This is why Helen Paul’s family believed she wouldn’t complete secondary school

Following popular Nigerian comedian Helen Paul’s interview with the Punch Saturday Beats, a lot is being made out about how the comedian’s family believed she would not be able to “complete secondary school education.”

The statement was attributed to the comedian but unless you actually read the whole paragraph, you might be tempted to think her family wasn’t wishing her well.

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So, hit pause. If her family did say so, it wasn’t out of malice. As Helen explains to Saturday Beats, it was because she was a “restless and playful” student. So, we wouldn’t take “no one believed that I would complete secondary school education” in the literal sense. Parents sometimes feel frustrated when their kids aren’t showing commitment to their studies.

Her words: “In my family, no one believed that I would complete secondary school education let alone attend university. My mother always told me that if I finished secondary school with good grades, she would kill a cow because I was very restless and playful. When I finished from secondary school and took my result to her, I demanded my cow but she was not forthcoming so I asked for a chicken, but she simply told me she had cooked rice and that I should go and eat it.

In the writer’s opinion, it was not like the parents didn’t want her to do well but seemed to have been actually worried about what they perceived as Helen’s lackadaisical attitudes towards her studied. Of course, from what we can garner from Helen’s next statement, her mom challenged and motivated her.

“To motivate me the more, she (Helen’s mom) said that I should complete my university education, and that is when she would believe that I had really achieved a feat in life,” Helen tells Saturday Beats.

So her mom was a little sceptical but in that sentence, it was obvious that her mom was proud of her achievement and wanted her to really do well in her studies.

Helen says that though she initially experienced some setbacks with regard to gaining a university admission, she did eventually get admitted into the University of Lagos and “gave it all (her) best.”

The rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

Congratulations, Helen Paul, on your achievement and for believing in yourself and congratulations to your mom, for pushing you hard.