By Adewale Oshodi
For some, getting to the point of success can be smooth while for others, it is a struggle and a battle to overcome stumbling blocks at every step of the way. For some especially women, who aspire to break conventional blocks and move on to explore their potentials, life can be a series of daunting battles and myriad of struggles which can either make or mar the future.
And learning from the experience of others is one of the ways that people in this situation can attain their objectives. This is what the book; Oyeduntan: A diamond in the rough is about. It is the memoirs of the struggles of a woman through life especially in a setting where women were not expected to aspire to attain heights culturally expected to be the domain of a man in civil service and as a woman that had to contend with chauvinistic friends of her husband and expectations from the society.
The book is the diary of a woman, Princess Grace Oyeduntan Amoke Dahunsi (Nee Akanbi), who faced adversaries at every level and continued to persevere with the wisdom and the fear of God until she surmounted the daunting challenges of marital and professional life in the civil service at an era when few women get the chance to shatter the glass ceiling.
The book is an encouragement to fellow women and youths that while there is a challenge at every point of life, hardwork, a good heart, determination, prayers and allowing God take the driver seat, make all things beautiful at the right time.
For Grace, life was a constant roller coaster as she tries to balance life as a career civil servant whose husband had friends trying to undermine him at every step without him being aware and at a point, as a civil servant who had to keep her job, mange her home and children and care for a very sick husband while raising resources on her own since friends have taken over her husband’s asset while he was on the sick bed.
Her situation was made more overwhelming because people around her at work who were her kinsmen, rather than help her situation, were at every point trying to bring her down as they do not understand why she remained unbreakable.
What made her story believable is the fact that she did not allude to individuals but listed names, events and time in narrating what she went through in her journey. But despite all odds and adversaries, she overcame and moved on to become the Permanent Secretary in the Oyo State Ministry of Information, a post she held till she retired.
And at 70, life is beautiful and she now has beauty for her ashes as the diamond has gone through all it needs to bring out the sparkle. And she has written about her experience to encourage others to forge on and never give up in the face of adversaries and conspiracies.
The book, Oyeduntan: A diamond in the rough, is an easy read that was imply stringed in a conversational way to reach every reader and it emphasises the need to have a small circle of committed friends who will buy into one’s dreams and allow one reach potential.
The book is full of lessons and can be read by all age groups.
