Lagos bbusinesswomanBisket recently clocked 60, and she had her birthday party at her place of residence in Lekki. On her birthday Bisket looked so young and beautiful that you wouldn’t have been able to differentiate between her and her daughter because of the resemblance. And if not for the stress she passed through during her marriage to Alhaji Dan Musa she wouldn’t have aged a bit. Recently she opened up to City People Publisher Seye Kehinde and Reporter Adeola Fagbiye on why she looks young at 60 and the secret of her beauty.
You look quite younger than 60, how have you been able to maintain your beauty and what’s the secret?
Well, I’ve always been a shy person because even when I was growing up, thank you Lord… I don’t see myself as different from any other human being but I observed that even ladies on the street during my teenage years and in my 20s would stop me and say “Wow! Do you know you’re pretty?” But I was always shy because I was a local girl… laughs… all I did was blush but now when people say such things to me, I just smile and say thank you for their compliments, I’m getting old and getting used to it already.
People still tell my children “Oh! You mum is really pretty, even prettier than you” …laughs and one day my son-in-law told my daughter who is his wife that, “I’ve known your mum since she was young and I would have married her because she’s prettier than all of you. But I just laughed.
I thank God for life. The other thing I do is that I don’t abuse my body like, I don’t bleach, I’ve used only “Ori” (Shea Butter) for my hair and body for over 30 years, its only “Ori” I don’t but any expensive cream, shea butter is all I use. People always ask me what I use and tell them its just shea butter.
Even my hair is natural, I haven’t entered a salon for more than 24 years. It was when I lost my son I went to the salon because I cut of my hair at the mortuary and my dreadlocks is just about 5 years old and it was due to the fact that my ex-husband and children were complaining about me cutting my hair, so I decided to leave it this way.
Sometimes salon owners want to help me treat it with Chemicals but I refuse them because I like it natural. I have also never stepped into the Gym for any exercise, my exercise is my church work, I dance all the time in Church. Even Bisket stores is exercise, its not easy to run a supermarket. So, that’s enough exercise for me, I also watch what I eat. I’m not a diet freak but still yet. I don’t eat carelessly, you can’t see eat all the meat, chicken turkey to show that I’m a rich woman, I don’t do it. I love Pizza but I only take it once in a month, its not an everyday food for me.
How come you don’t look 60?
People say that a lot… laughs… Especially when they see me with my kids. I’m even older now, in my younger days when I’m walking on the streets with my children, some of their friends on the streets in England would be surprised to know that I’m their mother.
The fact that I don’t look 60, is by God’s grace. Once secret about me that I want to tell younger Nigerians is that, they shouldn’t rely on money. I know its not easy, maybe because I grew up in a rich home because I found out that, its very easy for us that grew up in rich homes. My mothers didn’t grow up in a rich home, she came from a very poor family but she died a billionaire. The inheritance she left for I and my siblings was much but to avoid kidnappers and because I don’t have any money in the bank o… I won’t disclose it. But I know I survived through her but I don’t appreciate the way she looked for money because she was from a poor background, she looked for money with desperation. You shouldn’t allow money to rule your life, because even my friends while growing up were desperate, they could do any thing for the money at the end of the day they hurt themselves because by the time money doesn’t flow in as they want they develop HBP, but if you don’t worship money, when you don’t have it no one would know because you’ve always lived you life in a modest way. When you help people instead of just acquiring wealth for yourself, it relaxes you.
As I’m talking to you, the only medicine I take is my multivitamin, I don’t have High Blood Pressure, I’m not diabetic because you won’t see me drink 10 bottles of coke in a day. Immediately I clocked 40, I stopped taking all those sugary things because I like sugary things but I’ve stopped taking them for over 20 years.
If I got to Lagos Island now, I see those children that were much younger than I was back in the days, they are already big, obese, because they eat and live anyhow that’s why they look older than their age. The fact that you have money doesn’t mean you should live any how or shouldn’t work, its because you both are here with me, that’s why I’m sited, I don’t usually sit around, I always find something to do, you shouldn’t just it around and give orders, you’ll just waste away.
I also don’t over things and there’s no kind of lifestyle I can adapt to any lifestyle, cold, heat, I can eat anything. Some of the people I know would say they can’t enter cars without AC or fly economy class but all that is not a problem for me. I have even trained my children to adapt to any lifestyle.
Some people even live above their means, I can confidently say, I’m not owning any bank, I have never taken loan. My children didn’t appreciate all that until last year when one of their fathers died and his family had to move out of the house and sell it, my daughter hugged me and said “Thank you, you tried” because they weren’t happy with my modest lifestyle before now. Let us learn to live a modest life. The house I bought has 4 sitting rooms and 10 bedrooms because God has been faithful to me. You cannot be every where, you can’t have it all, when things weren’t rosy I sat down and adapted to that lifestyle. I couldn’t live above my means. We sell some clothes that are worth over N150,000 for 5 yards and I can’t even buy some of them.
When you struggle to live above your means it will affect your health, learn to live a modest life, take the journey of life carefully because whether you like or not you’ll leave this life due to one reason or the other.
Many people want to be seen everywhere and do above their means, so they end up dying young .
I’ve taught my children to survive, they are prayer warriors, they can adapt to any lifestyle.
You should always be prayerful. It helps you, all through my tough times I never visited any other place a part from seeking the face of God. When I got into the child trafficking saga. I realized I had offended God and it was a punishment from him. I abandoned the parents of those children, most of them were drug addicts I stopped taking care of them, closed the programme and left. That’s why god allowed me to go through all this.
Whatever you do to offend God has its own consequences, so when you’re going through a problem you should check yourself. We should also learn to live a righteous life, you must live like Christ did, you should also learn to help people because of God blessed the rich to help the poor, when God sees you extra efforts, he’ll crown. It with extra grace and favour, without that you cannot be favoured.
Serving God is also very important for all of us, he rewards faithful service to him. If you hold on to him, he’ll continue to help you. We should be steadfast in God.
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