As a toddler, if you had asked me what my mum did for a living, I probably would have mouthed “cake” and I wouldn’t have been far from the truth. You see, the earliest images I had of my mum were rather doughy, not the money kind though. I’m talking lots of flour, butter, eggs, milk, nutmeg and baking powder. Read More
Where to begin? Tosin Olusoga died 5 years ago today at the age of 19 but already has a space dedicated to his memory at the University of East Anglia (UEA)’s School of Economics, where he also has a prize named after him, The Tosin Olusoga Memorial Prize, open to African students and awarded for excellent performance in their final assessment.
A lot has been written already about Tosin HERE and so I will keep this simple.
Social media (in all its manifestations) often appears like the world’s best-kept secret but even then, it is undeniable that there are no secrets on social media! A notification here, a nudge there, you’re constantly reminded (read that as harassed) about milestones, goals, and projections.
If you pay closer attention, you’ll realize that social media knows a lot more about you than you give it credit for. Scary! It is like the timekeeper with the demanding task of ringing bells in people’s ears or the class captain with an equally unenviable task of getting everyone into shape.
This brings me to the reason for this post. Linkedin just notified me that I’ve been 6 years at Bedouin (pronounced Bed-Win). Wow!
It feels like only yesterday that I was contemplating trading off ALL my material belongings to enable me to actualize a burning ambition to activate a 2-year part-scholarship to study in the US, which had precipitated my resignation from my last place of work.
I eventually gave up the scholarship and the idea of traveling altogether since it was beyond my means, despite my efforts at raising the funds. In the end, it turned out to become a quintessential example of how not all disappointments turn out to be bad after all.
I got inspired to pour out my energies and some frustration on a business I had registered 14 months prior but didn’t feel adequate to run yet. Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could build let alone run a business at the time.
Not to be deterred, I set out with my Canon 60D camera + gear, old Mackbook Pro, which were the only legacies of savings from my convoluted work history.
I recall barely having anything left each month after paying for Internet, Fuel, NEPA, and giving allowances to the 2 guys that started with me as interns. We operated out of my bedroom in an apartment my siblings and I contributed some money to rent for our mum. My workstation was a converted shoe rack!
It’s been six years of sacrifices, sleepless nights, heartbreak, disappointments, and frustration but it’s also been a jolly good ride. I’ve established a lot of connections and made a lot of friends and enemies in the process.
From very humble beginnings, our business has grown in value and impact. The goal had always been to make steady progress to achieve organic growth on a year-on-year basis despite the headwinds. As at first quarter last year, that figure stood north of $700,000!
It has not been a walk in the park. We’ve been forced to tweak our business model three times and on the verge of our most ambitious pivot yet.
I designed the roadmap and blueprint that currently drives the business forward, but I wasn’t alone. I’ve had a fully grounded support system made up of a close circle of friends and my ever-supportive family. I’m particularly grateful to Kayode Kolade for working with me to craft that vision, Tunji Mesh for providing his expertise when available. Segun Ogunleye, Basit Arasi for their constant support and guidance. I can’t mention everyone but I’m truly thankful for every time anyone has said NO to me.
Here’s to 60 more years!
I witnessed two human tragedies on Saturday 13th of October 2018.
First, I woke up to the unfortunate news that a very good friend of mine and his family lost ALL their material possessions in a terrible fire incident at their home. The fire started at a little to midnight on Friday and was raging while we slept into the early morning. Thankfully, no lives were lost.
Upon getting the news, I immediately made efforts to reach out to them. When this wasn’t successful, I reached out to another mutual friend close by, who asked me to pick him up so we could visit the family.
As I drove out of my street, I noticed a little crowd had gathered at a particular spot down the road. The subject of their respective gazes appeared to be a male figure on the ground. I noticed he was writhing in severe pains.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m usually too confused to know what best to do in such a situation, and more often than not, I simply “mind my business”, interpret that as driving off with a few “Eh yahs” murmured under commiserative breath, all to be forgotten within the next second.
A couple of events culminated in the actions that followed, first a car was coming in the opposite direction, which then narrowed the path for me to manoeuvre enough to avoid climbing over this man. So I slowed down for a few seconds and wound down. Next, the driver (a woman) of the approaching vehicle, who by now had pulled up astride mine suddenly says to me “Can you help to take him somewhere?” (We’ll call her “Woman X” because she would appear again in this story). I was obviously in a hurry so my initial thought was “You’re driving a car as well”. Even worse, she was dressed in what appeared like PJs. But everyone’s lack of action was disturbing.
I started calculating. I looked across to a few of the onlookers, some were close enough to the writhing figure of the man. In his fits, I noticed that he kept trying to reach out for something on the ground. I looked closely and was able to make out the unmistakable feature of an inhaler and some prescription drugs. It suddenly occurred to me that the man was most likely asthmatic and must have suffered an attack, though rather violent.
Everything I just described above happened in split seconds, 1 mins tops! I immediately jumped out of the car and rushed towards him, which seemed to be a cue for a few of the onlookers, who then came closer. With the help of a few of them, I successfully administered the content of the inhaler into the man’s mouth. As I was doing this, I started asking questions. Then I heard a few of the people around say in Yoruba “Awon mola ni”, which basically translates to “ He’s probably from the North”.
I dismissed this and after several more puffs of the inhaler, the man had noticeably improved. Then as I helped him sit up, he suddenly screams “CHI-NEE-KE!!! which is Igbo language for GOD. Even I was taken aback at the first words that came out of his mouth. He then burst into tears as he narrated how he came all the way from home, somewhere in Oshodi (a suburb in Lagos) to see a “consultant” who had promised to get him some drug that’ll help stabilize his condition. According to him, he arrived at the man’s place as early as 6 am, but unfortunately met his absence and was asked to come back after 2 weeks! He was on his way back home when he suffered the attack.
By this time, everyone had joined in. A woman asked if he wanted some water, another offered him melon from her house. Turns out “Woman X” apparently had some medical knowledge. She had also joined in the effort to resuscitate this man and kept reeling out the names of drugs — she it was that recognized that the pink tablets on the ground were “Ventolin”, and that the particular drug the man was seeking from his “consultant” was called “Ceri-something” to which the man nodded in agreement and even though he insisted he had been told it was only available at Teaching hospitals, she confirmed it could also be sourced at local pharmacies at retail price.
After a while and once we helped him get up, I offered to drop him off at a nearby Hospital but he declined to ask if I could help him get the drug instead and offered to “pay me back”. I shrugged it off, gave him all the money I had, and immediately left the scene to proceed on my previous journey.
As I drove off, the events kept playing in my mind. What if the man was left unattended? His life would probably have been lost as a result of NEGLIGENCE, which could be traced to FEAR and INSECURITY over TRIBAL DIFFERENCE (more on this some other time). I also learned that people are inherently driven to DO GOOD but would only join in when they see someone else IN ACTION. It’s like everyone is waiting for who would GO FIRST.
I eventually arrived at the scene of tragedy no. 1 and in tracing the events, you could tell it followed a similar sequence. A neighbor’s generator went up in flames and set the rest of the house ablaze but for the concerted efforts of a few neighbors, the tragedy could have been worse.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Let’s start paying attention to other people’s business(es). It could be a matter of LIFE AND DEATH!