‘Mosunmola Abudu, Africa’s Reigning Oprah Winfrey’-CNN
*Narrates early Experience as Head, Human Resources for ExxonMobil
*Explains how she formed ‘Moments with Mo’ without any prior Media Experience
*PLUS: BRITISH born early Childhood in United Kingdom & Africa
*Why she’s called ‘Queen of African Television’
*QUOTE: “I Am a very Prayerful Woman”-Mo Abudu
BY SAMSON SHOAGA/MANAGING EDITOR, ABUJA
SHE is British. Fluent in Queen’s English. She is bold, daring, intelligent, cerebral, beautiful and overwhelmingly charming. She is focused, never get distracted by any circumstance and situation being a very hardworking woman. Her full names are Mosunmola Abudu.
Cables News Network, CNN studios in London described her as ‘Africa’s Oprah Winfrey’, as her upscale program: ‘Moments with Mo’ is regarded the most famous talked-show in Africa, mostly followed by Africans and the rest of the world. Any global celebrity that has not yet featured on ‘Moments with Mo’ is seen not to be greatly famous, except on appearance on her program that attracts high-and-mighty across the globe.
This 51 year old whose moniker crops up always as ‘Oprah of Africa’ was in CNN’s London studios, dressed in electric blue outfit that clinged tightly to her slim figure, with visibly glossy pink eye shadow and lipstick to match. She was full of smiles, even with the glitz of the camera and the sound bites she was already used to.
Abudu founded ‘Moments with Mo’
This mother-of-two, very comfortable in front of the camera has always been used to kleig- lights. She is face of “Moments with Mo” the hugely successful talk show Abudu founded in 2006, which has attracted such high profile guests as Hillary Clinton and IMF chief Christine Lagarde.
It is unrivaled that she runs Africa’s first syndicated talk show so slick that people initially questioned whether it could actually have been created in Nigeria. In brevity, Mo Abudu built a media empire — without any training. No wonder her Ebony Life TV– Africa’s first global black entertainment network is ever trending on social media.
She told CNN: “When I started my journey into television, there was nothing that I didn’t try, to reach this woman, says Abudu about her early attempts to contact Ms Oprah Winfrey.
Abudu explained her resilience: “We sat for days on end, would send daily faxes, would send weekly faxes. At some point, when we didn’t get a response, we realized that Oprah wasn’t going to save us, she wasn’t there to help us to get this talk show of Africa started. And then I just basically got out there and said ‘let’s just do the very best that we can.”
Ready to crack beyond any obstacle, Winfrey or not, in less than a decade Abudu has built a TV network creating 1,000 hours of programming yearly. And there are plans to make even more channels — all under the Ebony Life banner.
Abudu’s story becomes more interesting when you realize that she had no prior media experience before she pulled a great feat in African broadcast media to have become ‘Queen of African Television’.
In a chat with CNN’s Stephanie Busari, she said: “I went on a training course for learning how to present, went back and said: ‘Here I am and I want to produce my own talk show!'” said the British-born entrepreneur in an interview with.
“Of course, there were many knock backs along the way, many people telling me ‘you can’t do these things.’ But I think what’s important in life is that you believe in yourself and the things you can do.”
She was she was a head of human resources at oil giant ExxonMobil for a decade before she became the queen of African chat shows. Also by then, she established a consultancy firm, developed executive training center and the charity she founded.
The ‘other’ Africa
On how she got inspired into her TV show, she narrates: “A couple of years ago I stood there with a microphone, and just randomly stopped people in the street, I asked ‘When you hear the word Africa, what comes to mind?’
“I heard ‘starving children, poverty, HIV, Mugabe.’ I heard ‘babies with flies on their faces.’ And my next question was: ‘Why do you think this of Africa?’ And the response was: ‘It’s what I read in the newspapers, it’s what I see on television, ‘ since that’s the popular notion of Africa.”
Certainly, Abudu’s show celebrates a very different continent, one brimming with entrepreneurs, academics, and artists, all taking their place on her coveted couch.
Describing her TV network’s outstanding style, she says: “It’s glossy, it’s got razzmatazz. It shows that there’s a new generation of Africans out there that want this content they can identify with, that speaks to them.”
BRITISH born early Childhood in United Kingdom & Africa
Born in London, Abudu spent her early years between the United Kingdom (UK) and Africa. On holidays she would visit her grandparents’ cocoa farm, and remembers them spreading out beans to dry in the Nigerian sun.
Growing up in 1960s Britain was tough for one of only three black children in her school. She was asked questions like: “Do you guys live in tress? Do you dance around fires? What do you eat for breakfast?”
When she was 11 years old, Abudu’s father died, and her 73-year-old mother still remains a huge source of strength and inspiration.
“She is very prayerful woman. I am very prayerful woman. So I find that through working hard and praying hard a lot of things just get done,” she said.
She was born in September 1964 in Hammersmith Hospital in London to Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Akintunde. Mo Abudu’s family roots are in Ondo Town, in the South Western part of Nigeria. She is the eldest of three sisters.
After all, she is truly a huge role model to African broadcasters in celebrity journalism since ‘Oprah of Africa’ doesn’t need Ms Winfrey in the long run. She is an exceptional beauty and brain.
*Additional reports by CNN International
Thank you