Glamsquad Magazine May 2021

INTERVIEW
When you look back on your journey
from 2005, when you published
Everything Good Will Come, to the
awards and accolades you have
received for your novels, short stories,
plays and screenplays, what passes
through your mind? Do you wish you
had started writing earlier and not
worked as an accountant first?
No. I’m grateful for those years. For a
start they gave me stories, which I have
recreated and shared. They also gave
me conflict, which was necessary. I may
never have become a writer had I been
fully satisfied with the corporate life. I’m
even glad I was bored with it because
my mind often wandered while I was at
work, which only gave me more stories to
tell.
“
I’m still the girl who
believed she was
equal to boys, while
observing that men
and women were
expected to behave
differently.
Your work also offers perspectives on
neocolonialism and a witty look at the
intersection between African cultures
and those of the Western world. For
someone who was born and raised in
Nigeria, and who has also spent most
of her adult life immersed in Western
culture, which would you say has the
greater appeal, and do you achieve
your intended purpose in choosing this
theme as a frame for your stories?
I wouldn’t say either has a greater
appeal, but the duality you refer to is
a force that drives my narratives. My
Nigerian identity came first and I haven’t
lost it. I’m still the girl who believed she
was equal to boys, while observing
that men and women were expected
to behave differently. My education
and accountancy career in England
broadened my consciousness because
I was regarded as a black foreigner
there. Now that I live in the United States,
where racial and other identities are
constantly discussed, the language of
such discourse puts my experiences
in perspective. My migration certainly
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