By Tony Ogaga
After six years of being in the cooler, raising her family, the singer known as Muma Gee has finally returned to her first love, music. The Kade Queen had an explosive performance at The Hard Rock Café’s monthly event christened ‘She Rocks: International Woman Edition’, where she was honoured alongside other female acts including Kemi Adetiba and Emman Nyra.
Indeed, Muma Gee gave what could best be described as an explosive performance. In this chat with Entertainer, the musician talks about motherhood and declares that she has no regrets!
For six years you have been off the stage but i watched your performance and it was explosive. How were you able to bottle all that up for that long?
I did not bottle that up just for six years. As a child growing up I have always been interested in the women’s department of God’s creation. And that is why I have been able to groom myself the way I have done; growing up and becoming who I am today is because I believe so much in the reason for the divinity of womanhood in creation and why God made women to be what we are. You know, it is not the same way that God created men that he created women. Woman was made to be helper to the man. This is something I have been researching and also from life experience, so I know women to be very special people. When I see women fighting and dragging for equality with men, I realise a lot of women don’t know the potentials they have as women. I feel that women are made greater and stronger than men, but women were meant to respect men from the beginning of creation.
How do you mean women are greater than men?
Can a man be pregnant for nine months? Do you know what that means? Can a man push in the labour room? Can a man be awake as early as possible and sleep last? I have brothers and I have lived with men and I know that men don’t have the strength women have. The strength of a woman is unique and is so fantastic. It goes beyond the physical. It is mysterious how God created women. I don’t want to digress because I performed the songs I did here today because it is International Womens’ Month. That is why I focused so much tonight on the songs that describe women and give women direction, and from my last song, you will realise also that as an African woman, you are designed by our culture, by God and our environment to respect men. The role of a man in our lives as women can never be underrated. As a woman, where I come from, women are never chiefs but how I was made a chief I don’t understand up until now. On January 7, 2006, I became a chief and in 2016 I was given another chieftaincy title when my king said that ‘from today on, you are high chief’. I just see myself as the only woman that is a high chief among the chiefs in Ekpeye Kingdom. Where I come from, women can’t even sit down to deliberate on matters with men. Then again, woman was created to be helper for man. By the time we realise who we are, it will be a better world for all of us women.
Tell us about motherhood and the joy of having kids?
Motherhood is fantastic. It is great to be a woman in its totality because it gives you that fulfillment as a human being because that role you have been created for, you have acted it out and performed that responsibility. And that was why I took a break for six years from my career, to ensure that I complete my life circle as a woman, by getting married and having kids.
You still look dashing after three kids. What is the secret?
Well, I eat decently; I am not greedy when it comes to food. I don’t take alcohol and I don’t smoke and I try to live a decent life even though I don’t look it. Sincerely, my looks deceive people. Who I am inside of me is different from what I look inside of me; I am different from what I look on the outside and why it is like that I don’t know.
So, who is the real Muma Gee?
The real Muma Gee is that act on stage, that crazy-natured human being who when she is in control musically she is like a goddess. But Muma or Gift as a person could be the CEO of your company, she’s that enterprising and homely woman. I always say to myself that I am domestically sealed because of my upbringing.
Tell us about your kids?
I don’t want to talk about my family because I want to protect my kids from the media; they have a right to that. I have Caesar, my first son, Cleopatra, my daughter, and Monalisa, my last child for now. I am wishing and praying that God gives me two more boys; I want to have five kids.
What is your advice for mothers out there that want to be like you?
I don’t know if there are women out there that want to be like me. But if there are, I must say that it takes a lot. It takes a lot to wake up very early in the morning and prepare the kids for school. It takes a lot to put them to bed at night. It takes a lot to know when they want food. It takes a lot to make sure they don’t fall ill. The role of a woman is enormous and God has given us the strength to always deliver
What is the secret to your success?
The secret is dedication because whatever I put my mind to I do it whole-heartedly, and I make sure I deliver. I am always loyal to whatever I am doing.
Do you have any regrets?
I have none because for every activity or event that takes place in my life I think it is already pre-empted by nature and probably that is the way God wants it. I have somebody I work with and when we plan out things and it doesn’t work out the way we planned, I am like maybe, that is the way God wants it, that is the way nature wants it, but the person is like ‘no, no, I don’t like you talking like that, what needs to be done needs to be done. If God knows that you are probably going to meet an accidnent in front and God sees that the work he has set for you is not done, he could make the car not to start, and if you are the stubborn spirit type, he could make the engine knock just to achieve his goal’. So, whatever happens in my life, at every point in my life, I take philosophically. That is why what happened to me, that has been all over the place, that I was presented like a woman who is promiscuous, I have taken it philosophically. I see myself as the Temple of God. Before I got married, I said to myself, ‘Muma, as you are getting married, your body is the Temple of God’.