Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

Like a butterfly with beautiful colours, Mrs Toki Mabogunje shines in many fields. Besides being Vice-President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, she is a lawyer, broadcaster, consultant and poet. Her play work was staged last year at (FESTINA) the Festival of Nigerian Plays. Mrs Mabogunje’s support for the arts earned her the NANTAP 2014 Personality of the Year for World Theatre Day and Cultural Ambassador; she will be passing on the medal to her successor this month. Although she has received several awards for her passion and dedication to excellence in business and the arts, she is most proud of her role as a wife and mother, who co-authored a book with her 19-year-old son.  In this interview with Evelyn Osagie, Mrs Mabogunje shares her experience in marriage, business, literature and theatre.

 Biodata

Toki Mabogunje is a business development consultant. Over the last 26 years, Mrs Mabogunje has been involved in commercial and business enterprises from both public and private sector perspectives. Her move to the private sector, provided her with the opportunity to attain a well-rounded perspective of business enterprise in the Nigerian environment. She worked as Group Head, Legal and Corporate Affairs for a start up broadcast enterprise, which grew into a global business concern known as Minaj Media Group.

She has a degree in Law from the University of Ife, Nigeria, a Masters in International Business Law from the University of Exeter, England, Executive Management Training in Strategic Organisation and Management from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Training in SME policy development from the International Labour Organisation’s Training Centre in Turin, Italy and Training in Value Chain Development at MDF in the Netherlands.

As Assistant Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Defence and later Senior State Counsel in the Mercantile and Industrial Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Mabogunje was involved in public sector policy formulation, regulation and monitoring of commerce and industry nationwide. She provided legal advice to the Federal Government in its cross border business negotiations with other governments and commercial enterprises worldwide.

Mrs Mabogunje is the founder of Toki Mabogunje and Co. (TMC), an 11-year-old firm of business development consultants. She is the Vice-President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She gives back to the community by volunteering her time to the cause of various NGOs.

She was conferred with an award for her 10 years of service to Fate Foundation in 2010 and an award of excellence by the Ghana Business Women Association, among others.

Mrs Mabogunje has interests in non-fiction literary pursuits, writes poetry, and has co-written The Duet, a poetry book with her son, which has been staged at MUSON Centre and FESTINA.

Who is Mrs Toki Mabogunje?

Toki Mabogunje is a woman who trained to be a lawyer. I was called to the Nigerian Bar 33 years ago. I am the oldest of four children; I have two brothers and a sister. My father who passed on some years ago was a medical doctor; he was the Chief Pathologist for Lagos State. My mom was 80 last year. She was a teacher and school administrator, who worked in the public service (state, federal) and in some international schools. I am married to Mr Oluseun Mabogunje, an engineer, and we have two sons – Deji and Damola.

My early years were at American International School where I had my elementary education. When I got into junior high, my parents thought I was becoming too “unNigerian”, so to speak; so, I was moved to Holy Child College to “Nigerianise” me. I left there to the University of Ife, where I studied Law. I started worked in the Federal Ministry of Justice for nine-and-a-half years; left and went into broadcasting for about eight years before I left to start a consulting firm, TMC (Toki Mabogunje & Co.).

Growing up

There were many things. I grew up in a house where both parents were working professionals who didn’t differentiate between boys and girls. I belonged to football clubs, and was always the goalkeeper because they said I didn’t know how to play. I grew up, learning how to stand up for my right. My father could not stand discrimination. And when it is time to cook, we were all in the kitchen so all my brothers are domesticated. My father was very domesticated – he cooked. My mother tells me that when she married him, he taught her all the Yoruba dishes she learnt to cook because she’s from Cross River State.

In our house, to some extent, democracy was practised. In those days, our TVs were black and white; and we had very few choices; so he would have us vote which station to watch and if we were going out, where to eat lunch. And, sometimes, when he tries to insist on a place, we would say “No, we want to vote”. (Laughs.) For my parents, it was always the quality of the education; I wouldn’t be where I am today if they didn’t invest in my education. I have come to the conclusion that the American education played a very major part in who I am today – I am very “unNigerian” in my thinking and behaviour. In the American education, volunteerism was key – so doing things for the good of everybody became a second nature.

Literary voyage

I started writing very early. My father always encouraged us to explore our talent.  So, I, as a mother, grew up encouraging my children’s talent. Deji, my first son, is an excellent artist and the second, Damola, who is a science student, is a poet. He has just published his second book, titled: Season for All Things by Kachifo. It hit Nigeria in December and would soon be on the bookshelves.

I lost my first collection, which was about 10 years old, when my parents moved house at age 17 – that has remained a sad episode in my life. So, when I got married, I swore to myself that if I could be lucky enough to have a child who can write like me, I would not lose that child’s poems. But then, he would do it on scrap papers all: I started collecting from age six. Incidentally, that was the same age I started writing.

