I dare not mess up; my husband is an army officer—Nollywood actress Keji Yusuf

Popularly called Aunty Keji by her fans, friends and colleagues, crossover actress Keji Yusuf has spanned over two decades in the Nigeria movie industry and still in high demand.

As wife of a retired Colonel, cutting her acting tooth under the tutelage of veteran actor Lai Ashadele is the best thing to happen to her.

Aunty Keji speaks passionately about Nollywood marriages, her staying power among other things:

YOU are still relevant after over two decades. How does it make you feel knowing that some of your contemporaries are no longer in the game?

It’s just the grace of God, nothing else but the grace of God.

Tell us about your foray into the industry?

It’s been over twenty years ago I started acting. I started with the English genre. I was mentored by Uncle Lai Ashadele. Then, we used to do TV series on NTA2 Channel 5. The series were mostly centered on Child abuse. We tried to educate parents on the menace of child abuse. But as time went by I thought of going to be part of the Yoruba genre. It was at that point that I joined Odunfa Caucus. That was where I met Yinka Quadri.

So marriage can be that interesting?
Yes, it can be that interesting. Marriage can be interesting but it takes a lot of patience to get to that stage. This is my first son standing beside you, so where am I going? All I look forward to now is for him to settle down and give me grand children. But if I wasn’t patient I wouldn’t be able to tell this story.

You quarrel today, you leave, you quarrel tomorrow the husband leaves, the child will be the one to suffer it but if you are patient, at the end it is joyful. But you need to be patient with your husband, afterall; you met each other and loved each other that’s was why you came together.
Talking about dirty rumour, it’s not only the younger actresses that have been fingered to mess up even elderly ones we hear do too…
Well, sometime too it’s true but sometime too it’s not true. But I don’t fall in that league. I have never had any sure scandal because I know whom am married to, Ologun ko gbo come, go lo gbo (Soldier no dey here come, na go dem understand). So if you go and misbehave and he finds out it is problem for you. I dare not.