This
is my story: it would be useful to someone out there; I’m Benson Adima, born in one of the worst slums in Benue State, Nigeria.
In fact my mother would say she uses ordinary cassava to wash my clothes as a
baby; I was 8 years old before I knew there is anything like school. In my
secondary school I use to wake up 5 am go to farm, plant groundnut or harvest
cassava before going to school at 9 or 10 am when 2-3 lessons would have be
delivered. Am always the last person to pay school fee of four to six hundred naira
then, then I don’t know what is goals, dreams and all the likes but one thing,
the inner desire for greatness is on and boiling. The day I got admission to University of Lagos, I was like is
it me or is a dream.
Though I finished my last paper in December 2015, but one thing or the other
couldn’t allow me convocation till 9th May, 2018. But I must say a new obsession possessed my heart as I had a rare
opportunity of golden-hand-check with Unilag Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin
T. Ogundipe, FAS and Pro-Chancellor of the Institution, Dr
Bolanle Olawale Babalaki.
I wasn’t born with a sliver spoon in my mouth. In fact, I was born with a wooden spoon that I’m still carving ... I know first-hand what poverty is like. I know what it is like to walk five miles to school barefooted. I have what it is like to be homeless and have cried myself to sleep at times because there were insufficient resources to meet an urgent need in my life. I know what it means to soak cassava powder (gari) 3 times a day. I know what humiliation is all about let alone insults.
Furthermore, I
was teaching in a school somewhere at Ikeja where I was being pay ten thousand per
month for two years… Yet I borrowed seven thousand naira from a colleague to seek
admission, when I got to Unilag that day and finished all I needed to do I was
left with zero naira. I was planning to trek up to Shangisha/Magodo that night.
But a Good Samaritan helped me home from Fadeyi. Fortunately I lost the
teaching job few months after the admission, worst still I was homeless staying
under the Staircase. Because I don’t
want to lose my admission for anything so I struggled with a support of a
welfare unit of our Church and raised some hundred thousand naira for my
accommodation.
Guess
what?
Instead of using
the money to rent a house in Shangisha which is expensive, I divided the money
in two: Bought Motorcycle (Okada) seventy
thousand and use the thirty thousand to pay one year rent at Agege respectively…..that
is one of the best decisions I took in life.
Listen to this, Life is a journey, everything in it is a
process…..
I became Okada Rider/Student Between
2010-2012….it wasn’t easy, having to face, LGA Task-force, LASMA, Nigerian
Police etc. It was Williams Shakespeare
who wrote “uneasy lies the head that wears the crow”. And the greatest
victory is the one that is won the hard way. When I couldn’t cope with the heat
of banning Okada in Lagos I sold the bike and join factory work with Honey Well Nigeria and managing night
and day shifts with the school was tougher than necessary, yet the motivation
to be a graduate is toughest.
2014 met me
working on construction sites as carpenter with Mr Wale from Ibadan. Later that
year I returned to classroom (Atlas Model Colleage Agege) where I remain till I
finished my degree in 2015. Then I realise one thing is
certain ‘A little beginning must have a greatest end’.
But, in spite of
it all, I could see God helping me attaining height after height: Today I hold National
Diploma in Management (ND) from Olabisi Onabanjo University; B.A (ED) English
from University of Lagos, Akoka; I work as Internal Control in a good
organization; and as a Motivational
Speaker I help
youths to achieve their personal and business goals faster by providing them
with practical ideas and information that could be use immediately to get
better results. This I do through Annual Success Breath Seminar and Social
Media Broadcasting I believe nothing will stop a man with a
positive mental attitude from attaining his goals. Other people and
things can stop you temporarily. You are the only one who can stop yourself
permanently. Go for the moon. If you don’t get it, you will be heading
for the stars. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their
dreams. Don’t be satisfied with your achievement yet, I believe you can do
better.
Time would fail
me to tell you that I started life in Lagos as a house boy. Time would not also
permit me to tell you more about my humble background and those factors that
help me to keep going while the going is tough. But you could keep a date with
me on https://successbreath.blogspot.com.ng
