PROJECT_INSPIRE INTERVIEW WITH AKINYEMI ADEDEJI

Serial Social Entrepreneur Akinyemi Muhammed Adedeji is a 21-year-old undergraduate of University of Ilorin responding to some of the most critical issues confronting our nation's youth, namely: political violence, mental health and leadership development. Akinyemi is a youth advocate, humanitarian worker and founder of Boot Camp X, a leadership development platform providing mentorship for young professionals in Nigeria. As founder of the defunct MentalHealth Awareness Group, he inspired and created an environment where people with mental-health issues could seek professional help without condemnation. In his interview with PROJECT_INSPIRE, Akinyemi shares his hope for a better Nigeria and how much he is doing to see dreams come true .




 PROJECT_INSPIRE: Can we meet you? Akinyemi: My name is Akinyemi Muhammed Adedeji, popularly known as Princely X. I’m a 500 level student of Law in University of Ilorin, Kwara State, with interest in youth advocacy, community and sustainable development, and media practice. I hail from Ibadan, Oyo State.

 PROJECT_INSPIRE: Tell us about your childhood?
  Akinyemi: I grew up having struggle with self-esteem, anxiety, depression and self-discovery. I was loved and overprotected. Those years were quite a juxtaposition of ironies, as I transformed from a loving to a violent kid. I rather understood later on that love was a better force. I have five siblings (one of whom is late) who love and support me even though we don’t get to see as much as we used to. That’s all that matters; the love and positive energy around you.

  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What’s your educational background like?
Akinyemi: I attended Government College, Apata, Ibadan, and I can say that it’s one of the most reformative events of my life. Some of the best people I’ve known personally and who have been part of my life were people I met back in that school. On the flipside, I practically struggled through secondary school. It wasn’t clear to me what I wanted—to learn in class or learn on my own. But I have finally come to realise that I learn better alone. I’m now a student in University of Ilorin where I’ve come to understand better how the Nigerian academic system celebrates memorised and regurgitative learning over expressive intelligence. Anyway, in furtherance of my passion and quest for knowledge, I look forward to doing a degree (maybe postgraduate) in media practice when I graduate.

  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What has been your contributions to making Nigeria a better place?
  Akinyemi:I started out my first pressure group when I was about sixteen. I was able to bring together young people who were aspiring to be admitted to university to form the Progressive Youth Alliance (formerly known as Nigerian Youths for Change) in the build-up to the 2015 general election. The reason was that this class of people was lured by politicians and used as tools for electoral violence in the 2015 polls. We organised series of talks, seminars and public discourses on electoral practices and behaviour, electoral education and voter sensitization in Oyo State. In the spirit of the time, the same process was repeated in Kwara State after my admission to University of Ilorin in 2014. We’ve since merged, worked with, and grown with other front. Stemming from my interest in community development, I’ve worked with numerous international organisations; volunteering and assisting in building other young Nigerians towards nationalism, citizen involvement in governance, literacy (including digital), among other community development-related efforts. I’ve participated actively in youth-advocacy and voter-sensitization events that have reached no less than 10,000 persons in Kwara State. I co-founded an outfit known as MentalHealth Awareness Group whose objective was to create awareness on mental-health issues and encourage those with such issues to seek out professional help. I’ve worked with Rotary International, The Grassroots Aid Initiative, YALI Network Kwara, ONE Campaign, I Vote Naija, among others. In 2018, I initiated The Book X Book Club to encourage the youth to read more and be better informed. With a series of initial activities, including monthly reading and discussions, we had a blazing start. While we struggled with constituting the group into a physical stable where people meet and discuss books they read, we have continued to explore digital options. The desire to gain more knowledge continues to thrive among our members. As an extension of this club, I launched Boot Camp X. It is a digital leadership project with the objective of connecting young people with mentors in various fields: personal development, career guidance, writing, scholarship application and other professional endeavours depending on the set of skills possessed by participants. The first cohort of the camp have 15 participants. While I look forward to doubling the figure for the next cohort, I have been focused on recording and monitoring the successes of the current cohort. Of the many projects I have pioneered and worked on, MentalHealth Awareness Group had the greatest impact on me personally. In the course of the advocacy we staged, it was amazing to see people open up to seek professional help and counselling.We liaised with professionals from University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital to assist with emergency cases. In order to boost our effectiveness, the group has ceased to be self-reliant and has become a part of Mentally Aware Nigeria (MANI) in Kwara State. MANI has an international affiliate with similar objectives like the defunct MentalHealth Awareness Group. I have been invited as a speaker and teacher to events in different states across Nigeria. I have been working primarily as a humanitarian volunteer, community developer and SDGs advocate, as well as responding to the most critical issues affecting our nation.