One day, while I was cleaning my filing cabinet, I noticed my very fat file of poems and that of my sons and thought of publishing. I, then, called Prof Femi Osofisan, who encouraged me on, that it would be a unique publication. That was how I pulled it all together. It was published in 2009, by then Damola was 19 years old. It is titled: The duet, it is my fifth, but the first that is mine. It features poems, spanning 10 to 19 years of my son’s life and mine is five years: so in one collection, you get the opportunity of seeing things from the eyes of a child and a matured woman. And some of the subjects in the book are similar, like love, war and politics. Before then, I have been contributing to other collections – three in the United States and one in honour of Wole Soyinka at 70 which incidentally got me involved with the Nigerian literary sector.

My stint with the theatre

Now, that was an adventure. After the book was published 2009 and I thought I was done until 2011 while I was preparing for my birthday. I was able to mark my 50th in a very significant way. The then Secretary of the  National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), Lagos  Chapter, Mr Williams Ekpo, masterminded the elaborate stage performance of The Duet featuring dance, drama, poetry recitation and songs. He put together a 46-man cast made up of a composer, who converted some of the poems to contemporary songs; professional singers; the dance troupe and the actors. They were able to translate our 36 poems of the collection into something I couldn’t imagine; and took my love poems, written at different times and reason, strung them together and turned them into a story. That got me transfixed.  The play, which was endorsed by the Sickle Cell Foundation, PEN and CORA, had on Saturday two performances and a command performance on Sunday. We ended up raising N2.6million after deducting costs.

Last year, the work was put on stage during the Festival of Nigerian Plays (FESTINA) when I was appointed the 2014 Personality of the Year for World Theatre Day and their Cultural Ambassador for the year. Whenever they appoint such personalities, they always put their work on stage. I will be giving up the title to the next person this month; and they might stage it again to close my term. The first play was focused on Bakassi; last year’s was on Boko Haram. So, I spent the whole of 2014 as Cultural Ambassador.

Coping as business executive,lawyer wife and mother

I have already collected my certificate of freedom. My two boys have finished school. I don’t really have problem coping anymore. I used to have the issue of work-life balance. And it was tough. You know if you are on employment and a mother and wife, you’d have to work hard to ensure the balance. But I have gone past that stage – I am on the expressway now. But I must say it is not easy for any woman to be a working mother. When I started having children, I had to choose what was more important to me – the convenience of going to school in the neighbourhood or the quality education they’d get. That was why I began my career in the Civil Service because they close early and I would be able to have time for my children. I remember while the kids were growing up, I decided they needed to have as certain skills, like learning music. That meant I didn’t have any Saturday – there was always one lesson or practice that they are involved in. Do you know what! They are adult now and I am so proud of them. And I now have the privilege of seeing what our sacrifices have resulted in. It is a thing of pride, and indeed God’s grace, that I now have the luxury of seeing that all our sacrifices as parents have produced wonderful products we are proud of what kind of men they’ve become. And I can trace everything to the things I did when they were younger.

My 30-year marriage experience

It has been pretty interesting. My life’s journey has been very interesting, even more so, because I am married to someone who is a good friend; and because we support each other. Creative people are non-conformist, so you have to have a certain kind of patience when you are married to someone that is creatively inclined. But when you have a partner who supports and help you realise your goals and dreams, then life becomes interesting and really great. I think he would say to you I brought the salt and pepper into his life. Married to a creative person like me means that you’d never know when I’d throw in something in that would make our lives more interesting.

But there is always a give-and-take involved; and it never stops. You’d continue to give and take through life. I stayed in the Civil Service for nine-and-the-half years also because my husband was building his business. So somebody had to be working short hours, do the school runs and take less than what he/she is worth in salary in order that other person can grow their business. Also at some point in MINAJ, I wanted to know more about the business of broadcasting. Going for a course in the field meant I had to live my husband in Nigeria and go to the US for three years. Now, without a supportive husband, how does that happen? In our case, we knew what we were looking for, for our sons. Already our oldest son was getting ready for the university – it was a perfect timing.

The economic viability of the arts

It is viable, but the arts sector is not viable in itself; its viability of the arts is in a different kind of framework. All around the world, the arts have always been supported by those who have money. In the developed world their creative industry is where it is because the business world has always put money into the arts. Having staged my own play, I now realised you can’t make money from this thing, you have to have sponsorship or have the money to sponsor it. There is need for Nigerians to understand that you need to invest in this sector. It looks as if more money is made upon the demise of the creative person: their work becomes invaluable when they die. Vincent van Gogh died a penniless man but money is being made after his death.