Tell us about yourself

 My name is Nana Danjuma. I am an entrepreneur and I am a mother of two wonderful kids (a girl and a boy). My girl is in 100 level in university, while my boy is in grade 8. I am a trained architect turned professional fashion designer. I am the founder of YADHA Fashion Academy. We are expert trainers. We do commercial patterns design and garments. We also have a yummy yogurt factory. 

 Tell us about you growing up.

 Growing up as a child, I grew up in an environment where I had so much love and support from my mom and dad and even from so many relatives around and my siblings who were all girls… six of us all in the family. Truly, I grew up with lots of timidity, I was not outspoken and at the same time, was a shy kind of girl who feels and carries the idea that she can’t do much. So whenever I see people do things, I will just say yeah….. people can do this thing, but not Nana. 

Along the line, I started some things. I started working on myself and then I noticed and realized that being timid will not get me anywhere and then reading and watching other people (like mentors) helped a lot. I remember in particular, this lady I watched and met in a program I attended on a faithful day. I recall the way she stood up when she was called to speak. That got me impressed. I remember I was about seven or eight years old… and after the program, I asked my dad what she does for a living and he said “she is an architect” and that was the first time I heard of the word architect ….. and I just felt wow! so my mind changed from my initial dream of becoming a doctor to an architect. So, I asked what they do and he said they design buildings, and my mindset changed.

 Suddenly, I said to myself I want to become an architect. I wanted to become an architect afterward, because I felt if I become an architect, maybe I could be able to be confident and speak like her or even speak to people like her. And that was my journey about being an architect started. So, I started going through things that had to do with building and all. The attraction was there and all thanks to this woman I don’t even remember her name now, but I do remember that she is an architect. 


 What key role(s) did your parents play in your life?

 Yeah…. I grew up in a Christian home, and our family was one that we grew up in a home where we can sit with our parents to discuss the Bible. My dad is a Pastor, so he will always sit with us to advise and encourage us on faith and Christian living. I will love to say this about my dad; that he’s one person who will encourage one, even when you fail. (laughs) I remember a particular season when I failed my exams and my dad saw the results and he was like….. Oh… Congrats, he went out and got me a card saying congratulations. 

He didn’t look at it as the end of the world. All he said was, “maybe you didn’t get it well now but you can do better and that’s why am giving you this card because I know you will do better”, and that’s something I will always remember and even in the current scenario and culture we have now, it is hard for a parent to tell the child congrats for or after failing. So that clicked to my head that even when I sit with my children and other kids, I will always tell them that failure does not make you bad it is only feedback. 

You just go and work on it another way, restrategize and get better in whatever you do. My mom was also very supportive. She will sit, look for something good about you and encourage you about it. It may be the smile on your face… so, she will tell you ah… you have the best smile in the world or you have the best dentation in the world….. You know, things like this have a way of encouraging you, even when you step out into a world where people don’t see the good in you, you will always remember that you are coming from a place where you are appreciated and valued. 

 How does it feel being a female?

 (Smiling) Basically, I like being unique and different. I hardly want to see someone doing a thing and want to do exactly like that. Even as an architect, though I am not practicing, for everything I do, I love to tell myself, I can do it better and I can create a better version of it. So, for me, you should just be unique in your way, regardless of whether you are a male or female… you can learn from someone though. Somebody can inspire you (especially a mentor), but ensure you work towards becoming a better version and doing better.

 Memorable events during your teenage days.

 (Smiles) Ok… moments or events I will not forget easily are moments when I had good friends around. This brings me to advising young people out there to be careful about the kind of people or friends you move with. The moment you notice that there’s something wrong with the people you call friends, please drop them off and move on.

 For me, the moment I spot wrong or negative signals from my friends, I drop them and move on. So about memories, we really did have fun growing up. I was not the hippy-hype kind of person. I was somehow a quiet kind but I had social friends, that were all good and had no negativity in our fun having and quietness. 

We talked about what will make us grow and become better persons, innovative and great. You know, we were creative to the point of celebrating our friends’ birthdays in a memorable style that one might be surprised to the point of crying out of joy. So yes, we did make memorable events and had a positive kind of fun.

 Were you a good child because your father was a pastor?

 Truly, it was a choice on my own. A decision I had made on my own, not with the influence of my parents. So, we must learn to be good and make the right choices on our own, not because someone made us to. Because in-as-much as my parents had all of the godly ideas for us… there’s this thing we call choice. This is the ability for us to pick from the many before us. For everything I do, though there were times when you may make some kind of bad choices; certain ideas might come to you that are not so good and your parents might not agree with it. Yes!

 But for me, what I do is to think about myself and where I’m going. I think of where I want to end up and the likes. Being a focused child while growing up, I knew I wouldn’t want to work with the government at the end of the day. So, since I knew where I was heading, I tried as much as possible to make the choices I felt were right at that time.

 What is your advice to every teenager who aspires to be great on the issue of making choices? 

The first thing I will tell a teenager is to check your belief system. if they are wrong, you’ll need to work on your mindset and shift your paradigm. You must do so because even if you get to pick the best choices and still have those belief systems inside you, they have a way of drawing you back. So, my advice to young people is that they must know and discover what they believe in first and then see how they bring every good thing onboard. Next is to discover and understand your values and those things that are topmost on your priority list.

 This is because we are different and have values that are sometimes sharpened by our faith, our integrity, or our character. These are things that truly shape us when we do things, we do in the environment we live in. so I think every child or teenager should be able to point out their top values, and you must also ask yourself other important questions like; where do you want to see yourself in the future?

 Where are you going and what do you want your future to be like? What are the kind of people you want to see yourself relating with/ what are the kind of impact you want to see yourself making? What are the kind of lives you want to touch in the future? Honestly, when you can thoroughly ask such questions and provide genuine answers, then there will be hope...

To be continued...