PROJECT_INSPIRE:What has been your motivation?
Akinyemi : Growing up, I read a lot of newspapers. My father bought a newspaper every weekdays and at least two every weekends. I loved reading columns and op-eds, and I can say that reading the views of people has shaped me into having views of mine. My father was a lecturer at Osun State College of Education before resigning to face private business. As a lecturer, he read a lot of books and the assignments written by his students. He taught Literature and English, and because he was very much disciplined, he would bring assignments home, critically assess them, mark, record, and keep the good ones in his library for further reading or study. All of these helped me to formulate my opinion on national development, the need for literacy in our society, and the power of words in the country. This is in fact why I have taken a great interest in media practice. The more I read while growing up, the more curious I became, and the more I yearned for answers. I later drifted from my father’s library into seeking my own answers. From reading TELL newspaper, to Tribune, to memoirs of past Nigerian leaders, I went as far as grasping Nigerian history, and how it has shaped the country. This has been the motivation behind my wanting to impact my community.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What challenges have you faced on your journey?
Akinyemi: Funding has been a major problem. Apart from financial setback, sometimes, I get misunderstood by others. I have heard people say that I’m making a lot of money from what I do. The truth, however, is that since I started over six years ago, I’m still the same person, rocking the same outfit for three years; a shoe for two years, and all. I’m more concerned about how to dissuade the young man on the street from trading his vote for money or household materials and how to help that girl who can’t use the mouse but will have to write an ICT-based UTME and pass. What gives me fulfilment is not my pocket but the fact that the little I’m doing here and there is changing someone and changing something. We all need money. But money should be the least motivation for community development.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Many young people have great ideas but lack of fund is always a stumbling block, as you earlier mentioned. What will your advice in this regard be?
  Akinyemi: Fela Durotoye once emphasised at a conference I attended: “Sell value and money will come”. Adding this to the marketing byword: “A good product will sell itself”, I’ll advise fellow young people to focus on adding value. If you create value, you’ll attract your kind of market. Know when to try harder. Know when to put in your best and also know when to stop barking up the wrong tree. Moreover, I have come to realise through mentorship and collaboration that there's only one solution to any problem anywhere in the world and the solution is that everyone must be willing to solve a problem and to help someone. However, the most impactful tool to achieving this is collaboration.


 PROJECT_INSPIRE: What’s people’s reaction, especially those of fellow young people, when they see you doing what you do? And how do you respond?
Akinyemi: In fact, this is one of the things that has kept me going. People come to me and say they love what I do and would like me to be their mentor. I have seen people my age, people older, and younger citizens asking me how I do what I do and how they can do the same. This is why I launched Boot Camp X to create a platform where young people can be empowered to be their best. Even though I haven’t been able to absorb everyone who has reached out to me, I believe that in the future I will be able to do that.

  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What do you think has been the major cause of unemployment among the youth today and how can we get out of this?
  Akinyemi : I will say bad economic policies, overpopulation and overdependence. To make progress, our government must rethink the economic policies they make. Citizens, on the other hand, must learn to think creatively and seek for alternative sources of income. The government will never be able to meet all our needs.

  PROJECT_INSPIRE:What would you say is the major role of the youth in nation building?
  Akinyemi : We are the present and the future. We must prepare ourselves for today and tomorrow. Every young person must make personal growth a priority.

  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Final words to the Nigerian youth.
  Akinyemi : You don’t have to wait for a superhero to change your community. Start from somewhere, start with something, sell value, and watch your efforts appreciate and yield positive results.

  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Thank you for sharing your story with us and we do hope that many will be inspired as they read.
Akinyemi : Thank you too.



  Many thanks to our editor: Pookers Literary and Editing World. www.pookersconsult.com.ng
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