WHAT message do you want to pass across with your new works?
Having been recording for so many years in Nigeria, the UK and the US, our album ‘Warrior’ is a collection of songs that reflect my life, experiences and adventures. The message is one of love of life, self belief, strength, resilience, and fun. It is a mosaic of a Nigerian girl’s journey through Africa, Europe and America. Every artiste has his own race and I believe that the fastest way to success is to stay in your own lane and never measure yourself with anyone else as two parallel lines can never meet. Generally in music, America and Europe sell to Africa, and guess what? Africa generally sells to Africa. The ‘Warrior’ album has an international flavour and even though that was not necessarily my purpose, that was the end result. Why? Because it is a true reflection of who I am; today’s African, a product of a myriad of cultures, yet a proud Nigerian still.
What inspired’ Warrior?
The song ‘Warrior’ and in fact, the entire album has life as inspiration. Life is a journey of constant battles. Some we win, some we lose. It is a cyclic dance of overcoming challenges and celebrating victories. To thrive in this life, one must be a warrior. It is about you and I. It’s about that special person in our lives who often shows strength and resilience when the tide is high or low. It’s about love and war and how love conquers all, with lyrics like “life ain’t about all the hearts that you can break, it’s about the love you make”. For me, it is mostly about the ultimate source of my strength and my very life, the Alpha. The Omega.
You are multi-talented;a dancer, choreographer and a singer. How do you juggle all these?
Everything in life is about balance plus a sense of priority. I am thankful for the opportunity to practice all these facets of my career but I must, however, say that my first and most important job is that of being a mother. Whatever time is left of that I divide accordingly to career depending on what is most pressing. As we all know, when it comes to time, it is not so much about quantity but quality and when one has only a limited time to accomplish a certain task, one tends to work smart, not necessarily hard. Most importantly though, I must give some major credit to my SabinaWorld family who help me keep it together and have stood by me all these years through thick and thin. They know I love them. No one should ever take credit for a goal that is accomplished by many.
You were into Public Relations. Why did you dump it for entertainment?
Well, entertainment is the ultimate public relations job, right? I have actually been into entertainment since I can remember. My very first role was that of a child ghost in ‘The Sudden Return’, a play directed by my father when I was just about six years old. I also have bachelors degree in theatre arts from the University of Benin. So for me, show business is a calling, first and foremost, after which comes the ‘business’ side of it. I was in show business before I became a woman, a beauty queen, a wife or a mother. It is who I am.
What really motivated you to contest the MBGN?
Again, show business. Right after obtaining my degree in theatre arts, I felt that winning the title of Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria would be a great springboard for my career in entertainment. That was the singular reason I did it. Anybody who knows me knows that I don’t really consider myself as “so beautiful”. That would be grossly self-absorbed, and infact, a little crazy, because as we all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Besides, there are a million other definitions of beauty that have nothing to do with the physical. That’s another day’s story. By the way, I often joke that “I was the Most Beautiful Girl In Nigeria that happened to be on that stage on the night” (laughs). It all worked out though, right?
Let me take you back, the night you were crowned, what was the experience like?
It was amazing. It always a great thing to be in a position to thank God for a prayer answered. Right there on stage, my very next thought was “wow, I get a chance to travel around the world representing Nigeia in Miss World, Miss Universe and so forth.” You see, deep down, I have always sought the honour to be that Nigerian export that helps show the rest of the world see how great a people we are, and this is something I thrive to reflect in my music and the rest of my career even now.
As a beauty queen, what is your view on proliferation of beauty pageants?
The more recent beauty pageants and beauty queens are doing a pretty good job. These days, advancement in technology has afforded pageant organisers and beauty queens alike more resources to better define their image and message. As in everything in life though, one must strive to improve, as I am sure we will. Let us, however, not count out the vintage queens, as I like to call us: the likes of Lynda Chuba Ikpeazu, Omasan Buwa, Regina Askia Williams, Bianca Onoh Ojukwu, Nike Oshinowo Soleye, and of course my humble self who have gone on to have continued successes both personally and professionally, and hey, we are still kicking it (laughs). More importantly though, it is not your year of reign that determines if the crown is a blessing, it is what you do with the crown thereafter, your legacy, that defines you. Time will tell.
In the era when marriages are packing up like a pack of cards, how have you been able to sustain yours?
The grace of God is number one. Also as I get more mature, I have learned that love can make you marry someone but in order to sustain that relationship you have to add tolerance to that love. We must also learn to accept our partners for their strength and limitations. Oftentimes we try to negatively redefine the very qualities that attracted us to our partners in the first place. For example, ‘intelligent’ becomes ‘over-sabi’, and ‘patient’ becomes ‘mumu’. One should also try not to change one’s self because in the process we may lose the very person that our partners fell in love with. I am blessed with a marriage that one hundred percent encourages me to be myself.
You are a mother of four, yet you don’t look it. How do you manage to keep your shape?
I owe that again to the grace of God. My genes may also have a lot to do with that. Plus water. Lots and lots of water. That’s the best medicine and the best skin care product.
Once a beauty queen, always one. Do you still see yourself as one?
Every woman is a queen. We are the mothers of our time. We bore the world and are therefore the queens of our times. We are the backbone of our families, support system for our spouses and the cradle of strength for our children. Every woman is beautiful. As for me, I try my best. I do not roll out of bed looking like a movie star. I do put in the effort as a woman ought to, especially after becoming wife or mother. We must not lose a sense of who we are. I have to be the best ‘Sabina’ I can be before I can be a good mother or wife to someone else.
