A few weeks ago a young lady, 26, called Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola who is also known as DJ Cuppy, took the uninsurable risk of travelling to Borno, the heartland of bloodshed. Borno is a no-go area except for those who have no choice, like the Nigerian soldiers fighting there, or those die hard businessmen who think that a place of danger is the place where mouth-watering contracts can be got or those who come from there and have an obligation to go see if their homes have been brought down by bombs and their property looted by thieving soldiers and civilians.
All things considered it is not a place for any outsider to go. When the war is over that place will have a lot of war relics to show the world. It is at that time that tourism will receive a fitting boost. Florence Otedola is an outsider in two ways: she is from the South West and she is the daughter of a billionaire. Borno, the theatre of battle is far away from the South West; so those who are in the close vicinity of the war are bound to be gripped by its impact more than those that live thousands of kilometres away.
Besides, no one expects a young girl, a billionaire’s daughter, to take the risk of going to the theatre of war to identify with and show empathy to those displaced by the war. People expect her to stay away from the scene of danger and enjoy her father’s wealth. A few people who represent certain human rights or humanitarian or media organisations or other institutional stakeholders have been there. Their trips there are therefore somewhat obligatory. Miss Otedola was under no obligation to go there. She went there out of the generosity of her heart. That was not a place to market her credentials as a disc jockey or musician or music producer. She is simply a young lady with a kind heart.
She seems to be a chip off the old block. Her father, Mr. Femi Otedola, has done a lot of philanthropic work, giving hundreds of millions as scholarship to indigent students; catering for the health needs of such celebrities as Christian Chukwu, Super Eagles former captain, Best Ogendengbe, Nigeria’s former goalkeeper and Majek Fashek, a musician who fell into bad times. But Florence could easily have said to herself that she is too young to do anything about Borno, that if help is needed her father could do it. But it is wise of her to carve a niche for herself as a caring and compassionate young person in a country where a lot of young people are into cult and drug gangs, internet fraud and kidnapping syndicates and exam malpractice unions.
Florence has a senior sister called Tolani who is a singer and a younger sister, Elizabeth Teni, who is a style blogger and an aspiring designer. Florence had a Bachelors degree in Business and Economics from King’s College, London and a master’s degree in Music Business from New York University in 2015. Since then the young lady has been unstoppable. She’s chosen a path that women never travelled until recently: disc jockeying and it is even inconceivable that the person who is travelling on that road is a billionaire’s daughter. That shows the broad-mindedness that is prevalent in the Otedola family. Many parents would have compelled their children to delve into the traditionally respectable professions: medicine, law, and engineering.
The Otedola children are into the non-traditionally accepted professions. Their parents seem to accept the view that a child thrives best in what he or she is passionate about. Florence has chalked up some successes. In 2015 she was the resident DJ at the MTV Africa Music Awards in Durban and at the Financial Times Luxury Summit in Mexico City. She also has a London based music management and content production business called Red Velvet Music Group. In March 2015 she was named the official DJ for 2015 Oil Barons Charity in Dubai. That same year she was featured in the April/May issue of Forbes Women Africa.
That year was quite a busy one for her because she also undertook an eight city tour of Africa titled, Cuppy Takes Africa. She covered Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria. The tour included performances, artist collaborations and charitable engagements. It was sponsored by Guaranty Trust Bank and Dangote Foundation. She has launched two official singles, Green Light, which she released on October 13, 2017 and another one titled, vibe, which was unveiled on March 30, last year.
Florence has all the bloom of youth and the freshness of a kid who has very few worries in life. She doesn’t wear much lipstick, but just enough to show that she has lips that are perfect. The stories of her relationship with the opposite sex have filtered into the press from time to time. Since this is a coldly imperfect world nothing, not even relationships, is expected to be perfect. One of the men in her relationship profile was said to be a Nigerian footballer in England who gave her a Mercedez Benz G wagon on her birthday. At the time a blush of pleasure must have risen to her cheeks. She must have been loving every second of that moment.
However, things seem to have gone awry. It is difficult for the daughter of a billionaire to have a smooth-sailing relationship. The expectations on both sides can be varied and unachievable and often people who are in a relationship may wear a mask until they have achieved their goal. In such relationships everything cannot be cotton candy. But this column is not about Florence’s love affairs. It is about her philanthropic disposition as shown during her eight nation tour of Africa and her recent trip to Borno.
She has done what many children of the cream of the cream hardly do in Nigeria. Many of them take their privileged position for granted and go haywire thinking that their father’s high crust position provides immunity for them over and above what other young persons are entitled to. Some years ago a female teacher at King’s College, Lagos, told me that one of the pupils she was teaching was toasting her, and flashing dollars in her face.
This was not the worst one has heard about some of our youths. One of them, a boy, brought a gun to his father’s house one day and told him to give him all the dollars he had in the house. The father had no choice but to oblige if he didn’t want to die. The man decided to go and complain to his friend, another high flying man who had run one of the blue chip companies in Nigeria before going into blissful retirement. What he expected was just a shoulder to cry on, a message of sympathy for the ill-treatment he received at the hands of his son. When he finished his narration, his friend unburdened his heart to him too. He said to his visitor friend: “You know that my second daughter.”
The visitor said: “Yes, the fair and beautiful one.” “Yes, that’s the one. She is pregnant for my driver.” Both old and rich men had to end the day in mutual agony. This tells you that as a country we have a lot to worry about our young people. When you do find a young person such as Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola who is working hard to make her own achievements inspite of her father’s wealth it gladdens the heart. When she then does some work to help people who cannot help themselves that is the icing on the cake. This column is a song for her.
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