My plan is to overthrow Chimamanda -Ojoye-Adebayo

Ibitola Ojoye-Adebayo is the author of the acclaimed books, Acceptance, and Acceptance: Into The Darkness. Based in the UK, she recently won the Diaspora Writer of the Year category at the Nigerian Writers Awards and she spoke to OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG about her writing aspirations. Why did you decide to become a writer? To be honest, it was by accident, it wasn’t something I planned. When I picked up a pen to just start writing was when things were not too well, I just got married, I just had a baby, my parents were there, but as a woman, I still felt a lot of stress, and there were a lot of things going on, and one day I was watching TV, and a women’s programme came on and they said to relieve stress, you had to kind of like put the feelings out. So I picked up a jotter and I started writing, and by the time I reached chapter seven of Acceptance, I started feeling better, and I put it to one side, and that was in 2007, and in 2013, I was getting married, and I just wanted to do something special, so I was rummaging through the house, and I came across the manuscript, and I was reading through it, and I was like ‘Wow! This is a story of a girl, a woman like myself,’ and I’ll like to share the story, and I gave myself six-month timeline to finish it, so that’s how I finished the book, and it came out. I wasn’t planning to be here, I just thought it’s something I’ll share with my friends, and when I did, they loved it, and in that time I realized I actually had the potential to write stories and create words that people will feel and understand, and I haven’t looked back since then as a writer. Were you already a book lover before the TV programme that inspired you to start writing? Oh yes. I was sent to boarding school in Nigeria from JSS 2 to SSS 3, and my mummy sent me novels, Stephen King, Virginia Andrews, they are the ones I think I look up to right now, apart from obviously Chimamanda now. But when she sent those books, I used to put them aside, as a form of being angry for being sent to Nigeria, so I didn’t read them for a while, but when I was going to boarding school, I just put them in my suitcase, and eventually I got bored, so I picked up the books and started reading them, and doing so was all about entering a world whereby you enter this world, and you know, you’re lost, and that’s how I fell in love with reading. If you see my mum’s attic in London, it’s got boxes and boxes of books you can’t get rid of. They’re just in the attic. I’m married now, I’ve left the house, but there are still boxes of books she can’t get rid of in the attic, because I accumulated them, so when my mum is like ‘Can you pack your stuff out? I say, ‘It’s not my fault. You caused it. You were the one sending me books.’ So they are still over there in her house and she wants me to pack them out. So I think that, yes, that’s how I actually fell in love with writing. What do you want to actually achieve as a writer? You’ve mentioned big names like Stephen King, Virginia Andrews, Chimamanda. Do you feel you can achieve what they have? Oh yes I feel anybody has the potential. Just because they’re up there now, it doesn’t mean someone else can get up there too. It’s just about you working hard and with the special grace of God. I wouldn’t be winning awards and my works being recognized if not for the special grace of God. Every book I’ve written comes to me in a dream. I wake up and I’m writing. That’s the way it’s been for me. To be honest, my driving force today is Chimamanda. She’s the gem in the country at the moment, and I have the potential to be there as well, and if Chimamanda can do it, why can’t I? I guess she worked hard to be there, and I can work hard as well.