The celebrity edition of the SuperMom reality show which kicked off last month, with heart-rending stories of various Nigerian celebs and their mothers, narrating and re-enacting their experiences.
The first two episodes were aired on Sunday, June 10 and June 17, 2012, and featured comedian Julius D’ Genius Agwu and singer Olu Maintain and their mothers. Both mothers told amazing stories of how they single-handedly struggled to take of their children in tougher times.
That Julius ‘D Genius’ Agwu,standup comic actor, filmmaker and proponent of the fast-evolving musi-comedy, was born into a poverty-stricken family in Choba, an obscure village in Rivers State
Despite that indigent background, the comedy fireball has evolved into one of Nigeria’s most successful entertainers. But a lot of people do not know how very poor the Agwus were. His mother, then a petty trader, knows. The memory is still very fresh, and she is telling her story, no-holds-barred, and like never before, to the world through the Supermom Celebrity Edition reality television show
According to Julius’ mother, ‘Julius started hawking at age six.‘ The comedian’s father was a bricklayer and his mother was a petty trader, who was also involved in fish farming and susbsistence farming. She said she ‘wanted him to become a carpenter because he was so troublesome. The struggle was tough and he had to help contribute to the livelihood of the family by selling pap.’
According to Mrs. Agwu, Julius often went to school late, as he would wake up at 5am everyday to hawk, and after school, he’d continue hawking. She says that might have been part of the reason, indirectly, that he is such a successful comedian today. ‘For going to school late, he had to stay in front of the class as ordered by the teacher, to entertain his colleagues and teacher. Though it was meant to be a punishment, but those days of facing the class to entertain them was a preparation for an art that would make him a reference point.’
For singer Olu Maintain, growing up wasn’t that hard, as he came from a middle class home and his mother was a civil servant. But his parents’ disinterest and denial in his chosen career made him sell his mother’s jewelry.
Olu says ‘I sold my mom’s gold set to buy studio equipment’. In relation to this, his mother said, ‘I recognized with the benefit of hindsight, the fact he did it was because of his passion and love for music. Unlike other mothers that would have beaten the daylight out of the child, but I had no choice but to support his career with the little I had’.