Lessons to learn from Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin, The first Nigerian CNN hero

I was beaming on Christmas day. Of course, the fact that Christ was born on that day was the main reason 🙂 but the other reason was because I was watching the CNN heroes award ceremony. I was finally watching one of my favourite female change agents collect this prestigious award and as the first Nigerian to do so (the intro by another person of Nigerian identity, Uzo Azuba was the icing on the cake!) Looking elegant in her Ankara dinner dress and sporting a beautiful African hairdo, Abisoye really represented.

A short video was played after the tribute and it briefly captured the impact of Abisoye’s effort especially on a Sharon Okpoe, a 17 year old girl who had lived her whole life in Makoko, known as the world’s largest “floating slum”—built on a lagoon in Lagos, Nigeria. Sharon’s father is a fisherman, and her mother sells smoked fish, eking out a living on the fringes of Africa’s largest city. At the time Abisoye met her, Sharon had no form of education or plans for the future.

Not long after, she like other girls was able to get a glimpse of another world when they attend GirlsCoding, a free program run by the Pearls Africa Foundation that seeks to educate — and excite — girls about computer programming. With her new found skills, she helped create an app called Makoko Fresh, enabling fishermen like her father to sell seafood directly to customers. Since 2012, the group has helped more than 400 disadvantaged girls gain the technical skills and confidence they need to transform their lives. I gained valuable lessons from this visionary woman and it would be selfish of me to not share them with you ; )

The Diamond Lessons

▪ Your background should not deter you from achieving your goals – Abisoye is one of the many proofs that it is not necessary to be born rich or in influential circles to achieve success. She had an abusive father and her mother died when she was just four. This did not stop her from getting training at NIIT(Nigerian Institute of Information and Technology) and going further to get a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at the prestigious University of Lagos in Nigeria. The path to success is accessible to every young African person, regardless of background, family income or education. If she could do it, you can too.

▪ Do not do something just because everyone is doing it – It was not common at the time of Abisoye’s enrolment at the technology institute for ladies to undergo training in technology. Most of them went into fashion or makeup but that did not dampen her desire to acquire the training I wonder if she would have impacted as much if she tried to be the next Tara Fela-Durotoye. We certainly would not have been hearing or seeing the words ‘Abisoye’ and ‘CNN heroes’ in the same sentence, no?

▪ Passion is a really powerful thing. Without it, you can not go far – For our hero to leave a very promising and nice-paying auditing career to start up a non-profit organisation, she had to have another motivating factor apart from money. That is where passion comes in. Passion is what makes people to persist and persevere in a particular endeavour even when it’s not bringing in the big bucks. Wherever passion goes, success follows and that was the case of Abisoye as can be seen from her non-profit organisation, Pearls Africa Youth Foundation. Cultivate a sense of passion in everything you do and value that trait in others because passion is crucial for the success of any enterprise.

▪ It is really rewarding to see the positive change in people especially the youth due to your efforts – Abisoye helped and is still helping many young ladies to acquire technological skills which would enable them to be financially independent and improve their standard of living. She said this in a CNN interview; Watching them write code is beautiful. Many of them never touched a computer before they got here. It’s mind blowing. The joy on their faces, that’s more than money. I can’t buy it. In the words of Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, Help young people. Help small guys. Because small guys will be big. Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds, and when they grow up, they will change the world.

▪ Do not be afraid to take initiative – When all think alike, then no one is thinking. Those are true words that come from Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Walter Lippman. Nigeria and Africa as a whole needs more people like Ajayi-Akinfolarin. Men and women who are trailblazers and are not afraid to take the lead when necessary. Deciding to quit a job and start up a foundation is something few people have the guts to do. Instead of waiting around for someone to start up the foundation and join later, she took the initiative and did it herself. Like Steve Jobs said, Innovation is what distinguishes a leader from a follower and our hero, Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin is truly an exemplary leader

▪ Nigeria needs people that are able to see the problems around them and see them as avenues for opportunities – Africa’s challenges may appear daunting to most, but to those with the right entrepreneurial vision, challenges always provide opportunities. The challenge of the lack of technology skills amongst many girls and women in Africa prompted our hero to start a foundation that would tackle it. For anyone who has the intuitive capacity to envision obstacles as avenues for change and improvement, the climate in Africa can provide a richly fertile bed in which to cultivate the minds of changemakers and innovators who would transform this continent to one of the leading ones in the world.

▪ Nigeria and Africa’s development is greatly dependent on the level of technology – Like Zenith bank founder, Jim Ovia rightly noted in his newly released book, Africa Rise and Shine, “If you don’t make a friend of technology, it may become your enemy”. The trend towards rapid tech development will continue indefinitely”. This is why it is greatly important we are not left behind in the race for technological advancement. No business would survive into the future if it does not incorporate technology in every aspect of its operation. As a continent with a booming and fruitful business climate, this is a very critical factor. Training young girls with programming skills is a step in equipping our youths with the knowledge and skills required to lead our continent to greater heights.

▪ When you see something wrong, don’t just complain, do something about it – She saw the huge gender gap between men and women in managerial and technology positions especially in Africa and wanted to bridge that gap, this made her to take the bull by its horns and set up Pearls Africa Youth Foundation which has started many programmes such as GirlsCoding,G.C Mentors,GirlsInSTEM and Empowered Hands. These programmes were started with the aim of training young girls how to code, design websites and so much more. This practical approach to solving what she felt was a challenge proves that our hero is not just a talker but a doer. So instead of lamenting every time about a problem, get up, put on your thinking cap and figure out how you would solve it. Put in some effort to address it, no matter how little because as they say, “A journey begins with a step”.

▪ Be proud of your culture! – Like I pointed out earlier, Abisoye really represented Nigeria and Africa as a whole at the award ceremony* Despite the trend of sporting luscious and shiny wigs and weaves by her fellow women at events like this one, she came out stunning with a beautiful and quite simple Nigerian hairdo. Her outfit was an Ankara one made by local and talented fashion designers. I personally don’t see anything wrong with wearing weaves and wigs(I do wear them) but at an international event such as that and also being the only Nigerian present, her ensemble was really fitting. Also, in the short video played, she fluently conversed in her mother tongue, Yoruba with pride. No matter how much the western culture has penetrated into the fabrics of our society, we should not forget our rich culture and heritage because it is part of our identity, our history as a people.