week, Hon. Adijat Adeleye Oladapo, a lawmaker in
the Ogun state House of Assembly, opened up
about her life, of how she got pregnant when she
was in secondary school, how the baby daddy
denied the child and how she had to relocate to
have her baby only for the child to die 18 months
later. In this very deep interview, Hon. Oladapo
talked about what she did to change her life. Read
below...
"While I was in secondary school, I was a
brilliant student. In my primary school I came
second best student in our G2 exams but
unfortunately, I started moving
with some
people who were more experienced and
exposed than I was. One way or the other, I
got pregnant when I was in SS1. The person
who was responsible denied it because I was
young and naive. I usually keep to myself a
lot. My parents didn't know I was pregnant
after four months and the guy also didn't
know until about 4 months, although he
equally impregnated about 2 other girls at the
same time. He was a big boy in secondary
school, the Senior Prefect, very brilliant.
It all started by exchanging novels and
textbooks. I had to leave Akute where my
parents stayed to live with my paternal
grandfather in Kajola, a small village which
was hard for me to endure because the
viallage had nothing. I had my baby in
December 1991. After the naming of the
baby, my family held a meeting and asked
me what I wanted to do and I told them I
wanted to go back to school. My paternal
grandmother was totally against it, simply
because she felt it was a waste sending a
girl child to school after what I had done but
my father was ready to give me another
chance which I will forever be grateful for. I
enrolled in a school not far from my house
because of my baby and I repeated my
class. Unfortunately, the child died at
18months in 1993. It was like double
jeopardy for me, nothing to show for the
stigma and missing school. When he was
buried, I went to his grave and requested
from God to help me because I was
determined to be successful which was like a
vow. I even cursed the boy who got me
pregnant because he denied the pregnancy,
that he would not be greater than me in life. I
don't know his level now but I am grateful for
what I am today.
I have forgiven him. After my secondary
school, I decided to leave home to begin my
journey. In 1998, I was admitted into the
University of Lagos, things were tight for me
then but someone introduced me to a job
which was thrift collecting and daily
contribution. I started working there and for
years, I collected daily contributions in Ketu
market and some other popular markets in
Lagos state. I didn't have enough time to
attend classes. I had to trek some places so
my money would be enough. It was while I
was working as a thrift collector, while
coming from the office one day I stopped at
my mother's shop to take some foodstuff
from her shop. I met a man there who bought
most of the foodstuffs and we started talk
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