Bubbly singer, Teniola Apata better known as Teni entertainer has opened up on how her late father, Simeon Apata inspires her.
Speaking in an interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, Teni said: “I know the bloodline I come from.I know the lineage I am coming from.I don’t come from the lineage of cowards. My father single handedly chased armed robbers from Isolo.If you go to Okota and ask who my father was, they will tell you. My father died for the people. When armed robbers come around, he would go out and chase them.He helped a lot of people, gave people free education. So coming from that kind of legacy, its only right to be confident. I grew up with my mother telling me ‘don’t forget the child of who you are, you are born for success, be yourself, be good to people, be respectful to people’’
Teni who recently released her debut album, ‘Wondaland’, also went down memory lane recalling how her mother punished her for forgetting to greet one of their domestic staffs during her early days as a child.
“I grew up with my parents having lot of staffs and I remember one day, my mum stopped the laundry people from doing our laundry. So I had to do my laundry myself because we had a lot of dogs and if you forget your clothes at the backyard on the rope, in the night the dogs will bite your clothes.
So I woke up that morning and I remembered I forgot to pack my clothes the previous morning, So I was running downstairs to the back, I didn’t know my mother was coming behind me going to work.So because I wanted to go and see if my school uniform had been bitten by the dog, I forgot to greet the woman. My mother was behind me,my mum said so you are the ones paying their salaries now that you cannot greet.Even me that I am paying salaries, I greet them.I told her I was in a hurry to go get my clothes.Do you know what my mum did?My mum told me to take the broom and for two weeks I was packing dog shit, I was cleaning the gutter .I was the cleaner of the house.She didn’t care if I got to school late.If I get to school late, they will flog me.So I learnt respect in power.No matter how powerful you become, no matter how successful you become be respectful. It was never confidence at the detriment of bringing others down.It was know who you are but still respect people”.