Set to Hug the Limelight

For five years, Busola was simply known as wife of famous soul music singer, Timi Dakolo. Now she is set to embrace the limelight, exploring her passion for celebrity photography. Funke Olaode reports

For sometime, Busola has been dwarfed under the towering image of her famous entertainer husband, Timi Dakolo. Whatever she did or did not do was subsumed. Even when they are together in the public, the spotlight was on him. This didn’t quite bother her. If truth be told, she loves being Timi’s wife and would be satisfied to play that role only because when it is combined with caring for her three children becomes very demanding. So, at no time did Mrs. Busola Timi-Dakolo harbor the ill-thoughts of competing for attention with her husband. She had her plans. First, the children had to reach age. Then she would feel justified to come into herself. For the better part of her five-year marriage, she has been in the background as an entrepreneur selling hair care products and at the same time tending to her three young children.

The indigene of Kogi State and mother of three looked smart in a short sky blue dress on red sneakers as she welcomed this reporter to her cozy Bubuphoto studio on the popular Adeola Odeku Street, Victoria Island-Lagos.
Growing up in Ilorin after her secondary education at Suleja, Niger state, her initial ambition was to be a medical scientist. An encounter with dead bodies erased that ambition and she opted for Geology and Mineral Resources. She studied the course at the University of Ilorin. Her youth service was spent in Balyesa State where she served in an oil servicing. She was later employed in the Information Technology department of Zenith Bank headquarters. She was with Zenith for four years and quit when she got pregnant with her first child.

There is a new Busola! From her inner most recesses emerged a passion that she previously gave fleeting thoughts to. She loves taking photographs. The prompting came from her. He encouraged her to get proper tutorials. For three months, she enrolled with a photographer. Two years ago, to go for an eight-week course in photography at the New York Film Academy.

It is a little bit over one year since she launched out. According to her, photography is an eye-opening. It is not just about clicking. There is a lot that goes into every aspect of photography: The portrait, abstract, the documentary and storytelling.

The photography scene in Nigeria has been busy in recent years, throwing up quite a few creative practitioners. Not fazed by thoughts of competition, Busola believes she is bringing new things to the table. “My passion for photography has always been there right from childhood. I had cameras and if we went out I was always concerned about taking photographs. If we go on family vacation I would be the one in charge of photography and hardly have pictures of myself.”

Her inspirations come from many sources including gazing at a moving car, or watching a movie, or just gazing into the sky, Busola is currently concentrating more on celebrity photography, portrait, storytelling all in a bid to make a larger statement. “A picture can cover up three pages of a book. Before I take any picture, I make a sketch of what I want on my mind. It is like fashion designing. There is a likelihood that I will stage an exhibition later. People would then understand how I see things. Pictures of every photographer shows the person.”

She is keen on achieving great things through photography. “I feel people connect more to images and you can touch lives more. I will fulfilled if I am able to help humanity through pictures.”
There is no doubt being married to a famous husband can open many closed doors in her new vocation but Busola insists that her work speak for itself.

Her favourite role model in photography is Steven Meisel, a fashion commercial photographer based in New York who has taken many royalty photographs for Vanity Fair and covered Vogue Italian for over 20 years. “In Nigeria I love Obi Somto, TY Bello because for a female to embark on a photography job it takes a lot of a concentration.”
She recalled how she met her Bayelsa-born soul singer. “We met in the Household of God Church in 2008 shortly after he won the West African Idol. I wasn’t even ready for marriage or relationship when I met him. I was quite nasty to him because I didn’t want to entertain anybody around me.

He was very persistent and kept pressing me that he just wanted to my friend. I was not keen in dating him. I even gave him a wrong number. The following week after church service this guy trailed me with his car just to know where I was staying. Weeks later I saw him around my premises pretending to look for my flat mate.”
Fortunately for Busola, her youth service year in Bayelsa enabled her to get acquainted with the people of Bayelsa.