Bisket with Eyitayo Dan Musa in the good old days |
interview with famous business woman and celebrity lady of the 80s, and 90s, Lady Evangelist Adebisi Eyitayo Dan Musa aka Bisket,
the mother of 8 shared the nitty-gritty of her 3 and a half years predicament
as a result of a queer allegation of child-trafficking and selling in year
2001. The crisis which nearly ruined her business empire is now part of the
dark pages of Bisket’s memoir-like
story of hero-to-zero-to-hero. It is an
Asabeafrika exclusive you will never read anywhere. Enjoy the excerpts.
immediate and extended family reacted to your 2001 crisis? Was there any
respite from them?
to you today, Gbenga, there is a
limitation to human strength. And as a human being, at a time you need to
break, you have to break down. A time you need to relax you have to relax. If you keep on running you may not reach the
end of the race. When the body tells you relax, you have to relax. I used to
tell my children about the law of retreat, there was a
project I was doing couple of months ago before I went to Israel and my children were very expectant of my finality on the
project. Immediately I came back, I said that project I am backing out. And I
locked up the place and they said “Ah,
ah, mummy, this your way of doing things is terrific” and I said ‘but I have secured it, and I packed it up.
When I am ready, I will open it again and start the project. But right now, I
want to relax, I don’t like overstretching myself. And I like doing things in
phases’. When I started my calling (taking care of destitute) It was in a
very serious way that even some people that are close to me started saying “ah, ah, why is she so serious about helping
the less privilege like this?” Nobody could understand it; is it normal?
How can somebody from grace come to grass and you say you want to remain there?
Some said it to my face, some said it behind me but it never bothered me.
The GDA in a rare pose with Lady Bisket |
But
after the saga, I was a bit weak because the flesh in me was really tired. Like
I told you, I have never tasted poverty in my life and I have never tasted any
tribulation that will ever make me to think about a second type of life. I have
been pampered, spoilt; from youth I was happily married and started rearing
children, I have never lacked anything, so nothing ever prepared me for such a
huge challenge. Some people will even see me and say “a woman like you?, they say women that are pretty like you don’t
normally have kids, how come you are having children every year like this?’ So,
God has been too kind to me. So, when the other side came, it was like a big
blow, it knocked me on the floor that I couldn’t even pray. There was a time I
was not praying again. Since I gave my life to God I have never done anything
fetish and I will not do until the day I will die but for that tribulation
period, I was just blank. No prayer, no communication to anything, I will just
wake up and look at the wall like this (laughs) because the shock was just too
much; it was not even the incident per se
but the way people disappointed me. It was something I never bargained for. The
first day they took me to court, I was thinking that I will see thousands of
people waiting there for me, to fight my cause and say “No, Bisket is not like
that”, I got there, nobody. Only
those who want to persecute me we there, mobs, they were shouting “gbomo-gbomo”, they were carrying
stones; I now look at God and I said “Hee,
me I am not Jesus Christ o. Jesus is your son, you both died together in
heaven; me I am a child of faith o, this woman is about to break to pieces o”
(laughs) I was praying to God in my heart.
And when I got up, I couldn’t pray and one of my daughters, that is Mayor Akinpelu’s wife, Bola. She observed and she went to the
mother, because her mother too is a prophetess. She said “Mama, mummy is no more praying” and the mother came to my house,
looked at me at the face and said ‘Mummy,
your daughter is worried, she said you don’t pray again. But I have told your
daughter to leave you, that Jesus is praying for you; that when you are ready,
you will pick up. That right now, Jesus is praying for you, Jesus has carried
you on his shoulders. That He knows this
thing will happen to you and He is there to comfort you’. I was just
looking at them because I don’t know what to pray for. What should I pray for
again? I don’t know because before that time, immediately I answered my call, I
diverted all my funds into the ministry (The Rabbi Call Ministry). I was no
longer bringing my containers in; so, financially I was almost going red, and
my children were complaining, ‘You don’t
bring goods, you don’t sell again’. I don’t even enter any of my stores, so
I was fully into the Lord. So, when the crisis came, I didn’t even know where
to turn to and there was nobody around me. I just felt ‘So, this is how the world is?’
