So for fans of the singer who are wondering why she has remained single all these years, here it is.

In an exclusive interview with Sunday Sun, Stella whose songs always revolve around the theme of love revealed that she remained single because she has yet to find a “Mr. Right”.

“I believe marriage is no doubt an interesting institution. For me, marriage should not be half baked and also, it should be something you enjoy doing. It is wrong to rush into one simply because your mates are getting married. The two people involved should be the best of friends.

“Secondly, a lot of time was put into my career. I think I aspired too much and that took a lot of my time. My aspiration was that if I didn’t put myself on the world map, there will be no room for other things in my life. The industry also frustrated me. The more I wanted to move, the more people I met on the way who were hypocrites and wanted to use you. They think I was too smart to be used.”

Stella has however not ruled out marriage. According to her, if her “Mr. Right” walks through the door, she would walk down the aisle with him. “Like I told you, I’m not one of those who look at time. If I walk out through the door and I meet “Mr. Right” at the gate, I’ll do it (marry him). But I won’t have sleepless nights over it. I won’t look forward to it. If it comes, fine, and if it doesn’t come, fine,” she said.

Stella came into national limelight in 1984 with the release of her debut album, entitled “Oko Mi ye”. The lyrics, essentially an appeal by a woman for her man to remain faithful, became very popular among the ladies. Curiously, Stella said the song had nothing to do with her. According to her, the song was inspired by her mother.

“I find it very funny when people ask me this question. I wrote the song when I was very young with no experience, I was never married. It was actually inspired by my mother. I saw her go through what you’ll call the African woman’s endurance. That gave me the inspiration to write the song.”

Though she denied that she had no lover at the time, she went ahead to record a follow-up two years later. The album, entitled Samba, had the hit track, “Ki lo de (what is the matter)?” which talked about the travails of a woman who was on the verge of losing her husband to another woman. In crying out, the troubled woman asked: “Ki lo de?” Again, Stella swore that that song had nothing to do with her, instead, it captured the experience of her neighbour. “The song was inspired by a neighbour whose husband was always all over the place. She was always quarrelling with the husband and I took note of everything they said. I later wrote them into a song and it was the most popular track in the album.

The fourth child in a family of six boys and two girls, Stella’s journey into the world of music was a very tortuous one. Her father would not have his daughter go into an industry perceived as fit only for lay abouts. To discourage her, he would scrape her hair and tear her clothes to pieces, but her soul was too tough to be caged and she would find a way out again. “There was a lot of fights. I ended up singing because I persisted. My father would torture me by cutting my hair and tearing my clothes.” She recalled that her father wanted her to be a lawyer and he would ask her to settle down and face her studies.

Twenty years after, her career took off on a sound footing. However, steadily she seems to have lost the magical touch. Though she released two more albums, “One Nation” in 1995 and “Change of Heart” in 1999, both were flops.

In these years, she has had her own fair share of criticisms and scandals. While her critics went to town that she flopped because she was hooked on drugs, Stella denied having anything to do with narcotics. According to her, she has never gone beyond sticks of cigarette which wasn’t even a regular habit. She only puffed the stuff sparingly.

“I think it is the most uncharitable thing for anybody to think that I was on drugs. The only thing that I ever took was cigarette, and I only take it occasionally. The reason why those records flopped was because the producers were out to frustrate me.”

Coupled with the problems of her career was her son’s accident which almost claimed the life of the young boy. But the troubled mother cried out to Nigerians, and today, her boy is up on his feet again. She said the experience of the period was tough for her, but it also rekindled her belief in the Nigerian people.

Surprisingly today, Stella is a devotee of the Hare Krishna Movement. She is also the project co-ordinator for Vedic Welfare Complex, an NGO under the command of the Krishna movement. She said the decision to take up the job was to give something back to the society for coming to her aid when her son was sick.

“I took up this job as my own way of saying thank you to Nigerians who all stood by me when my boy was sick. The Vedic project goes beyond the free food thing. We are also involved in providing scholarships for indigent students,” she said.