Editor’s note: Martha Olawale writes NAIJ.com from Florida USA. The woman is passionate about changing the narrative about Africa. Her desire is to spend the rest of her life as “God gives me grace creating a platform for Africans who are making us proud share their stories.” Martha created Stars of Afrika to give the ability for Africans to write their own words their struggles, strength, and eventual triumphs.
Her first story is devoted to Adesegun Adeyemo. A Nigerian man was born in poverty but became a true star of his generation by achieving success in his life. Now, Adesegun is the Head, Research and Development at Interswitch Limited, a leading electronic payment firm in Africa.
This week’s story is very personal to me because Adesegun Adeyemo is one of my first inspiration for Stars of Afrika. I knew that I will one day share his story to inspire others to choose perseverance over defeat. I remember when I first met him about twelve years back. His appreciation for life was evident in his captivating joy. He was quiet, loved his books, and in spite of all he was going through, he was more determined than anyone I ever met. My husband loved him and will often tell him “Segun, just graduate and all these will soon be behind you.” He faced odds greater than any that you and I can imagine. He went through the university system with so little but graduated from one of the top universities in Nigeria with distinction. Today, Segun Adeyemo is the Head, Research and Development at Interswitch Limited, a leading electronic payment firm in Africa. His story cannot be captured in a single blog but he tried to touch on aspects that will encourage the readers to never give up.
Adesegun Adeyemo, you are our star and a true pride to your generation. Life dealt you its most difficult hands but you fought with valor and won like a true African warrior. Your value for hard work brought you to where you are today and lifted you from obscurity to a place of celebration. Remember, you are not there yet. Keep looking ahead of you and do not stop. Keep your head up and never forget that you are part of a generation of Africans who will change our story.
Background story
I am a Nigerian from Otan Ayegbaju. I was born into a polygamous family in the late 70s in Ibadan at a Catholic hospital. My birth had some complications. I was born breached (called Ige in Yoruba) with deformational plagiocephaly and they had to put me on a life support machine to survive. In fact, my parents thought I was an “Abiku” because I had constant seizures. They thought that I will eventually die like the three children they already lost.
My father had three wives. My mom was the second wife. He was in his 60s when he had me (he was born in 1914). He had twenty children in all and I am his lastborn child. My mom had seven children with him, only three of us are alive today; myself, an elder sister and an elder brother. I have a younger stepsister from a stepfather. My parents divorced three months after my birth. I never saw my dad until I was ten years old. When I saw him I thought he was my grandfather.
My mom found it extremely difficult to take care of me and my siblings. She would have me on her back while hawking processed locust beans (called Iru in Yoruba) in a hot sun. My siblings were already living with relatives at this time. In the attempt to make ends meet, she started buying and selling used items by travelling to different parts of the country. So she had to drop me also with her relatives. Instead of caring for me the relatives turned me into their child labor. I hawked pounded yam, “Elubo”, “Eri” (goat food) e.t.c. I was bullied and maltreated a lot, always crying to see my mom. They would tell me that I had no father and should be grateful to them. I lived with different families and ended up attending different elementary schools.
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Thankfully, my mom decided to come back and take me away with her. I spent about two to three years living with her in a particular remote village called Ago Aare. She was selling food at the time. We faced all sort of persecution mostly from her friend who also was also a food seller. She was angry that in spite of the fact that she invited my mom to the village we had more customers. We started facing spiritual attacks, robberies, and ultimately lost all the customers.
I became rebellious and I would leave the house and not show up for days, going from one village or one farm to another, following masquerades around etc. At a point, one of our neighbors, an auto mechanic convinced my mom to allow me to come to their mechanic village after school hours. So I ended up being an apprentice learning auto and motorcycle mechanics. I would go to the mechanic village each day on foot after school. This was between elementary school 3 and 4.
After some time I started asking my mom who my father was. I demanded to see and know him. Luckily, an older family member died and we went for the burial in our hometown where I eventually met my father. I was very happy and decided to live with him. My happiness was short-lived when my father decided to go into farming business. He put me in charge of managing it. We had three farm locations. Each day after school, I would go to work at the nearest farm about 45 minutes walk from town. I would go to the farthest two farms (2hrs and 3 hrs walk respectively) at the weekend. My father used the proceeds to service bank loan repayment I knew nothing about. He didn’t take care of me at all and was using me as a child labour. This happened between elementary school 5 and 6. Throughout my elementary school education I was always topping my class in spite of the challenges except on two occasions when I dropped to number two because all classes were combined. I got admitted to St. Thomas Grammar School, Otan Ayegbaju after my elementary education.