“Even if they say they
are selling children every day in Nigeria for N550K the money I spend on their
return ticket to London for holidays alone is more than Five hundred thousand
naira. So, any magistrate who knows her onion can see the proof, with their
passports. The hospital they attend is Eko
Hospital, they don’t go to General
Hospital and I told the magistrate, go there, and you will see their
records at Eko Hospital”.
The GDA & Madam Bisket |
of pain…
those close to me that I can call my blood denied me. I don’t want to talk, my
blood, my blood; (Silent for a while) I don’t want to talk. When you say
someone is your blood, there are some people, not friends, when you talk about
people you help; those are friends. When you talk of blood, even your blood is
not ready; you can’t find your blood supporting you and my children that were
supposed to support me, some people went to them overseas, to turn them against
me; that ‘your mother is a wicked mother,
we spoke to her to deny this children, she said she will not. If she had denied
these children at the station, they would have released her. Your mother said
she must go to court, that she won’t leave the children (destitute)’ and my
children were so upset. They said ‘does this woman want to die and leave us,
is she insane? What children are she carrying that is more than us?’ They
all refused to talk to me. So, they were not even calling me to say ‘mummy, sorry’. Those are my children;
now I am talking about even people that are more than my children in my life, I
don’t want to mention names. I am mentioning my children because I can offend
them.
“Bisket, don’t take that, they can
re-open the case in ten years time, you don’t need that; if you are telling me
the truth, the way you sat down in my office, if all what you have been telling
me is the truth, Bisket, you will come out and your God will vindicate you,
don’t go for a cheap way out”
The GDA @ Lady Bisket |
late, I don’t want to offend their memory because they are dead, and there are
some that are still alive, that are more of blood related to me than my
children. They didn’t attend a day’s court; I am not talking of my children.
But the whole episode made me to see life from a different perspective and that
really weakened me for couple of years. I just recoiled into my shell, I
withdrew to myself but when the children were released back to me three and a
half years later, because I was pursuing the case for three and a half years
silently; government released me, they discharged and acquitted me because they
could not prove any case against me because God knows I don’t have any case and
I proved myself in the court of law. No policeman or law enforcement person can
say I bribed him with one naira and the heavens witnessed that and I
intentionally did it, so that I can still trust God; if I buy my way out I will
not trust God. I wanted to see whether the righteous can be punished because
according to His word, the child of the righteous will never be a victim of
misfortune; I wanted to establish that biblical fact. And I refused; no police
man can come out and say ‘this woman uses her hand to say ‘take hundred naira,
I never did’. And the magistrate when I first came she was very hostile but
when I proved my case; these are children I take to England, I take them on holiday. So, how much will I now sell them
in Nigeria? Even if they say they are selling children every day in Nigeria for
N550K the money I spend on their return ticket to London for holidays alone is
more than Five hundred thousand naira. So, any magistrate who knows her onion
can see the proof, with their passports. The hospital they attend is Eko
Hospital, they don’t go to General Hospital and I told the
magistrate, go there, and you will see their records at Eko Hospital. There is another hospital we use for them on Norman
Williams street, ikoyi, I
said ‘go and check, they don’t go to general hospital. So, how much will I sell
them now? And the magistrate became sympathetic; I can read it in her. She was
hostile when the case started that they even begged her to give me a sit to sit
in the dock but by the time she went into it, she saw the reality of the case. Chief Rhodes insisted they must go into
trial because they wanted to set the case aside, I have forgotten the term they
used in law but Chief Rhodes said “Bisket, don’t take that, they can re-open
the case in ten years time, you don’t need that; if you are telling me the
truth, the way you sat down in my office, if all what you have been telling me
is the truth, Bisket, you will come out and your God will vindicate you, don’t
go for a cheap way out”. I think the legal luminary was saying it out of
concern because he can see that I am already weak. But Chief Rhodes told me, that is, the Junior Rhodes, Shola, he said “look at me, Bisket, all these things you have been telling me, if it
is the truth, you have no case. Please, don’t go for the easy way out. Enemies
may bring this case back ten years time; let’s go into trial and prove a point.
