BY OSA AMADI

On April 29, 2017, over 1000 students gathered at the Lagos State Model College, Badore, to learn from a book titled Insight: Nuggets of Excellence for Teenagers written by their kind, Miss. Maryam Popoola, a 2016 Valedictorian of Dowen College, Lagos. The book is a motivational which brilliantly explores aspects of human behaviour and summarises issues affecting young people in secondary schools. It also addresses topics such as what it takes to succeed as a teenager, important habits to cultivate, academic excellence, and the good and bad sides of social media. It is indeed a compendium of valuable lessons on how young people can achieve academic, moral, and spiritual excellence.

A Cross section of students at the book reading event

After the book was published, TOMEB, a non-governmental organisation established to promote issues, activities and programmes aimed at energising individuals and communities towards economic self-sustenance and environmental friendliness, partnered with ExxonMobil to donate free copies of the book to selected students in Lagos state. Badore’s Model College was the chosen school and the foundation went further to arrange for a personal development and learning programme, where eminent speakers were invited to read chapters from the book.

Some of the speakers at event were the Country Managing Director of Accenture Nigeria, Mr. Niyi Yusuf; the Managing Consultant, Kitbenj Consulting, Mrs. Elizabeth Olofin; a Professor of Medicine at the University of Lagos, Professor (Mrs.) Fatimah Abdulkareem; and a Government Relations Lead at Google, Mrs. Titi Akinsanmi.

In a keynote address, founder of TOMEB, Mr. Tunde Popoola, a successful banker, economist, and accountant, said his observation of lack of proper guidance amongst some youth in their quest to realise their potential was what motivated him and his wife, Mrs. Maryam Popoola, to start TOMEB. “We decided to focus on empowering young people and rural communities; to help them move to the next level,” he said. “We have particular interest in young people, entrepreneurship, education and sustainable development; these are our areas of focus.” Since inception, the foundation has awarded scholarships to young students in rural communities at the junior secondary school level. More than 80 percent of the scholarship recipients are now in the university.

The Country Managing Director, Accenture Nigeria, Mr. Niyi Yusuf who also supervises Accenture’s Ghana office, said “The way you define success will change as you grow in life. For me, success is a journey. It is about setting goals and achieving them. It doesn’t matter where you start from. You only need to have faith in God to direct your path, have faith and believe in yourself, be hardworking and put in that extra effort that will make you extraordinary.”

The second speaker was the former Executive Director of Fate Foundation, Mrs. Elizabeth Olofin, who read from the fifth chapter of the book: ‘Important Habits to Cultivate’ which focused on the importance of being still. “If you don’t learn how to be still, you will never be able to achieve,” she said. “You must learn how to observe quiet time, go into the recess of your mind and consider things.” Stillness, she insisted, helps to uncover one’s identity and protect it. “It will help you to find what gift you have; then after you have discovered that, you must practice and be prepared to share your fruits with others.”

A Professor of medicine from the University of Lagos, Mrs. Fatimah Abdulkareem, took the third lecture, reading from Chapter 10 of the book: ‘Towards Academic Excellence’. She advised the student never to settle for less. “It is not everybody that is something today that was somebody yesterday,” she said, before urging the students to follow through with God and diligence. “If you follow and obey God and put in a lot of hard work, everything will be easy for you,” she said.

The last scheduled speaker for the day was Mrs. Titi Akinsanmi, the Public Policy and Public Affairs Government Relations at Google, where she is involved in understanding, shaping and developing Google’s policy direction and implementation of its strategic initiatives across key markets in Sub-Sahara Africa. Mrs. Akinsanmi read from chapters 7 and 8 of Maryam’s book, which details the ‘Good and Bad Sides of Social Media’. She told the youths that being on the social media was a great thing, as it helps them to connect seamlessly with one another and makes it easier to access information, but warned them against falling into its many pitfalls like hacking, cyber-bullying, exposure to inappropriate materials, defamation, piracy, ‘catfish’, etc. “I recognised very early that technology gave me an edge,” she said, “but I am imploring you, as young people, to make the right choices.”

Responding to all, the Senior Education Officer of the college, Mr. Animashaun Kolawole said it was very beneficial to the students and even to the teachers, in terms of the core values exhibited in the book by Maryam and extolled by the speakers. “We have been greatly blessed and made aware of things we can do to put ourselves on the path to excellence.”

TOMEB Foundation has always promoted programmes aimed at impacting the youths positively. Only last year, the foundation in collaboration with its partner in progress, Exxon Mobil, sponsored and distributed textbooks to final year medical students of the University of Lagos. With the success of that programme, it embarked on another which could be tagged ‘catch them young’ this year also in collaboration with Exxon Mobil to fertilise the minds of school pupils on how to succeed, this time, through reading, personal development and learning programme.

Founded over seven years ago, TOMEB Foundation’s ultimate aim is to assist young people to realise and utilise their potentials, be exemplary in their conduct, and become change agents.