"To become successful in anything, you need to first of all love what you do and have a strong passion for it. You also need to build up your skills, read widely, study your craft, and keep on setting bigger targets for yourself."

"Growth is a gradual process and you must aspire to it every day. This must be backed with a strong determination to succeed."

"Believing strongly that God has given you all the abilities you need, you can be anything you want to be."

"I want to believe that I have successfully been able to identify and differentiate my brand as Annie Idibia the actress/career woman and Annie Idibia the wife/mother. I prefer being addressed as Annie and not Tubaba’s wife. I hate this because I am my own person and have worked hard to build my career and brand. I should be identified and respected on that basis."

"Growing up with only my mother really affected my life and I suffered and I do not ever want my children to face the agony of not having both parents together because it was so hard for us. Even right now, the way the world is, children are more enlightened than we were in our days, so the pressure would be harder on the kids from broken homes right now. I do not want my children to ever experience that."

"Even my mistake will speak grace for me. Soon."

"In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the experience that shaped you."

"As an individual, your own speech, your own choices matter, and can make a difference."

"The last 10 weeks have been the worst of my entire life. Yes the worst since I was born. I have gone from being so angry to being so broken and back to anger. And then Sadly which I am ashamed to admit suicide."

"I play Ada, a heavily burdened house wife on a mission to finding fulfilment in her five-year-old marriage. She becomes increasingly desperate and takes a path uncommon to many to fulfil her quest."

""I don’t know. I think I just really think differently from a lot of people. I don’t know. What I mean by that is there are certain things I don’t let get to me"."

"I will marry the man of my dreams and not the man society dreams for me."

"Anjola is a very dark character, infact I remember when we were in the Basement shooting, it was so dark in there that it literally affected me, I wasn’t sleeping well. I’ll try to sleep and I’d wake up abruptly."

"I do want to marry, and I want to get it right once and for all. You know, we make such a big deal of it; we force people and put pressure on them to go in. When they eventually rush into this union, they make mistakes because they were only trying to please people."

"I respect the institution of marriage as my parents were married until death literally parted them and they had a beautiful relationship. The problem is at some point, it begins to annoy you because of how much importance people have placed on it."

"Film is often the perfect vehicle to provide education about social issues and to inspire social and political change."

"If you have an opportunity to make a film, just do it. If you don’t get it all right, the first time, try again, it’s a process."

"If you know me, you would know that I love football and film. It’s a dream come true. ‘Onyeegwu’ was a story I wanted to tell for a long time but it was such a big journey"

"Women are very serious-minded people"

"For those sitting on a fence, always criticizing, why don’t they give it a shot. Get into the system and make a film. Live by example. Make those kinds of films, you’d like to watch. If you have not made money or lost money in this industry, then just don’t talk. Don’t criticize"

"People often ask me the challenges of a female filmmaker, but com’on it makes no difference. It’s not a gender thing. It’s all about filmmaking and how serious you’re. For me, if you have an opportunity to make a film, just do it. If you don’t get it all right, the first time, try again, it’s a process."

"It’s amazing how ‘young’ people think, saying you are old or getting old is an insult to entertainers before them. Give your stardom fifteen to twenty years if you are still here, still playing at the top, maybe, just maybe."

"Always read the directions it is imperative."

"I don’t think I want to be acting in my real life. Politicians literally act when they should take it as a profession."

"I feel the way politics works all over the world has a lot to do with acting and I am already an actor."

"“Women are very serious-minded people. I remember when I started producing movies, there were a lot of my male colleagues who started producing at the same time."

"!!Many people are enslaved mentally by pastors when the focus should be knowing and worshiping God!!"

"This job, I’m doing it for life so at every stage I am in my professional career as an actor, I want to look the path that I want to play so I continue to work on myself and work on my craft."

"We are Muslims and we have rules in Islam for marriage and so on. But sometimes, our culture dominates the religious dictates and culture and religion are different. So, I fight because I want to stress that culture and religion are different. Probably that is why I'm called a controversial writer."

"We are talking about a woman who realized early on in life that she had to be improvisational in her approach to life. In spite of a really rough start, she went on to help invent the Soyyaya literary phenomenon."

"Just as Yakubu fought her way to getting an education and becoming a successful writer, she isn’t one to wait for ideal writing conditions."

"I don't buy the idea of early marriage because I had to push myself to understand the little English I'm speaking with you. If I hadn't pushed myself, I wouldn't have understood any English. I really desire our daughters in the North to be well educated. I have only two daughters and I want them to have quality education."

"...I tackle issues that some people and writers are afraid to talk about. Before, some old people like my mother's age mates think that their husbands are second to their God but I let them know that their husband is their mate, friend and whatever. Before, it was not like that and because that belief is still dominant in the northern states, whenever you touch that area, men don't like it."

"I am not disputing the fact that some writers have crossed boundaries in their writings. Yes, some have gone the extra mile to be explicit. That is very, very wrong. I hope they will stop one day. But why are people only worried about Hausa novels? What about the English and other literature in which many things that shouldn’t be told are written bare! I advise parental control over reading."

"There have been more than 70 studies done on my books at various levels of education-NCE, Bachelors, Masters, Diploma etc. Many of these students are fascinated that Hausa writers have such great ideas... This is great that we contribute in positive ways to our society’s attitudinal change and by extension national development. Writers are diamonds. We crystalize societies."

"Majority of people that messed up their lives end up becoming wasted... There are exceptions though... So I am not the one punishing men in my novels, life treats them accordingly."

"Hey you…yes you!Don’t let anything or anyone stop you on your journey to greatness! Go at it with everything!"

"I felt the snippet of my new movie will set the tone for my speech. We are talking about women, so we have to talk about girls because they grow up to be women."

"Although it has been tough raising them, I have been able to handle it, sometimes with the help of my siblings when I’m not available to be with them."

"I don’t like talking about my personal life. My age is not known to the public and I am not revealing it because I see no reason to."

"For every mountain, you brought me over…For every trial, you’ve seen me through…For every blessing…Hallelujah."

"Yes, it is my choice, let me clarify that I don’t do that in the real sense of it but I get around it. My focus is always like, what am I telling the people and viewers watching.""

"Honestly, you don’t have to stop because you can balance both but not with the same speed. So you can be a mum, wife and work as well, though it is not easy but it is important to do it."

"Luckily for me, I knew him before I got into the movie industry, so there was some sort of understanding and support from him, so it was very easy and he was always encouraging me."

""I feel as if I’m punishing myself. I am being restricted because I have to stay a Christian but this is what I enjoy doing”"

"Focus more on yourself, on improving yourself, of being a good person yourself. Focus on you liking yourself, do you like who you are? Be the best you can be and do not wish to be like anyone else.”"

"I miss everything about her. My mum was my best friend."