
cement house. I am the one who demolished the old structure and built a new one
on it and that is because of the training we had from our mother and our
father, they always want us to see ourselves as nobody from onset; that you
people are from nobody and they always remind us that we should always remember
the son and daughter of whom we are. And our parent despite their humble
inheritance, they don’t make us feel that we cannot become anything. There is
this particular proverb my father used to tell us, he will say ‘three
generations cannot be wretched’. That if he doesn’t have money and our mother
is not rich, he believes that we are going to amount to something big in life
and that is exactly what happened. So, we were brought up in that line and I
happened to be the favorite of the family because of my position as the first
female child. My parents always refer to me as an intelligent child. So, they
kind of gave me a strong upbringing that prepared me for leadership. That in
the future I can face anything, and discipline was the hallmark. When we were
going to school; despite the fact that my mother was selling food, anytime we
return from school, we will meet Pounded
Yam,
Amala and all sorts of assorted meals but my mother will not
allow us to eat out of it; she will ask us to go and take Garri. Because she
doesn’t want us to feel life is cheap; she want us to labor for whatever we
earn. So, all of us could to go to the farm, to cultivate the farm, to wash
clothe, to cook food; in fact we are all professional caterers’ as there is
nothing I cannot cook. So, where my parents stopped, when I got to Lagos I
picked it up from there. 

Mrs. Yetunde Babajide to Asabeafrika….’I have fond memories of General Buhari’s early leadership’
Mrs. Yetunde Babajide to Asabeafrika…..’I am a woman of so many parts’

When you talk of cooking, there is no food I cannot
cook, including Calabar meals, Igbo meals; I used my own money to go to Calabar
Kitchen to learn how to cook not for professional sake but just for knowledge
sake so that anywhere I find myself, I am capable of doing it. I can cook Afang
soup
, Edika-Ikong, Atama Soup, all the soups. I can
cook Hausa meals like Tuwo, I am very conversant with the
ingredients. That is the way I was brought up. To cap it all, I have Diploma in
Catering and Hotel Management from Doff
Institute
because I am a voracious learner. In fact, it took me a very long
time before I discovered that it is not necessary to know everything about this
world because that was the way I was brought up. When I see someone doing
something, I want to learn and know it and if possible practice it; when you
talk of dry-cleaning business I know everything about it; I can prepare a stain
remover, I mean the chemical. I can prepare 5 good ones on my own. I even have
my own chemical I use for fumigation and de-rating. If I de-rat in a particular
house after fumigating, when I prepare my own chemical, if any rat eats my
chemical and the rat dies, if any dog eats that rat, the dog will equally die.
That is the level of my knowledge. I am a professional in all what I am doing.
I know how t do all lot of things, when you talk of cream, soap, polish
including different colors I am here to produce it and that is what led to my
setting up of Total Peace Foundation
which is my own NGO for poverty eradication and peaceful living.

“Let me shock you, we have more
pastors, deacons, prophets and prophetess who are volunteers of BSO in every
state of the federation. This is the first time this kind of thing is
happening; that a lot of Christian leaders will be coming out to support a
Muslim candidate just because of his integrity”.
Mrs. Babajide with the GDA after the encounter
Mrs. Yetunde Babajide with some women of BSO

My NGO….

Can you tell us about this Total
Peace Foundation? 
It is an NGO
that caters for all living being; talk of empowerment, you see a lot of people
will be crying up and down, no job, no job, no job. If you are being sacked
from a particular establishment, probably God want you to discover yourself and
become a boss of your own self. I am equally an image maker; I re-direct
people’s vision and make image for them. When I sit down with somebody in 5
minutes I know whom you are, I can categorically tell you what you are fit to
do in this life. That is what I do under my NGO, Total Peace Foundation; I
manage all living human beings. If you don’t know the kind of job that you are
supposed to do or you can do successfully, when you meet me I will put you on
the track. I will tell you what you can do. For instance, a lot of women keep
stores where they sell provisions and they will later complain of not making
success; it is not every woman that can sit down in a place and sell provision.
If you are somebody that can not remove your eyes from things going around in
the world, you cannot keep a store. Because when you see people selling
provision, on a particular item, their gain could just be N2. If you make any
mistake of spending N5 that means you have ruined both your profit and capital.
You see a lot of people who cannot seat in one place, it is God’s doing. That
kind of a person cannot do a job that warrant him or she to be sitting down
somewhere for a longer time and if only they can practice the nomadic side of
their nature as a profession they will be successful. They are the kind of
people that supposed to be going from one place to another, marketing. Why can’t
you go to one place, go and buy something and go and supply it here and there
so that you can be successful. For instance, I am an extrovert. I can not sit
down in a place for too long. If I am in a particular place, it is either I am
reading, I am writing or I am preparing a project or doing an intellectual
work. If I can not do that then you find me either on a campaign ground or a
site. And that is why I was able to do the political aspect of my life
successfully. I am a grass root mobilizer, I can put five towns, ten towns
together within a short time; and if you want to be a practicing politician not
the types that want to ruin the world, the ones called “ojelu” but if you want to be an “Oselu” there is a lot of things under it. You must know your
candidate, inside-out. You must know your candidate’s antecedent; you must know
your party and the people in the party. I mean the leader;  that is what will help you to canvass mass
opinion for the party and the leader. To convince people to believe in the
party and the candidate, and that is what led to my elevation as a South West
Woman Leader for the Buhari Support
Organization
(BSO)
Mrs. Babajide is also the matron of the Oganla fans club in Lagos….Here she is a picture with Fuji Music act, Alabi Pasuma
Mrs. Yetunde Babajide with Lagos state Deputy Governor, Adejoke Orelope Adefulire

