Each one of them has the potential to be the next Awojobi...

This month is the anniversary of the death of Ayodele Awojobi, a Nigerian academic, author, inventor and activist who died in September of 1984. Awojobi was born in Oshodi in 1937, where he attended primary school. While he fared well there, it was in secondary school in Lagos that his academic brilliance became evident. It was clear that he was gifted in a variety of fields – mathematics, sciences, the arts, the list goes on. He also earned the nickname “Macbeth” after standing in for the lead actor who became ill only a week before the performance. He proceeded to attend the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, where he earned a four-year BSc in Mechanical Engineering in just three years, and went on to get a PhD at the University of London. He was the first African to be awarded a Doctor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of London at the age of just 37, despite the fact that the degree is rarely awarded to a scholar this young.

Awojobi returned to Lagos as an educator – beloved by his engineering students, and firmly believed that the country could only advance if its citizens could receive a free, public education. He rejected numerous lucrative offers for his work, preferring to innovate and invent at the University. There, while he was a lecturer, he wrote countless papers that are still cited today and completed his most famous invention – a hybrid vehicle that had the ability to move both forward and backwards in multiple gears.

This month, so many schools across the globe are grappling with a new school year in the midst of the pandemic. Each day, we try our best to educate the 6,000 students who have found a home with Impact Network. Some of those students do exceedingly well in our schools. Some of those students work hard to develop their skills and improve. But each one of them has the potential to be the next Awojobi – each one of them has the potential to shine even brighter in their future academics, to invent, and to lead, if we give them the foundation they need to read, to write, to think critically about the world around them. As we are all faced with a new school year, or school term, it’s important to remember the gravity of this responsibility.

- Reshma