"don’t party with my colleagues. When you do that always, you are gradually inviting problems for yourself, as people are always looking for opportunities to bring others down."

"I have no enemies and I have no friends in the industry. Do you always see me in parties or events? I also tell younger actors who are close to me to avoid keeping enemies and friends."

"Just believe in yourself and with hard work, you will get there. God is always faithful. I killed my emotions and I said to myself ‘Rachael, your kids must go to the best schools.’ It was just work and my children"

"I don’t know how to put it but men don’t really appreciate what they have until they lose it"

"The truth is that when you are focused and you know where you are going to, you are likely to succeed. I made up my mind then that I wasn’t going to remarry. I was determined to make it and make all men including my late husband know that with God by her side, a woman can make it in life without a man’s support."

"I believed so much in myself, and when I got over the shock of the separation and all that, I made up my mind that I was going to make a statement without a man. I wanted to prove that a hard working woman could make an impact and with God’s grace, I have come a long way."

"A man should not feel threatened irrespective of the position his wife occupies because God has made him the head. Rather, he should always take care of her and never maltreat her. It is a situation that the husband and wife have to work through."

"If the right people can be put in the right places, we would be able to float an airline that would be successful."

"They even made things more difficult for me for having the effrontery to come into a domain that was exclusively for men."

"We have to train our people, Africans in particular, so that we can manage our airlines by ourselves and when this happens, we are sure of having vibrant airlines within our sub-region as well as making the aviation industry in Africa a more competitive industry all over the world."

"I believe in you, all you need to do is to show me that you can go up and come down on your own. Go ahead, I am praying for you and I know you will succeed."

"If you are not from the ‘right part’ of the country, if you don’t speak the ‘right language’, you won’t get all the support and encouragement."

"I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing at the time. I wanted something unique, something special, something challenging, something that would be fulfilling."

"I chose dance when it was socially, culturally, religiously not acceptable to be a dancer. Dance had almost zero economic value.”"

"I want to be a brand that African parents can tell their kids to look up to by availing them access to lyrically healthy songs that will Mood their kids’ characters and inspire them to greatness while having fun with the music."

"I think originality is being a fruit loop in a world full of Cheerios."

"I already knew what I wanted to be at the age of seven, but there was no capacity for it here. But I was able to achieve my dream"

"Animation can be used to tell stories. My film, The Legacy of Rubies, which won Best Animation at AMAA, tells a story and to make these young ones know that they can do it too. All we need is the capacities to be established."

"We have animation studios in Africa, but I am yet to see anybody that can say I am an independent animation studio owner. We are trying to see that animations are well generated in Africa. We want a platform where young people can dialogue and be part of the game."

"Sometimes, life actually happens, and it will teach you that you need to be very grateful."

"Another tip is to be nice to everyone! You can’t be rude to someone on set because you’re the star of the show. It costs nothing to be nice, and that also helps you to build long term relationships with key figures and decision markers within the industry."

"It’s important that you become a brand that people can buy into, because your salary isn’t going to cut it."

"You can decide to prioritise your career, but you must be willing to accept that you’ll loose the time that you can be spending with your child."

"A lot of young women are compromising their peace and state-of-mind everyday because of societal pressures, but it’s important to keep your integrity in everything you do."

"The thing is that people will try to overshadow you, especially when they feel intimidated."

"Hit the ground running. You have to network in Nigeria, there is no online structure or platform where you can find presenting jobs and opportunities, it’s really about recommendations and who you know."

"However, I think university can give you a level of structure and confidence, but you should definitely take your time to figure out what you’re passionate about before making a decision."

"For young people who are looking to get into presenting or the entertainment industry, I’d suggest that you take things digital as soon as you can."

"I think Nigerian women are amazing, they are strong, they are so hardworking. I would tell them to keep pushing. We have been suppressed as Nigerian women; we are told to be a good wife. They should try more to celebrate each other and not pitch themselves against each other."

"And just believe that it would get better. You don’t know how strong you are until you literally have to be strong."

"I believe that everyone has two sides – especially when you’re in the spotlight. So there is the brand that must always be prim and proper, but at home with friends and family, believe me..."

"Yes, you can get that job, get married, but at the end of the day, that is not happiness. It is the people around you that make you happy..."

"You shouldn’t lose your personality once your other half is put in a position of power."

"Nigeria is such an unpredictable place, but I would like to become somebody African youth can identify with."

"After the publication of the book, I was sponsored to visit the U.S. as part of the international visitors program. The USIS (United States Information Service) in Nigeria organised for me to travel to several U.S. universities to give lectures and do readings from my work."

"Being a mother is the best experience of my life. I truly understand why children are called gifts from God. I was lucky to have a baby with little issues, so it was an overwhelming but joyful experience"

"My greatest fear would be the fear of failure."

"My greatest achievements are my two children: my amazing son and my company"

"Working under tension is quite frustrating, to be honest, but it keeps me on my toes and my team active. Truthfully, sometimes tension brings out creative ideas and solutions to different problems and it is a constant part of the job so I’m getting used to it."

"The time for women is now and we have broken ground in every major aspect of business, politics, economic and social sectors to name a few."

"I have always been conscious of my surrounding and environment for as long as I can remember. I also studied urban and regional planning at tertiary level, and during my extensive travels, I saw how waste was managed and handled in other developed countries. So, I thought this could also be done in Nigeria, if not on the same scale at least to make a start on it and then get it right over time"

"Yes, the gods knew what they were doing. They always joined together in marriage people of opposing qualities and thus ensured harmony."

"The new thing I want to add to knowledge is: I want to connect culture and education, science and technology. I have seen the link between culture and science, culture and education, culture and technology, and that’s what I think I can establish."

"Because thinkers are those people who are able to pierce into the future and catch glimpses of light and bring it down. Many people do not often see what you are seeing until years and years later."

"The thing is that any work of art that has something in it will always challenge people: Some, in one respect; the others, in another respect. But you will find out that people keep on going back to that work because there is always something challenging in it."

"I’m not a feminist, I’m a humanist. Being in Women studies and being in African Studies and being a woman, you often find this discussion coming to you."

"You have to plant all the seed, give them all the knowledge you have, and all the love you can give; make sure that they know love from you so that they can extend it to others in their life."

"There is a new discipline that is called Fundamental Studies and this is an area where you think deeply about the origin of things. You don’t deal with effects; you deal with causes."

"I am a humanist, and as a humanist, anything concerning the human condition, the progress of man, civilisation, the human thinking, knowledge especially, are some of the things that I take very personally."

"I started playing table tennis on bricks, then I moved to anything that looked like tables."