It’s no more breaking news that Daala Oruwari almost died while she was at
Okoyi Club trying to get registered for the National ID Card scheme. Yes,
she collapsed due to the abnormality of her blood pressure (which is an
advice to everyone to take theirs seriously). Thank goodness, she was
resuscitated several minutes after.  Although the news travelled with speed
of light, such near death issues always gets traction.

But most of those articles failed to talk about who the real Daala is.
While the thought of putting that story out the way it was earlier reported
crossed my mind, I decided I would take it from my own perspective of
telling it from the angle of how talented this lady is. And how it would
have been more than tragic to lose one of the brightest and hardest working
souls in the entertainment industry. Before you are done reading this
piece, you will appreciate her more, just the way I do – @sesanadeniji

In my journey as a journalist, she’s one of those hardworking folks that
have inspired me to do more. She’s so talented with eyes for details. She’s
always reaching out to give me approval for every great concept I have
created. She’s a multiple award winning media / TV personality, a model,
graphic artist, visual artist (with focus on hyperrealism), a makeup artist
and hair technician, basket baller, painter and many more (hence the nick
name goddess of Skillz).

In her own words, ‘I’m also learning photography and cinematography. I have
a flair for fashion, music, movies and sports. I was the captain of the
basketball team in Secondary School (Queens College).’

As an aspiring artist, she once won a ChevronTexaco Art competition and had
her painting feature prominently on their calendar. As a television
personality, she’s interviewed countless celebrities and dignitaries;
including interviewing internationals like with Ja Rule and Ashanti. She
was also on the red carpet interviewing guests at the 57th edition of the
Grammy awards in Los Angeles. She’s also one of few that interviewed guests
at the burial of the great Nelson Mandela.

She has been featured in Essence Magazine, a black American magazine for
women in their fashion column. As one of the best Photography Muse,
numerous high-profile photographers including Kelechi Amadi Obi, August
Udoh, Paul Ukonu, Felix Crown, Sunmisola Olorunnisola have photographed
her. Daala hosted the 2015 and 2016 Ovation Carol alongside RMD. She’s a
recipient of Nigerian Entertainment Award (NEA) in 2016. She was featured
in Guardian Newspaper when out of 130 candidates; she was the overall best
at the opening art exhibition of the Unilever international art competition
and was invited to attend an international exhibition at the Tate Modern
Gallery in London.

‘My career started off in secondary school when at first I wanted to be a
radio presenter because I was extremely shy and didn’t think I would be
able to stand and speak in front of people. So back thenwhen mobile
networks started the free calling at night, I would practice by having
girls from different dormitories come to me and have me call their
boyfriends and pretend that I was a radio presenter and host of a midnight
lovers song request show calling from a radio station where their
girlfriends had called in and wanted to find out if they were cheating on
them or not.

‘A few months later on, while my mom was working at Planet One and was
managing a lot of events they had, I happened to meet the one and only
Denrele Edun and got to watch him work his magic first hand and that was
when I knew exactly what I wanted to do as a career. So when one day a
friend of mine who was just starting off his television programme on TV
called SNAP! asked if I would like to be his presenter, terrified as I was
I still said YES! And with some help from Denrele Edun and VJ Adams who
were always on hand to answer the millions of questions I had to
ask, that’s how it started off.’

She has worked in HIP TV and Ovation TV for a couple of years.
Music videos she been featured includes
Black Magic – “Repete”, Olamide – “Goons Mi, Mi Abaga – “Bad Belle”, 2baba
and Dr Victor Olaiya – “Baby Jowo”, Cynthia Morgan – “Olowo”, among others.

– Sesan adeniji

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