Delicious-faced actress, Yinka Olukunga, aka Nnenna, raced to prominence with her role in Wale Adenuga’s Super Story and has been in the spotlight since then. She had a chat with YES INTERNATIONAL!’s GBENGA SHABA recently on sundry issues. Enjoy it…
How does being the producer of Nnenna and Friends make you feel?
I feel great. Great! That is all I can say.
How did it all start?
It all started with Wale Adenuga’s Super Story where I played a role of a girl called Nnenna, a lead role. I’m someone that loves children and incidentally, after the production, so many children started calling me Nnenna and somebody told me look, these children love you and you love them. What are you going to do for them? And that was how we started Nnenna & Friends in 2009, because the TV series where I played the role of Nnenna was aired in 2008.
How did you conceive the idea to name it Nnenna & Friends?
There was real love inside of me for children. Something that didn’t just start in a day, so I decided on what to do for them to show this affection. I decided to call them my friends because of the love I have for them.
What are some of the challenges you face being with these children?
It is quite tasking and challenging for me, because it involves children alone. But it is also fun for me. So, I take every challenge as fun because I don’t see them as a problem. I don’t see them as a hurdle. I take them as me having fun with some children. But that does not mean that I won’t admit that some children can be very, very funny sometimes.
How do you cope with the “funny” ones?
I try to come down to their level. You know, when they start getting to some particular age, they start thinking that they could handle themselves. Thinking, this is me, I have arrived. So, you need a lot of patience, wisdom and understanding to be able to handle them at that age. But God has been helping us at Nnenna and Friends. We have been coping well with them.
What about the parents of these children, how do you cope with them?
Fortunately for me, parents have been very supportive of Nnenna and Friends. And I want to believe that it is because we have been making a positive impact in the lives of these children. It is not because of what I stand to gain that this platform was given birth to in the first place, but because the parents know that we are also trying to help them. The school has a role to play, the parents have a role to play and people like us also have our own little role to play in the lives of these children to complement the roles of the school and parents.
Does your childish look have any role to play in what you do?
Maybe. I think so. Do I really look childish? Yes, maybe. Because they use to think we are age mates and that we are in the same level, so they are more comfortable talking to me.
What was your vision when you set out on this mission?
I try to encourage children in most of our programmes, that it must not be just fun, fun, fun; that there are things that you must do before you can actually achieve that dream of yours and education is number one. So, while saying children should come to National Theatre and have fun with me, I’m also saying daddy, if he or she doesn’t pass her examinations, I don’t think you should bring them to my show and that is what we are trying to say and the school competition we have been doing is to help parents. I have had parents who called me to say I want my children to be part of what you are doing. I want to keep at what I’m doing because I want to look back and see smiles on the faces of these children and be happy that I’ve touched their lives and that I have kept innovating; new things that will affect the lives of these children positively in my own way with my team, Wale Adenuga Productions.
Tell us about your most embarrassing day with them.
Well, it wasn’t embarrassing per se, but it was the day a child saw me and asked Nnenna, what class are you now and at that point I was already observing my NYSC? It was very funny because I wasn’t expecting such a question.
What about your happiest moment?
It was May 27, 2009, during the Children’s Day and that was the day we launched Nnenna and Friends with our first show for children and I never knew the effect of Nnenna on these children until I came out and said ‘children’. The response I got from them swept me off my feet. The love was so much, the shout was unprecedented and I actually cried that day.
Are you in any relationship now?
Haa! Please, don’t let us dwell on that now.
Are you married, maybe secretly?
No. I’m not married.
So, how have you been coping with men?
I don’t know (Laughs). I cope well. We talk, we say hello and hi. They appreciate me and I do the same to them too.
NB: First published September 2014