MY DAY WITH NOELLA AND THE NIGERIAN DREAM

Most Nigerians who are successful made it in Nigeria, writes Joshua J. Omojuwa

Some Nigerians have been curious about the Nigerian variation of the American Dream. What is the Nigerian Dream? If you put this question to social media, most of the answers will be along the lines of “japa to Canada”, “leave the country and love it from abroad”, and other such answers bordering on the thinking that the Nigerian Dream, if it does exist, does not dwell in the promise of Nigeria itself. It lives within the Nigerian but must wait for it to be birth anywhere but Nigeria itself.

That of course is not true and cannot be true; most Nigerians who have found success have found it in Nigeria, most Nigerians who are finding success are finding it in Nigeria and those Nigerians who will succeed tomorrow will find their success in Nigeria. It’s easy to see why, most Nigerians will always be in and live in Nigeria. Take Dare Aliu.

Dare was born amidst poverty, grew up in the trenches of Abule Egba, today, he is the Group CEO of the TDA Group with their HQ in Ikoyi and branches in other parts of Nigeria and abroad. His story, as written in “Everything Will Be Alright: The TDA Story”, is in my opinion, a story that encapsulates the Nigerian Dream, if we must have our variation of that term. The author outlined his long and tortuous path from poverty to a promising enterprise employing hundreds of people, from designers, to tailors, riders and other such skilled and semi-skilled people.

One of the challenges with advancing enterprise in Nigeria is the dearth of stories as written by those who took the walk, walked the talk and are gracious enough to codify their ideas, dreams and models in books. Vantage: My life, starting out and startups by Olumide Soyombo is one of such books. I was not surprised to see in Dare Aliu’s book that Vantage inspired him because Soyombo gave him a perspective he could relate to. This was his peer sharing what it meant to be and thrive in Nigeria. As a speaker at the launch of Everything Will Be Alright, I emphasized the need for more Nigerian stories, using the veteran comedian, Tee-A — Babatunde Adewale — as my anchor.

I have been watching Tee-A do his business since 1999. I saw him for the first time at an event organised by Milo at the Niteshift Coliseum in Ikeja. I was then a student at King’s College, Lagos and the school had selected some of us to attend.

I laughed so hard on that day; he was that good. I even remember some of the jokes from the day, especially the one where he used the songs of the likes of Barry White and Brandy to tell a joke and a love story — every step of that joke was funny!

That’s 25 years ago. Note that he must have started and proven himself before then to even get on that stage. Four decades on – 90s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s – Tee—A continues to be a major presence at top-notch events. It’s by design. We’ve got inspiring stories in Nigeria. We just need to share more of them. And we need to codify their experiences for the next generation.

My engagement after the book launch was one with an eye on that next generation. It was Noella Foundation’s Life After School Summit. Noella Foundation has cracked the essence of public intervention: empowering people through access to education, business development programmes, masterclasses and policy interventions. There are immediate needs interventions like food and shelter with vast parts of Nigeria benefiting, but I am of the belief that helping people be able to help themselves for the foreseeable future is the sort of philanthropy we must look to scale in Nigeria.

As keynote speaker at the summit, the culmination of weeks of skilling up some 500 final year students from universities across Lagos, I let it be known that the students must commit to building themselves up with the ability to pivot across industries. I spoke to the need for building their Capability for them to be better positioned for opportunities and to channel their motivation appropriately. It’s the COM effect for making change happen. Layal and Seyi Tinubu, the co-founders of Noella, also had as speakers Arc. Elizabeth Gbemudu, Dotun Ajibola, Christabel Chidiebere, Kari Tukur, Adaora Mbelu, Shehu Tjjani Abdullahi and Bukunmi Adeaga Ilori. All these accomplished Nigerians shared different perspectives based on their individual experiences. Ren San & Co, led by the exceptional Florence San, put up an excellent summit worthy of any of its kind the world over.

These are trying times in Nigeria. It is also a time of transition and opportunities. There will be those who will wait and pray and then hope that things change. They are waiting for things to happen for them. And there must be those who must pick themselves up, work out a way for themselves and ultimately create opportunities for others to make change happen. They know they must make things happen.

There is the Nigerian Dream. As long as it remains possible to be born poor, apply oneself and still make it in this country, then there is the Nigerian Dream. That is not to deny those Nigerians who choose to find their dream away from Nigeria their right to claim the fulfilment of such dreams is their own Nigerian Dream. In the end, the most essential factor in that phrase is the Nigerian, where they help their dreams become their reality will not change the fact it is their Nigerian Dream.

The students who attended the Life After School Summit #LAS2024 left armed with requisite skills, ideas and belief they’d find useful for their future. Whilst they hope for a better Nigeria, they will be looking to navigate Nigeria as it is, believing that they have it within them to first re-write their own stories, and may be, even help change the course of our nation for good. Vantage or not, Everything Will Be Alright.

Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing