Toki Mabogunje Dines with Fresh Blends

Rebecca Ejifoma

Toki Mabogunje

From a business tycoon to a literary icon, her name resounds in the mouth of both the young and the old across the country. Her words were inspiring, her gesticulations were luring and her saga thrilled the audience, as she seized the day. With such national and international credit attached to her name, the Association of Nigerian Authors, Lagos at the weekend, made Toki Mabogunje its established literary figure at Vintage Wine and Fresh Blends (VWFB) 2014.

As a jack of many trades and master of all, Toki is labelled one who has paid her dues and carved a niche for herself both in the literary world and in the business sphere.  Toki is a business development consultant interested in the growth and management of small and medium enterprises on the African continent. Also, she has a degree in Law from the University of Ife, Nigeria and a post graduate degree (LLM) in International Business Law from the University of Exeter.

While mentoring and nourishing the Fresh Blends (students) to literary cum career maturity through her experience at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Toki broke the boredom of the usual one-sided tradition of speaker and listener in the hall with an interactive segment of questions and answers as a means of carrying them all along.  And as a side flavour to further entertain the audience, four ever-ready secondary schools performed a special dramatic poem on stage opted from The Duet, an anthology of poems co-authored by Toki and her son, Damola  titled “Life's journey”. They thrilled the audience with their creative gestures of delight.

The schools included National College Gbagada, Ikosi High School Ketu, Reagan Memorial Baptist Secondary School and Aunty Ayo Senior Girls Comprehensive School respectively. Impressed by their nimble performances and justice done to the topic given, having been unfazed by the number of audience watching them, ANA Lagos presented copies of literary works that would enlighten and awaken the students to the world of literature.

According to Toki whilst addressing parents to allow their children be what they wanted to be rather than live their dreams through their children, she enthused “I started writing at the age of six likewise my son. Through-out my elementary and secondary school days, I wrote poems, fables, plays, essays, dialogue and songs. I thoroughly enjoyed it and continued to write poetry until I became an adult. As a child and young student, I had a few adults around me who encouraged me and those who did not even understand what I wrote but I wrote them anyway because I enjoyed writing and reading them.”

She, therefore, urged the students, who crave to become writers to have a clear imagination, read, enjoy story-telling and writing. She urged, “To grow as writer can be tough in this world because the youths are busy with school, homework, sports and chores. But they must read whenever they can find time to. Always have a notepad or some paper handy so that when that idea clusters in a thought or something that they wish to express, you can write it immediately so you don't forget, lest your thought may be lost forever.”

 Notwithstanding, Toki advised couples to always work together for a better and successful result. She also said that couples needed to work cooperatively to get to their success stories. Accompanied by her mum and husband, she proved that two heads in one, indeed, is better.

Over the last 26 years, Toki has been involved in commercial and business enterprise from both a public and private sector perspective. As an assistant Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Defence and later Senior State Counsel in the Mercantile and Industrial Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice. Her move to the private sector provided her with the opportunity to attain a well-rounded perspective of business enterprise in the Nigerian Environment.

While imparting to the students, the students in turn tapped from her well of intellect. The fresh blends listened to the visions, desires, yearnings and dreams of the Vintage Wine class and hopefully, as ANA Lagos quest for the day was to ensure they find aces that would help them successfully play the game of creativity.

Being its fourth edition, VWFB craves to create an annual mentorship environment for young aspiring writers in order to nurture them. Through its programme, students, especially those with the innate for literature, ANA Lagos creates a dais for these fresh blends to parley with established members of the literary community, whose words or actions can shape the form of a writer’s works also known as Vintage Wine.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, ANA Lagos, Femi Onileagbon said “We will be there for our Fresh Blends because the youths are the Vintage wine of the future. We will not fail them, not now, not ever because ANA Lagos is committed to the cause of promoting literature in Nigeria.”

ANA Lagos is determined through this programme, he explained, to donate 500 books annually as prizes to all participating schools and the books will build loyalty and commitment to the people in the hearts of our school children. The chairman commended the organisers and the publishers who have funded previous editions of the competitions and had donated copies of their books.

In the end, participants were excited, as they longed for a hand shake from the Vintage Wine, because from their expressions, one could conclude that truly she is an icon the students have traversed.