To check the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Government of Nigeria placed different states in the country on lockdown. Many young Nigerians seized that opportunity to start robbing, stealing, raping and causing mayhem. But there are others, like Segun Majekodunmi, who grasped that same opportunity to start something innovative. Majekodunmi tells his story;
Tell us about yourself
My name is Segun Majekodunmi. I’m 24 years old. I attended Talent Link Nursery & Primary School, Sweet Hope College and Estate Senior Grammar School. My Dad is a clergy and my mum is a businesswoman. I’m the last child in my family, with two siblings.
I’m a mass communication student of Olabisi Onabanjo University Part-time Studies. I go to school on weekends, while I teach in a private primary school in Lagos during the week. Also, I run my own printing organization, although I don’t have a physical outlet. But I use the social media as a tool to get across to my audience. I strongly believe in the power of the social media when it is used in the right manner.
I currently manage the Reporting Malaria Media which is a Non-Governmental Organization that enlighten people about malaria and how they can stay safe this deadly disease.
I call myself a ‘studentpreneur’ because of my passion for entrepreneurship and my understanding that nothing can’t be learnt in this digital age, especially with the use of the internet.
I learnt different types of trade because during holidays, my parents don’t want me to be idle. I don’t think of making friends, let alone to make bad friends. I learnt different types of hand work; machine knitting, photography, handmade greeting cards, Cinematography and some other things I learnt online myself like social media management, Tie&Dye Shirts, Popcorn and Peanuts. If youths can make use of their time wisely on the internet, I believe our country will be a better place.
During your growing up, was there any time you thought of taking to crime or friends tried to lure you into crime?
I grew up in the barracks where there are different vices, back then crime was never an option although I was very young then. But on different occasions, I’ve been lured into crimes, but I’m a kind of person that doesn’t keep secrets from my parents, so whenever they’re back from work, I would narrate all what happened in the school and at home to them and then they would scold me if it was necessary.
I vividly remembered back then that we had armed robbers as neighbours, but for the fact that they were living in the barracks, they were seen as sacred by the police I presume. They live a lavish lifestyle. As a little boy, I envied them because they had a lot of things my parents couldn’t afford. I didn’t know they were sons of the nights. There was a particular day I was with my friends and we were playing police and thief game, and one of the robbers called me and said I played the role so well that he was going to buy me a toy gun. When my parents came back from work, as usual, I narrated everything that happened. I was banned from making friends. I never knew they were doing me good until the robbers got arrested in broad daylight.
Handling the situation has not been by my power, but the help of my parents because the peer pressure played a large roll too. When I left my parents abode to Ibadan in Oyo State to live with my mom’s elder sister, I attended Army Day Secondary School 2 at Adekunle Fajuyi Barracks, where I spent just a year after leaving there. I was never the same breed of child that my parents sent to Ibadan because the rate of crime in the school compound was so high and the peer pressure was killing me on the inside. I was so lanky and I’m from Lagos, I was always bullied. There was nobody I could tell what was happening to me at school. I had to join another set of friends who were group of brilliant students and have positive mindsets, because you just have to belong to one clique or another.
In this COVID-19 lockdown, many young Nigerians under the auspices of, One Million Boys and Awawa Boys, embarked on robbing spree. What is your advice to them?
What I can say about these guys is that even before the lockdown started, they were jobless! They didn’t have a particular job doing and those that had among them were lazy. They were just looking for the right time to start what had been on their minds, because what they were doing was the thing that had been on their minds for long. They’ve been looking for the right time to carry out their operations. Crime is not the best way to go. During this lockdown, a lot of salary earners finished spending all they had, but for the fact that they were responsible, they could walk up to people and politely ask for financial assistance, for the fact that someone has turned you down when you approached them does not mean you can’t be helped by another person. There are nongovernmental organisations (NGO) around approach them that you are in need, if they have the power, t they will surely help you.
My advice for these young men is that they should be grateful to God that they’ve not been killed like their colleagues who has kissed the dust. They can still be useful to the country and their families. At this particular point, there are still a lot of them in communities and streets that are threats to the community they stay. Some of them have their hand works, but they’re just too lazy, which I think is the effect of the hard drugs they use day and night. I think only the government can help in a situation like this because once they’ve tasted that lifestyle, no matter how young or old they are, they’re already addicted to that lifestyle. The Nigerian Prison Service is now referred to as the Nigerian Correctional Service. I wish that when these culprits are arrested and jailed, that they would come out a better and useful person to the society. But it is otherwise; they now see the prison as their own university where they upgrade their knowledge in crime.
Who is to be blamed for young Nigerians taking to crimes?
There are lots of people to be blamed; parents, family members, teachers, traditional rulers, clerics, elderly ones in the community because they see them while they are growing up, projecting these negative mental attitude and they had the opportunity to punish and correct when needed, but our society now regard them as Smart Alec.
Parents should know the type of friends their children keep and the type of music they are exposed to, because these also play a huge role
While some young Nigerians are taking to crime during the lockdown, you started a podcast. Please tell us about the podcast and why you started it?
I started my podcast at the beginning of the lockdown because of my love for the broadcast media and I tagged it ‘Boredom Podcast’ because I stared it out of boredom. I never knew it was going to run as long as this because I was playing with it. After the wide acceptance of the first episode, I decided to continue because I saw that this set of people who believed in me could be informed through the podcast, and they can be enlightened. I started by calling on experts in different field to talk about how the Corona Virus pandemic was affecting them or how it could affect the masses on their fields. So far I’ve spoken with an Italy based Nigerian who spoke on how they live their lives presently over there, as it is one of the countries heavily stricken by the pandemic. I called her to make people that still doubt the existence of the virus to believe as she shared her experience.
Also I’ve had an economist and a lecturer whom I discussed the effect of the lockdown on Nigeria Economy with, also I’ve had a journalist and fact-checker we talked about ‘how to know and fact check a fake news during this pandemic era’ and so on. I’m glad that everybody that I’ve called upon for interview on the podcast has always been glad to share their views
This has made me understand that there are a lot of people looking up to me and a lot of them really believe in me because after I started the podcast, I’ve seen different reactions from different people which made me believe that I still have a long way to go and all of this people I want to make them proud and when I make it big in the broadcast industry, I can always refer to this as my history.
Actually, this Boredom Podcast will continue until work and life return back to normal and after the lockdown I want to start another series tagged ‘The Studentpreneur in me’ which is going to be for student who have passion for entrepreneur activities. And I wish to establish my own community and online radio in the nearest future and I mean very soon.
First Published 2020