My elder brother learnt about the maltreatment and decided to take me away with him from my father. So I re-enrolled at St. Peters African Church Grammar School, Ile-Ife. Things were not easy living with him either as he was also struggling to make ends meet. He was a commercial bus driver but most times worked as a bus conductor. I had no textbooks and found it difficult to pay for my school fees. I struggled to buy exercise books. I would wear the same worn school uniform for many years before I could afford to buy a new one. My shoes were specially made (the soles were carved from old tire tread) to last for a long time. To raise money, I started doing bus conducting to remote villages especially at the weekends by following an uncle who was a bus driver and who was also the owner of the bus. I will beg one of his sons to allow me to follow his dad and in return, I will share whatever money I made with him. I was able to pay my school fees and buy exercise books with the little money I made but I was never able to afford textbooks.
My secondary school was one of the poorest schools. We lacked teachers, especially science teachers, in the senior years. The science labs were next to nonexistent. I used most apparatus for the first time on the day of my final year exams. As a brilliant student, other students would come to me to teach them even though I didn’t know the subject or topic yet. So, I would ask them to lend me their textbooks and in return, I will teach them. I used the opportunity to make my own notes about the subject mostly overnight (most lenders wanted their books the next day). I used this same technique untill I graduated from the university. Occasionally, some of the students would invite me to teach them in their homes and give me lunch or dinner to eat.
Six months to our final year exams I decided to teach myself all subjects after seeing some past questions that I couldn’t answer. Going to class was like a waste of time, so I would stay at home studying on empty stomach. I got used to reading and studying in hunger until studying became a new diet for me. Hunger never stopped me from studying. I cared more about passing all my papers because I knew I had a single chance to make it through. In preparing for my final exams, I used very old textbooks such as Nelkon and Parker, Lambert, Abbort e.t.c published in the 60s or 70s and a copy of the syllabus. They were given to me by a neighbor’s wife whose husband was a lab technologist. He used them many years before during his secondary school days. I am forever grateful to this woman. I started teaching my class and encouraged them to cultivate the habit of reading and studying on their own. I represented the school in different competitions and won some prizes even with my limitations.
Paying for my final examinations was really difficult, I tried all I could to raise the money but missed the deadlines. Thanks to our Mathematics teacher who was in charge of the exam registration. He delayed the submission of the entire school registration until the last day because of me. Thankfully, my brother-in-law gave my elder sister the money to pay for my fees. After the examinations, I made all my papers except for physics due to poor performance in the lab exam. Nevertheless, I was the best graduating student in my class.
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I left Ile-Ife for Ibadan in 1997 after my secondary education. With no one to sponsor my university education I started looking for a job. With the help of my brother-in-law I got a job as a machine operator in a company called IsoGlass Industries Limited. I spent three years with the company. My first salary was ₦690 ($31, ₦22 to $1 at the time) per month. This did not cover a rent of ₦300 per month and transport fare of ₦440 per month. So, I started walking to work, waking up as early as 4:30AM, leaving the house by 4:45AM so that I could make it to the bus stop by 5:30AM when the staff pickup would depart for the morning shift at 6AM. I could only afford a meal per day (a manageable meal was about ₦20 per day) since I had ₦390 left after my rent. After some time, I started owing the canteen at work like everyone else and would pay some money back on payday. After about two years I joined a cooperative society so that I can save enough money to be able to finance my higher education.
I never actually planned to go to the university. I was afraid I might not be able to work and pay my school fees, as there is no internship until year 4. The internship is also just 6 months long, so I made plans to go to a polytechnic instead. The polytechnic was less expensive and I had the opportunity to do internships (4-month and 1-year after first year and second year respectively) so that I could work and make money to pay my school fees. I got admitted to the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro for a National Diploma in Electrical/Electronics Engineering and was able to pay for my first rent and school fees. This decision came with many difficulties. For instance, I had to be sleeping on a mat for some months until I brought the worn out mattress I was using in Ibadan. I couldn’t afford to buy most textbooks and handouts and I could lose as much as 20% for not buying them from the lecturers but I always made an “A” in the courses. The Christian fellowship I attended and the friends I made really helped me a lot especially when I almost dropped out. I am forever grateful to them.
