A teacher changed my life in 2006. His name was Mr. Kunle Ogunyebi and he was my English teacher at Oxbridge Tutorial College. As a pimple-faced 16 year-old university applicant, I had gone to meet him seeking his statement of endorsement for my UCAS application to Leeds University. I wanted to study Business Administration and follow in the footsteps of my straitlaced science-and-business older siblings. Or at least that was what I thought I wanted until Mr. Kunle spoke.
He only said one sentence, and it was actually a question – a question made up of just 7 words, in fact. Unknown to him however, those 7 words would become the foundation for all that I would subsequently end up doing with my adult life, up to and including this very column you are reading. His words went as follows: “Why not do what you’re good at?”
People in Nigeria still crush their own dreams and potential under the weight of societal expectations regarding what a “good” job is or should be, who or how they should date or marry, how to attain career progress and how to engage public spaces like government and politics.
From his point of view, it was a simple throwaway question from a teacher to his talented writing student who was about to make a mediocre choice to join the herd in studying yet another generic university programme. To me however, that question was like an eruption at Krakatoa – a bolt of divine truth that completely altered how the rest of my life would subsequently turn out. I never forgot Mr. Kunle’s 7 words, and they would eventually turn into a sort of guiding maxim for my career and lifestyle decisions. Always do what you’re good at.
The world is a big, big place
Needless to say, the conversation with my folks where I informed them about my decision to jettison my ‘sensible’ choice and pursue a career in writing did not go very well at all. What do you want to do with such a career, they wondered? You want to become a journalist? What can you possibly achieve with that? The answer to that question as it turned out, was “quite a bit actually.” Suffice to say that I have found much more success at what I am good at, than I would have found as a business consultant or a banker or a stockbroker.
The same lesson applies to other career paths, perhaps more importantly, also to different personality types, corporate pathways, political decisions, relationship choices and everything in between. Nigerian society, modelled as it is after a Victorian society that long since ceased to exist, is still unfortunately enamoured with the conformity, uniformity and lack of personality which characterised that society.
Even now, people still fill in “Law” on their JAMB forms and put themselves through the harrowing process of obtaining a law degree in Nigeria, simply because that is what they were told to do. This despite the surfeit of evidence indicating that the odds of landing a satisfying legal career in Nigeria are similar to those of Godwin Emefiele demonstrating belief in free market economic principles – theoretically likely, but actually not very.
People in Nigeria still crush their own dreams and potential under the weight of societal expectations regarding what a “good” job is or should be, who or how they should date or marry, how to attain career progress and how to engage public spaces like government and politics. I for one have lost count of the number of disapproving head shakes I have received from people who believe that my no-holds-barred writing is “irresponsible,” “overly abrasive” and “preventing me from getting opportunities.” Said “opportunities” by the way, tend to involve generously compensated writing or comms gigs for wealthy patrons or the government.
The truth is however, that Nigeria is a very small place in global terms. With the world’s GDP currently standing at $88 trillion, Nigeria is a mere 0.45 percent of the global economy. I have either turned down or “missed out” on over N20 million worth of inducements or bribes to drop, alter or sublease my pen this year alone – but so what? The global economy that I am plugged into makes up for that – and with no strings attached or conditions beyond being able to do a job competently.
Nigerians who have non-standard, talents, skills, tendencies and persuasions likewise need to learn that folding themselves down for the sole reason of fitting into the pitifully tiny box Nigeria offers is a losing bet for inhabitants of the world of tomorrow. That is a world where the global digital nomad reigns supreme – a world where national borders and nation states are deemphasized, and a world where the Nigerian state as we know it will probably not even exist anymore. Why waste all you can be in service to what Nigeria is or is not?
Why not do what you’re good at?
As recently as 2006, my decision to segue from a comfortably boring field of endeavour in something as relatively prosaic as journalism led to much pearl-clutching and inadvertent labeling as the family’s black sheep. Little did Nigerians at that time know that someday recording yourself talking on a phone camera and uploading the video to YouTube would become a viable and legitimate career. Little did they know that ‘Peter and Paul,’ an apparent novelty hip-hop act from the early 2000s would someday morph into global megastars worth millions of dollars each.
Little did my disapproving parents know that my dream of making as living as a writer would take me into West Africa’s most coveted writers’ room at The Other News, a feature on a yet-to-be-invented global platform called Netflix and almost a thousand bylines appearing on a cross-section of the world’s biggest print and web platforms. Little did the disapproving father of a little girl called Emanuella know that his little baby girl would go from appearing in video skits with her uncle to becoming a star featured in a Walt Disney production.
If these sound like hifalutin examples, consider that someone I know whose primary preoccupation appeared to be matters of a sexual nature – something guaranteed to displease Nigeria’s tokunbo-Victorian tendencies – has built a successful career off the sexual arts. With close to 1,000 people paying the $7 monthly subscription to a channel on the streaming platform OnlyFans, this person already earns an income most Nigerians will never aspire to, and in a legitimate, stable, safe and guaranteed manner.
My point? There are several ways to kill a cat. There was a time when you had to study a “professional” course at university. Now you can learn high paying professional skills for free off YouTube. There was a time when you had to depend on rich patrons to survive as an artist, writer or journalist in Nigeria. Now you can put those skills to work remotely and earn your true value in USD.
There was a time when little girls in Ikorodu could only watch Disney princesses on bootleg DVDs and fantasize about being one. Now they can construct their own dream and make it to Hollywood one viral skit at a time. There was a time working in the sex industry meant getting exploited and treated like meat. Now an OnlyFans user can reasonably expect to be significantly better off than their subscribers. In the world of high speed internet and universally in-demand skills, there is no need to let Nigeria hobble your potential and limit you.
Why not do what you’re good at?