My Love for General
Buhari…

Why are you supporting General Buhari
and not President Jonathan?
Antecedents!
That is all. I know General Buhari
long time ago, I used to read about him and I used to follow everything about
him. Since the last time when he was Head of State, then I was young and was
still leaving in Ile-Ife. But at
that time I was already a teenager, wise enough to know what is right. I was
already driving a car and could decipher the hand brake from the turtle. I was
in Ile-Ife, and at that time the
orientation about Buhari and Idiagbon was very strong among young people;
there was a particular meat, that they were calling Buhari Meat (Eran Buhari) and I even asked my
mother to remind me of that meat. They will pack that meat which includes fresh
intestine of meat (Shaki and Edo) in
a pack for sale at very cheap price. I think it started in the regime of Murthala Mohammed and General Buhari and General Tunde Idiagbon only
resuscitated the culture and it was so prominent in their own time, they were
selling it at a very cheap price; a family pack was N2 and if you buy you don’t
need to go to the market, you will cook a full pot of soup and everything is
filled up.
Mrs. Babajide with members of her Buhari Support Movement (BSO)

Is that the only thing you can
remember about the Buhari era?

Yes, that
was equally the time nobody dared to rush into a bus. Then we used to visit one
of our uncles in Lagos for holiday. Then, we just came for one holiday and we
discovered that people were not rushing buses again. You have to line up at the
bus stop. I remember this incident vividly, there was one of our brothers that
went to the bus stop to ease himself, and he was urinating along the road and
officials of War against Indiscipline
(WAI) picked him up. Our uncle that we used to visit he is now a Brigadier in
the army, Brigadier Talabi, he was
the one that went to rescue this brother 
of ours at the time and till date I have fond memories of these
activities and by my nature I don’t forget things. These were the things that
made me to fall in love with General
Buhari
because the entire country was peaceful at the time, there were no
dirt on the roads and everybody behaved well. These are the things that made me
fall in love with General Muhammad
Buhari.
Let me tell you this; one thing I discover about Nigeria and Africa
as a continent is that we need an iron hand. Africans are the only set of
people that can violate rules any time, any law, any day; they will make a law
and they won’t honor the law. You go to the UK, if they make a law, everybody
must abide by that law including the Prime Minister. Nobody is bigger that the
law. Everybody patronizes the train irrespective of position in the society,
you might enter a train and even meet a lawmaker sitting with you and when you
get to a train center, you must have your card, if you don’t have your card,
you are not going to pass.  That rule is
already there and everybody abides by the rule. But in Africa, they will make a
law and the elite will break it. So, they need an iron hand; somebody that can
shut his heart on a particular law to make it work. Someone that can close his
eyes against his family, his friends, everybody to make sure they implement the
law that is the kind of person we need in Nigeria. That is the General Buhari brand of leadership. I
remember not quite long, they were asking the General what he wants to do about
our electricity and he gave a very simple and direct answer; he said ‘nothing
is wrong with our power generation because Shiroro
Dam
is still alive, the current of water has not dried. Kainji dam is there, we have the dam
running, it is not dried off why is it that we cannot generate power for
ourselves?. So, that is the kind of person that we need. As a great and sane
Nigerian, you need to know your candidate, know your party, know your
constitution that is when you can excel and make a great nation.

Mrs. Yetunde Babajide telling Asabeafrika’s GDA the story of her life
Mrs. Babajide with the men wing of BSO

How much are you being paid as the
leader of BSO in Lagos?

I took up
the job by myself, I seek for the leadership and they appointed me and I am not
taking any kobo from anybody. I am putting people together; I am making an
image maker for my party and for my candidate. Let me shock you, we have more
pastors, deacons, prophets and prophetess who are volunteers of BSO in every
state of the federation. This is the first time this kind of thing is
happening; that a lot of Christian leaders will be coming out to support a Muslim
candidate just because of his integrity. It is marvelous. We are opening the
eyes of a lot of Nigerians to let them see where we are coming from, where we
are at the moment and where we can go from here if we have General Buhari on the saddle of leadership.

Mrs. Yetunde Babajide with some top members of her group

Mrs. Yetunde Babajide with some very top officials of the Lagos BSO