I graduated with distinction and planned to apply for Higher National Diploma, HND in Electrical/Electronics Engineering after my 1-year internship. I bought HND forms from Yaba College of Technology and the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro. At a point, I asked myself why I couldn’t just go to the university instead and trust God to see me through. I realized that when you run away from your problems they won’t stop following you, you will have to face them. I also thought I could get scholarships and might not have to struggle financially so I decided not to submit the HND form and instead bought JAMB (university entrance examination) form and sat for the exam. I could have applied for Direct Entry admission to 200-level but most scholarships were for 100-level students and I needed the financial aid. Winning a scholarship was more important to me than spending an extra year in school. Passing JAMB was never an issue because by God’s grace, I knew I will do well in the examinations. However, my result was initially withheld perhaps because of the very high score. I panicked and decided to buy Direct Entry form in case the result was never released. To my joy, the result was later released and I scored 308/400 exceeding the cut-off mark for Computer Engineering at the University of Lagos which was 285. The admission officer at the university decided to process the DE admission instead and I couldn’t secure a scholarship because I missed the deadlines.
I decided to study Computer Engineering at the university instead of Electrical/Electronics Engineering because of my love for Computing. I was introduced to it in some courses while studying at the polytechnic and enjoyed it. Life was hard for me at the university. I had no hostel accommodation until the final year. I was either a “floater” or a “hanger.” Despite all the challenges I graduated with first class honors.
Why engineering?
To be honest I really wanted to be a surgeon but I couldn’t because it was prohibitively expensive and I had no sponsor. I like solving difficult problems, so my favorite subjects were Mathematics and Physics in secondary school. I also like breaking and making things, so engineering was like the best alternative that I could study. I believed that I could study anything but it must be challenging enough for me.
What are the obstacles that you faced pursuing your dream?
I consider them challenges, not obstacles. Getting out of poverty was the number one challenge I faced. There were other challenges but poverty was my greatest challenge. To me, poverty is not a thing of the mind, as people will have you believe. Poverty is the lack of means necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and healthcare. In fact, it means suffering. Through the years, I had no other dream than to get out of poverty. What other dream will you have when you have no idea when or where your next meal will come from? So, if you ask me, I will tell you that most people in poverty don’t have dreams, if they do, it is to get out of it.
How did you overcome those obstacles?
I knew education was the key. Education can take you out of poverty, irrespective of the level of education. So, all my effort was to make sure I got educated. Paying school fees was my number one priority. Education is a level playing field. It increases your chances of success. It is my passport to the success that I have today. I also didn’t allow anything to get in the way of my education. I stayed focus and avoided troubles. In fact, I didn’t have a girlfriend until my final semester in the university.
In spite of the odds you faced, you graduated with distinction, how did you do it?
Excellence has always been my goal. I perfected the art of self teaching which I started when I was in secondary school because we lacked teachers for some subjects. Some classes were a waste of time. I worked hard and I managed my time very well. I was very focused and wouldn’t allow anything to get in the way. There was a time I had to write exams with chicken pox. I was told to defer the academic year but I refused and sat for the exams. I was erroneously given an F in a course and the department failed to rectify it which brought down my CGPA. I refused to accept the error and retook the course and got an “A”. I was determined to graduate with distinction. I took additional courses in my final year to boost my CGPA, enrolling for about 15 courses per semester. Finally, I crossed over to distinction in my final semester. Above all, I trusted God and I still trust Him to help me.
What/who are the greatest inspiration in your life?
My inspiration comes from within mostly. I don’t particularly have a role model or models. I prefer to learn from different individuals no matter how small their successes are so far there is something positive to learn from them. I have met some great individuals who inspire me. Mitchell Elegbe, Founder and CEO of Interswitch Limited whose pan-African vision inspires me. He led a team of young Nigerians to build and implement Nigeria’s first on-line transaction switching and payment processing infrastructure to enable the electronic circulation of money.
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I have been privileged to be part of that team for about eight years now. Our focus is now Africa. My longtime friend and brother, Dr. David Olawale, President/Co-Founder at Nanotechnology Patronas Group Inc., USA also inspires me. He has been part of my journey for almost two decades. He was there for me when I needed help. He adopted me as a brother. We share similar traits of excellence, hard work, and tenacity. Classmates, bosses, supervisors, colleagues and friends have also inspired me. I also learn from every situation, good or bad.
What are your goals for the future?
I like technology startup and entrepreneurship. I want to be able to create wealth and contribute to poverty alleviation. I will like to be able to give out scholarships especially on a combination of merit and need base. I love education and aspire to be an education entrepreneur someday.
What advice do you have for this generation of Africans?
The choices you make shape your destiny so choose wisely. Don’t hesitate to change your mind when the facts change. Avoid distractions; don’t get carried away. Compete with yourself; always try to be a better version of yourself. Goals are good but have a vision and a mission, maintain focus.
What do you want the world to know about your Nigeria?
Nigeria has produced great minds and you can find a Nigerian virtually anywhere in the world doing great things. Nigeria has potential for economic greatness despite the current challenges. We see these challenges as opportunities and our future is better than our today.
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