Salma Phillips, who hails from Borno State, was born on August 31, 1984. Her father’s family name is Ado-Shehu Mohammed. She spoke to Tambari on the challenges she faced and how she overcame them, her early years, among other interesting issues.

I attended Adrawo International School, Lagos for my nursery education and proceeded to Kiddy Joy Primary School, Jos, Plateau State. From there Imoved to Federal Government College, Jos, after which I got admission into the University of Jos for a diploma in Law. I later got a direct entry admission to read Law in the University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.

When I graduated from the university I started with my facility management company, where I offered services to individuals, top government and media parastatals and banks. I did that for about five years and made up my mind to go after my dream and aspiration, which is to be a media personality (television production, presenting, directing, etc).

Growing up was fun. I have wonderful and fond memories of my childhood. I grew up in Jos, Plateau State and PortHarcourt, Rivers State. My parents are late. May God bless their souls. They gave us the best.

My passion for television started when I was 9 years old. The first time I saw Femi Oke on the CNN reporting the weather, my late dad said to me, ‘That’s Femi Oke, she is a Nigerian woman like you.’ I fell in love with her and told my dad that I was going to be like her when I grew up. After that day, every time Femi Oke came on air, my dad would call my attention. That was how the passion started.

When it was time for me to pick a course in the university, my parents didn’t let me read Mass interview by Communication. I was shocked when my dad said I was never going be on television; so I read Law. And for years I just focused on being a good business woman. As we all know, northern parents are very hard to convince when it has to do with the media.

I lost my parents when I was 18.My dad passed away three years after my mother died. That was a very trying period in my life. I became depressed and just tried to focus on graduating from the university and starting a facility management company. I had a lot of challenges along the line. Sometimes I didn’t have enough money to run a new company and get the contracts coming in. I struggled for about two and half years, but thank God that I was able to cross that bridge and things started to get better. I met my husband and he encouraged me to follow my dreams because I always talked about how I loved Funmi Iyanda, Mo Abudu, Christine Amanpour. These are women in the media I looked up to.

I started in 2011 and did two pilots of the Salma Show but was turned down by the DSTV. I went back in 2012 and was rejected again. I was down and disappointed for a short while, but I still did another pilot for them. This time I shot six episodes. This was in 2014. And you know what? I was still rejected, so I decided to take a break and go back to my facility management company. Eventually, my husband was able to convince me to try for the last time. He suggested that I go to the BBC Academy and study media/broadcast, after which I would come back and give it a shot. That was exactly what I did. And guess what? I came back and shot 13 episodes. I was confident that they wouldn’t say no. And the rest is history. They loved it.

I learnt to believe in myself. If you do not believe in yourself, no one will. I also learnt not to trust people in this industry easily; it’s all smoke and mirrors.It should be more action and less talk.

I wanted to have my own talk show as a media personality, and I think I have achieved that. I still have aspirations I have not yet achieved, but with the Almighty Allah by my side, hard work, faith, tenacity and patience, I will achieve them one by one.

Playing hide-and-seek with my siblings and cousins. We used to act plays in the house, where we all took up different roles. I always ended up with the mummy role. Also, our family picnics every two months, where we would go to Kura Falls and Yankari in Bauchi State with our family friends, is very memorable. We always had loads of fun.

PLAYING HIDE-ANDSEEK WITH MY SIBLINGS AND COUSINS. WE USED TO ACT PLAYS IN THE HOUSE, WHERE WE ALL TOOK UP DIFFERENT ROLES. I ALWAYS ENDED UP WITH THE MUMMY ROLE.