Let them put you in the dock. If you have passed through this and you have not
collapsed up till now, you can’t collapse’ and I went into the dock. All the people like I told you, I couldn’t
see anybody I can call my friend or my relation apart from my husband in the
court. But all the people that came were people who want to persecute me,
coming to laugh or catch fun but by the time I entered the dock, by the time we
finished the case, they were all on my side. When I am testifying, you will see
tears, I watch people; some will be crying. And by the time I was discharge and
acquitted, the whole court was in a jubilation mood, people were clapping. If they didn’t believe in the discretion of
the magistrate, they would have hissed, they would have protested. But when
they counted charge one, discharge and acquitted; charge two, discharge and
acquitted up to charge 21, the whole court started clapping, clapping. But when
they said the children couldn’t follow me, I couldn’t clap; so, I was crying.
That is why people who saw television footage thought I didn’t win the case and
that is why I remain Gbomo-gbomo till
now. They saw me crying on TV and people said “Ah, won ti ran lo sewon, won ti ran lo sewon” (They have sent her
to jail; they have sent her to jail etc). And you know after that case, I went
into my shell, so everybody thought I went into jail. They never knew I was
discharged and acquitted but my joy was not completed because I said, ‘I am going home but these children are
going into detention with no care and love. As a mother, what is my joy?’
“Barrister Opeyemi
Bamidele who was the Commissioner for Sport
and Youth Development, may God continue to favor him anywhere he is, I have not
seen him for a long while but anytime I see him in the paper, I pray for him;
that you touched my life God will touch you and bless you all days of your
life”
The GDA with Bisket’s Portrait |
my kids to me…
under Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s
administration. Barrister Opeyemi
Bamidele who was the Commissioner for Sport and Youth Development, may God
continue to favor him anywhere he is, I have not seen him for a long while but
anytime I see him in the paper, I pray for him; that you touched my life God
will touch you and bless you all days of your life. He looked at me and he said
to the (prison) authorities “Go and give her” and they gave the children
to me three and a half years after and like I told you, some are in university
now. One is at Bells University,
some are in other higher institutions; one is having my grandchild here. After they released the kids now, my spirit
came up again. Then, it came up but my family went against me, they said ‘what is your spirit coming up for?’
(Laughter) and I said ‘because I am a vision carrier’ and up till now, that is
how we are; I always tell them “So far I
please you people, anything you want that is in my capacity, I will do for you
but my vision, you cannot stop. Even though I know you are hot, even though I
know you are not seeing it the way I am seeing it, but please allow me. I am
getting old, I am not getting young, and the time I will spend on earth now is
limited. The one that I have spent I cannot spend it again. So, this woman will eventually carry her
wahala and go for you but for now, please, let me just do my own wahala
according to God’s vision for my life, do not bind me, when you bind me, you
make me unhappy. I enjoy what I am doing, you may feel the pain, I am not
feeling the pain; I am seeing joy in it’. And the Bible says anything that
makes you happy is God’s vision for your life. People may see it as a pain in
you but I see it as joy; up till today, I give out. Up till today, I help; I
may not make noise about it.
tribulations you relocated to Abuja where you started rearing birds. Would you
say it was as a result of people’s negative reaction to you during your
predicament that made you shift your love to animals?
because I never grew up in the village, I grew up in the city but I have
tendency to love not just animals but anything life. I don’t play with life, I
don’t equally believe it is my doing, it is God that creates human beings and he
will just create you the way He wants you to be. I always explain this to my
kids that the fault you see in me is exactly how God created me. And sometimes,
I don’t equally enjoy people cheating me; I don’t enjoy looking like a fool but
sometimes you can’t just help it that is how I am created. I just love life and I can give as much
comfort to life if I have the ability to do so, I always do it. There was a
time my daughter came in from England
at my house in Wuse (Abuja) and one of her friends came visiting while she was
out, she saw me preparing milk and I was spoon feeding my kitten one of the
animals that lost a mother. The young woman looked and looked and went and told
my daughter that ‘this your mother has
a problem o’. It was at a time they were
still holding my children (destitute) in Lagos. My daughter’s friend said “she is now feeding animals” (Laughter)
she said ‘I came to your house and saw
your mother in the compound, she was feeding a baby kitten and she was feeding
with feeding bottle” that “what is
her problem?” (general laughter); so, for me, I appreciate anything that
has life, be it animal or human. That is how God created me and that is who I
am.
for the Bisket Exclusive titled “Why I
gave N8m Property to a Stranger” on this blog after this time out)