Mabel Segun
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Mabel Segun (born 13 February 1930 – 6 March 2025) is a Nigerian poet, playwright and writer of short stories and children's books. She has also been a teacher, broadcaster, and a sports woman. Born in Ondo City, Nigeria, she had her secondary school education at CMS Girls' School, Lagos. She attended the University of Ibadan, graduating in 1953 with a BA degree in English, Latin and History. She taught these subjects in Nigerian schools and later became Head of the Department of English and Social Studies and Vice-Principal at the National Technical Teachers' College, Yaba (now Yaba College of Technology).
Quotes
[edit]- I think there is no one of us who can boast of having telescopic eyes. But when you read, books become your telescopic eyes. You will see the whole world through the books you have been reading. And you become wiser. If you don’t read any book at all, you will rarely develop.
- when I wrote My Father’s Daughter, some people said it was too good to be true; but it couldn’t be too good to be true, because if you set your mind in good things, you will do good things.
- I still pay tribute to my English teacher, Mrs. Ore Cole, who taught me how to become a writer. It makes you wiser and more intelligent. When you read a lot you eventually want to become a writer.
- Some people who didn’t have better fathers said it was fiction. I said, ‘Well. if you didn’t have the kind of father that I had then there is no point in trying to belittle my own father. My father was a great man'.
- When you write children’s literature, you write for different ages.
- I like to revise my works to be as near perfect as possible.
- What really brought us together was writing because he became the editor of our magazine and I was the advertisement manager. It was a student magazine.
- He was older than his years. I learnt that when he was young, he associated a lot with elders in his hometown, Ogidi. So he acquired this sort of elderly behaviour. He was very sensible and behaved more like an elderly person who could comport himself in the society.
- I am from the family of Aig-Imoukuede. I am from Sabon-Gida Ora, Edo State. My father was the first archdeacon there. I am not from Ondo, as some people like to say.
- I remember there was a big clash sometime between Bola Ige and Achebe. It was an incident in the university which involved Achebe and Chukwuemeka Ike and some other people. It was like an ethnic clash but it was settled. It was the bitter rivalry over which ethnic group, between the Yoruba and Igbo, should be the representative of our halls of residence. Given that they were the ones who arrived first in school, the Yoruba students believed they should head the students’ representatives and not the Igbo, who had gone behind to constitute a few of them as representatives. The quarrel was eventually settled. But Bola Ige now went and bought a notice board which had a glass case and padlock so that nobody would be able to remove anything from it. He then wrote nasty things about the other camp. Both sides were in the wrong; but Bola Ige went too far. He wrote a piece and put it in the glass case and locked it up, so no one could tear it. He said something like: ‘There were some small fry who had just come to the university and thought that they were the lord and master of the place.’ It was at that point that Achebe, (and I believe I saw Chukwuemeka Ike, too), went into the kitchen hall, got hold of an axe, and made for the glass notice board and broke it. That was the only action of Achebe that I saw which I wasn’t too happy about.
- Okigbo was one kind of funny character. I was able to handle him because I remember the day he annoyed me so much. He borrowed my bicycle. He said he would return it. And the next thing I didn’t see my bicycle. Although these days, I look back and ask myself, ‘Why did he keep the bicycle for so long?’ I begin to feel it was to entice me to come over. I didn’t think so at the time. I was just angry.
- It’s full of surprises. That’s all. It’s worth it. I think so. The struggle is good. I had to struggle all my life. And I think that was what made me what I am today. I struggled for things. And I don’t like anybody ride over me. Never.
- I want to be remembered as one who loves his fellow men. That is why I tried to do things to benefit Nigerians. Unfortunately, there are too many people doing the opposite. What can I do?
- I would come back as a changed Nigerian.
- People no longer read. I wonder how they live without reading.
- I would like this country to be the number one country in Africa. It could be. But we have got such thoroughly selfish people who get the money and don’t even know what to do with it. And because they steal the money, they don’t dare bring it out to do better things.
