My Most Traumatic Experience – Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde

Veteran Nollywood star Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has shared the most painful experience of her life.

The screen icon recently marked her 25th anniversary in the movie industry, and while talking about some personal experiences, described her father’s death as the most traumatic for her.

Omotola was attending the Command Secondary School in Kaduna when the tragic incident occurred.

In an interview with TheNews magazine, she recounted how the bad news hit her so many years ago.

The biggest motivating factor was the loss of my father. I was very close to my dad. And you know life was very good. We were not the richest people in the country but we were doing at least above average.

We were a small family. I was the only child for a very long time. And then my junior brother came along.

My dad was doing very well. He was very industrious. He had a good job. He was moving with the high and mighty; presidents and stuff like that. I mean, life was good. You know what I mean. And at a very young age of 12, to have all that crashing on your head in a very, very traumatic way.

My dad had an accident. That was how he died. And I was far away in Kaduna. I was schooling in Command Secondary School, Kaduna.

I still remember very vividly how I was picked up from school, the trauma of not being told what had happened, how I was put on a plane, Nigerian Airways then, back to Lagos and all the time wondering.

I knew at that young age that something was wrong. But nobody was talking to me. So, I didn’t know who or what.

I remember thinking very clearly that the person that kept coming into my head was, God, let it not be my dad, let it not be my dad.

And behold I got home, it was my dad. The trauma of walking into my house with a lot of people there; it affected me in more ways than I can explain.

Even till today, there at many decisions and many things that I have noticed about myself that resulted from that singular trauma that I went through in life.

So that was the most significant turn of events that has change my entire life.

I lost my mum as well; which was another traumatic experience, but not as traumatic as my dad’s.