On my stay at the Nigerian presidential villa, president Olusegun Obasanjo noticed me because I was the shortest. On his way out, he came to me and asked where I came from. “I live in Abeokuta, but my grandmother is from Owu.”
He smiled and I thought it was because I was family.
“You can be here someday if you study hard in school and follow right instructions,” he said, before he lifted me up in his hands and continued, “I see hope.” Those words that cost him nothing were an investment in my life. They would keep me going when life got hard.
“You can be here someday if you study hard in school and follow right instructions”
After Abuja, my life outside school grew very quickly, partly out of desire and partly out of expediency. My outcast status was cemented as soon as I arrived back in school.
….paragraphs omitted intentionally
Nonetheless, Abuja gave me something I would not trade for popularity. There, I built friendships, true friendships with people who wanted to change the world; people who were on a quest to be relentlessly wonderful.
I had met Dayo Israel on that trip and we exchanged contacts. With him, I started my first non-profit organisation.
15 years later I paid the president a visit at home to share my story and how far his few words to that little boy he met in Aso villa had kept me going, against all odds.
President Obasanjo commended me for not giving up despite the numerous challenges I faced..
...This is an excerpts from "Toyosi meets the President", a Chapter in the book Ọmọ́tóyọ̀sí - the child of delight
The book will be available in hard copies and online very soon
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