19th November, 2023
By Kayode Akinropo
There are some people, some places, some institutions, companies, etc. that you come across in life that leave an enduring impression or an indelible experience on you!
Long-Term Ventures was a company I worked for in Nigeria at a point in time. Working there brought real positive changes to my life and that of my young struggling family.
Daddy & Mummy Akinkuotu, as many people fondly call them, were the owners of the company. Daddy Akinkuotu is a renowned financial management and process reengineering specialist with over 35 years of experience. His fulfilling career spans Banking, the Securities & Exchange Commission and Academics.
How did I get a job as a home tutor in that company? Daddy & Mummy Akinkuotu’s wonderful children were attending the best schools in Nigeria. At one point, they decided to withdraw their two older children from the very expensive boarding schools due to some reasons.
While the children were still attending high-brow schools, Daddy & Mummy Akinkuotu decided to employ very capable and intelligent home tutors to complement school teachers’ efforts.
My dear cousin, Ṣọga (a.k.a. Baba Ṣeko) who now lives in Manchester with his dear family, was a banker in the same bank where Mummy Akinkuotu was working. She informed him about the development of her children’s education. Ṣọga who was once a fantastic Geography teacher was trusted to get them some very good teachers in Lagos.
He immediately told me of the coming opportunity and asked me to prepare for the coming interview. Many qualified teachers were invited for the interview and yours sincerely was successful as the English/Literature in English tutor!
During the interview, questions were asked as usual on so many areas regarding teaching and mentoring. Later in the interview, I was asked how much I would like to earn as a home tutor. That was always a difficult question for me to answer. I told the interview panel of five professionals how much I was earning then and how much I would like to be paid.
Daddy Akinkuotu, who was the head of the panel told me that if I was successful, his company’s education department would pay me ten times the amount I wanted to earn! I almost fainted! Why? I had mentally calculated how much that would be each month! I thanked him and started praying internally and immediately for favour to be one of the successful candidates.
He promised car loans for all successful tutors to take care of the chaos that public transportation had become in Lagos due to the poor road network at that time which I reliably learned has even gotten worse now!
In addition, he said our salaries would be paid on the 26th of every month which was very rare then even for full-time employees. Our promotion, he said, was guaranteed!
All of us who were successful started the home tutoring first at their home in Yaba before they moved to Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos where Nigerian moneybags lived.
What followed? The company did far more than we were told during the interview just to make sure we delivered our utmost performance in educating their young children and to feel valued and wanted. Payment of our fat salaries was never missed for once.
The day I was given the car loan – raw cash – it’s as if I was in a dreamland! Before then, my family was just coping financially.
Christmas half bag of rice, chicken, vegetable oil and other gifts were added bonuses for each tutor during the yuletide! And once they arrived from their holiday abroad, we knew our imported gifts would be handed over to us sooner than later!
Lest I forget, that very neat and reliable second-hand Mazda 626 car I bought with the offered car loan did me a lot of good! It turned me into a ‘celebrity’ teacher/lecturer in Lagos with many watering offers from schools and private people who needed my teaching experience!
Both parents took the education of their wards very seriously unlike so many other very rich Nigerian parents who hardly had any time for their children. How they managed to do that despite their tight schedules surprised all of us not a little.
At the end of each school session, both Daddy & Mummy Akinkuotu with Mr. Jimoh, our boss and Mr. Olugbodi, our academic coordinator would hold a meeting with us.
At the meeting, they would first thank us and the children for another successful school session. We would then look at the results of each child keenly and talk about the positive and the negative sides of the results and what might have been done differently.
The meeting, we noticed, was not to threaten, find faults or belittle our efforts and those of the children and their regular school teachers but to see what we could all do to improve in some areas of concern! They would ask us if there were academic materials they could buy from abroad to make teaching and learning easier. They never came back to Nigeria without such recommended teaching aids!
Really, I learned immense lessons about life and how it should be lived from them irrespective of how very rich you are.
The children were trained never to look down on any tutor and to always try as much as possible to see their education as their main work.
When my family came to the UK, we maintained our cordial relationship with them.
Before the graduation of one of their children from Manchester University in July 2023, Mummy Akinkuotu called and told us that Iyabọde and I must grace the occasion which would serve as a great celebration and reunion.
They came to Manchester all the way from Canada where they are now based. The brilliant young graduate did not disappoint any of us. She made all of us feel at home and provided more than we needed to eat and drink. That meeting will long be remembered for all its positive sides.
After we’d all talked about those thrilling days of yesteryear and life now, my novel was the next on the agenda! I brought out my ‘Káràkátà Bag’ from under my chair. Mummy Akinkuotu who had read the novel three times became the unpaid ‘Book Launching Master of Ceremonies’ and ‘Sales Director.’
Her daughter in America had bought her a copy online a few days after the publication. She really promoted the novel in Canada. Not only that, she joined Facebook for the first time purposely to support my promotion effort for the novel.
She said so many positive things about the novel that I almost shed tears.
Mummy Akinkuotu sent this message to me from Canada one day:
“Happy Sunday Mr Akinropo. How are you and everyone doing? I just finished reading your book and I must say it’s a store of value and a custodian of African culture and history. I wish our youths can read the book. The moment I picked it to read, I found it difficult to put it down for a second. I’m particularly happy that Omoye reconciled with her children before she passed on. Time, our elders say, heals all wounds and scars. Your book really points it out. Congratulations and more power to your elbows. I wish you the best. Greetings to your wife and children.”
Their VIP guest, Mrs. Adunni Adun, did not wait for me to say a word further before she paid so much for a signed copy! Daddy and Mummy Akinkuotu also wanted autographed copies. Despite the fact that I meant their copies to be complimentary, Daddy Akinkuotu paid a lot in dollars for the three autographed copies they took away with them back to Canada!
As if all that wasn’t enough, Daddy Akinkuotu gave my younger son, a student at the Manchester Metropolitan University who came to join us at the graduation/reunion a large sum of money as petty cash.
When Daddy asked him to send his account details to him, my son was so shocked and surprised to the extent that his question to Daddy was, ‘Are you sure?’ That question reverberates with laughter from all of us each time we bring up his response.
This very godly, rich and influential family is a classic storybook that one would read and read and read and would never be tired of reading and studying.
Daddy and Mummy Akinkuotu, we can only pray that our Lord Jesus will continue to bless you and your dear family more and more.
My people, remember this, ‘One exemplary act may affect one life or even millions of lives. All those who set standards for themselves, who strengthen the bonds of community, are building the common future.’ – John W. Gardner
*Kayode Akinropo is the author of SCARS DO HEAL: A Young Child Battle For Survival. He lives with his family in the United Kingdom.