From Tech Builder to Life Builder

Why I joined Teach For Nigeria

The year was 2014, I had just completed the mandatory youth service year, and consequently found myself in the job market armed with a not-so-shabby first class degree in Computer science and confidence aplenty. My first job came fairly quickly and it was at Interswitch group as a software analyst and tester. It was not a bad start by any metric; the pay was good, the environment was pleasant and nurturing, the people were lovely, and I built valuable relationships, most of which I still cherish to this day. But I quickly became bored stiff and couldn’t shake off the deep stirrings in my heart for the children I saw on my daily commute to work, children who I believed were no less gifted than myself, just less fortunate. So my spare time at work was mostly spent reading about children, schools and varying educational models within and outside Nigeria, and non-profits who work to get the less privileged kids into school.

Finally, in March 2017, after almost three years, with only a vague idea about what I was going to do next (I was thinking of starting a social enterprise to help children realize their potentials), I resigned. 

I left the tech space because my heart was with that child on the street who might get a chance to lead a prosperous life if only I would yield to my calling. 

I was at home for two months, learning new skills and searching online for opportunities to teach when I discovered Teach for Nigeria, a non-profit that is raising a movement of leaders who are committed to significantly improving general life outcomes for our children by making quality education accessible to every Nigerian child. 

And for the last one year, I have spent most of my waking hours rewriting and debugging the OS, and hopefully positively altering the life outcomes of the amazing children who I have had the honour to oversee as the Primary Five class teacher at Adekunle Anglican Primary School, Makoko road, Yaba. I discovered early on that many of my pupils and their parents had little conviction about the value of education; the ROI of investing a portion of their meagre yet incredibly hard earned income in educating their children wasn’t apparent to most parents. Bridging this knowledge gap became a key focus in the first year of my Fellowship journey. 

This past year has been eye-opening, discouraging at times, but very rewarding and fulfilling. 

Every day, I am building my pupils (65 in total) up with the right values, words, and thoughts to help them stand strong in the face of the many challenges they face in their daily lives. Call me crazy but I’m working to see them stand shoulder to shoulder and compete with their more fortunate peers in ‘highbrow’ schools in Nigeria. I work towards unleashing their creative potentials so that they will become useful citizens, contributing meaningfully to the Nigerian society and the world at large.

Now in my second year of the Fellowship, I plan to devote much of my time to developing workable models through which technology can best be leveraged to educate the teeming mass of Nigerian children who have been shut out from accessing quality education and a quality life; and would greatly appreciate hearing your questions, ideas, thoughts and strategies for accelerating the process of educating all of our children using technology. 

Please drop your comments.