EVERYONE HAS A STORY

Tutu Conde-Onwuachi- Survivor Extraordinaire .

Unyime-Ivy King.

Who said that a girl, who grew up surviving on the little that petty trade could fetch, could not find the chutzpah to work on her dreams and watch them materialize before her?



Janet Adetutu Conde-Onwuachi, CEO of Pizaas modeling agency, may be young, but she has loads of spunk and gumption. Tall and poised at 27 years old, she fiercely fights to claim her space and make an impact in the modeling world, despite dire circumstances strewn along her path by life, including sexual abuse from an old man, as a child. These debilitating circumstances could have fazed any other girl and made her give up on life, or end up on the streets selling her body for what she could get, like some have done, but then, Tutu is not just any other girl. This beautiful wife, and mother of 2, refused to allow meager means to diminish her dreams. Propelled along and fueled by the vision of a mother, whom despite her struggles to scrape by, from the proceeds of petty trade, was determined to see her 3 children make the most of life and not allow challenges to limit their dreams.

 Her life story is a rather complicated one. Born, the third of 3 children, and an only girl, into a polygamous home, though her father was wealthy, the politics and matrixes that exist in a polygamous home saw her mum losing out on the power play and as a result, things became quite tough, even though they all lived in their father’s house-they lived downstairs, while he lived upstairs with the other wife. “My mum was wealthy initially-she used to trade in gold, but things changed. Things were hard. Growing up was very difficult.” Tutu began, reflectively. “My mum was educated, but she had to sell firewood to send us to school. I used to follow mum to Oko Oba and Gbagada to get paw paw to hawk. I used to hawk ice water at Shomolu market. A lot of times, we slept hungry, because there was no food to eat. Sometimes, mum would cook and by morning, we would see roaches/rodents in the food, but we would still eat the food! It was either that, or hunger.”

Despite their limited means, Tutu’s mother placed a high premium on education. “My mum made sure we went to school-even if it was a public school. We would trek to school, without slippers, wearing rags for uniforms. I became used to suffering”  In spite of the suffering and deprivation, Tutu and her older siblings did well in school. On completion of her primary/secondary school education in Lagos, University beckoned and she had to write the West African Examinations Council exams, Tutu encountered a fresh challenge as her father did not give her the 3,500 naira needed for the exams. She approached her father’s tenant for help, and he flaunted 30, 000 naira in her face, promising to give her and more, if she slept with him, as he had been ogling her from childhood. Tutu, whose mum had raised her and her brothers with an iron fist, instilling strict moral virtues, in spite of their hapless circumstances, rebuffed his advances and went away in tears. “I could not tell mum what happened because, I knew she would go and make trouble. Finally, my mum was able to raise the money for me, but painfully enough, I couldn’t take the exams because I was hospitalized.” She later on sat for the exams in another school.

Tutu gained admission into the Grace Polytechnic, Omu-Ijebu to study Computer Science, and engaged in menial jobs to augment the little her mum sent to her, not wanting to trade her body for money.  In between schools, she decided to use her time judiciously and learned photography and hair making as her mum would not tolerate idleness. “If you had nothing to do, she would either send you to sell water or fetch firewood. In school, I did a bit of modeling. I decided to give modeling a try, but I wasn’t serious with it because I did not have the money to register for formal training. It was a modeling scout called, Ability, who first saw me in school uniform and approached me. He owned ‘Ability Concepts’ and encouraged me to go into modeling; he took me round. I was trained at Apple House Photography/Modeling/Events house. It was at Modela’s-then it was not well known-that I learned to catwalk.”

In 2003, two earth shattering events happened to Tutu. Her mum, who was a tower of support and a rock to her, died after some illness. It was an emotionally straining period for Tutu, and it was at this point that she succumbed to the advances of her now husband, who had been proposing to her. This one time of passion, resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. At this time, she and her siblings were reconciled with their father.

It was not an easy ride for Tutu immediately, as she had series of challenges with regards to her pregnancy. There was a brief separation period between her and her baby’s father, as she rebuffed his proposal of marriage, not wanting him to feel obliged to marry her simply because she had gotten pregnant, whilst she concentrated on building her modeling career. She traveled to Abuja often for modeling jobs, and began to make money. She modeled for V-mobile, as it was known then, in 2005, Indomie, and Nigerian distilleries.  Whilst at Wale Adenuga’s PEFTI institute doing a course in beads making, he noticed her and drafted her into his Super story production, titled, ‘A New Story.’ In 2007, she took part in a TV reality show called, ‘Angels Reality Show’ organized by GB2 audio visuals. Tutu was also a contestant in the Most Beautiful Girl, Face of Abuja beauty contest, and emerged as the second runner up. “After this, I started doing events, and got a contract from CB (Classic Beverages) makers of La Ca Sera drink, and started working for them. I went for the casting, and was asked to supervise the other girls-about 19 of them. After that, the GM asked me to call models on my own, saying that, the company would deal directly with me, and that was when I thought of owning a modeling agency.”

All seemed well outwardly as she was able to take better care of her daughter, and foot her bills, but inwardly, she was not happy about being a single mother, and about her mistake. Most nights, she cried herself to sleep and started drinking and smoking to dull her senses to the pain. She began to frequent night clubs-but never picked up men, nor did she allow men pick her up. It all stopped when she saw her late mum in a dream warning her to desist from the drinking, smoking and clubbing. “It was at the Coliseum that I met a European- Phillip Netherall, and he suggested the modeling agency to me”  Despite numerous love overtures from rich and influential men, she never succumbed to the temptation because, she hated men, due to the sexual abuse she experienced in childhood, coupled with the strict up bringing she had received from her mum. Though long death, her mum’s influence in her life still remained strong, as she would hear her mum’s voice in her sub consciousness, warning her, whenever she was about to take any wrong steps. Till date, Tutu sees her late mum as her strongest role model in life.

Finally, she married her baby’s father and her second daughter came, not long after that. Looking back at it all, Tutu is excited that she is well on the way to seeing her dreams become a living reality. She sold her car recently to be able to put up the money to set up her own studio in Ikeja. University is still in the pipelines for this tough young lady, who wants to study Business Administration. For now, she is working towards registering her agency-Pizaas, in the UK, and building it up, plus her studio. Currently, she handles various modeling contracts and also grooms models for professional events, training them to be morally virtuous as well.

Tutu desires to see herself in Paris-the seat of fashion, in the next 5 years, and had this to say to young girls like her, as her final words, “ Young girls are impatient-they want to get everything here, and now. With the right mental attitude, no mountain is too high. Right friends matter too, as bad friends and wrong influence marks the beginning of problems. Do not be afraid or ashamed of trying to be different because achievers are always on top.”