By Despite spending his early years in the chaotic streets of Bariga, a popular ghetto in Lagos, the nation’s busiest state, Kazeem Olatunde defied all odds to study Political Science at the Lagos State University, and recently bagged a Masters degree in the same discipline from a Canadian varsity. In this interview, he shares his inspiring story with BlackBox Nigeria.
Who is Kazeem Olatunde?
Kazeem Olatunde is a young man who grew up in one of the most popular ghettos in Lagos, Nigeria, known as Bariga. I completed my primary and secondary school education in Shomolu Bariga local government area, before moving to the Ojo area for my undergraduate studies at the Lagos State University.
My love for government studies and international relations while in secondary school motivated me to study Political Science as my first degree at LASU. Interestingly, I’ve never worked in the field; prior to traveling for my Masters, my career was focused on customer experience, quality assurance, training, and process development – after a couple of customer experience and quality assurance training courses, and more importantly, work experience at one of Nigeria’s largest E-commerce companies, Konga.com.
On a person level, I consider myself as a realist and a humanist with strong belief that the sweetest investment in life that produces unimaginable joy is investing in the happiness of others with your actions and inactions.
What motivated you to bag a Masters degree in Political Science?
I have a background in Political Science, having studied it as a first degree at Lagos State University. The decision to pursue advanced studies in that same direction was influenced by many factors. For a very long time, I’ve always dreamt of going back to the class as a lecturer of Political Science (I don’t know if that dream it is still alive as I’m involved in many other areas now career wise, that are far from the dream). However, the fact that any possible chance to break into the academic environment require Masters and a doctorate degree was definitely one of the factors that influenced the decision. I also know that to be admitted to certain schools in Canada, it is advisable to apply to study graduate courses where you have comparative advantage. This is simply because the admission process is very competitive.
My university, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and in fact most of the schools in the developed world, are always looking for the best of the best. Therefore, to stand a chance, it is advisable to apply to apply for graduate courses where you have managed to build a good reputation that your undergraduate transcript can justify. With that approach and the grace of God, one might be lucky to be admitted. This thought process is, however, a personal opinion. Some people transition to other courses that are not closely related to their background and still get admitted. But for me, these are the reasons that influenced the decision to go for a Masters degree in Political Science.
Why did you choose to study at a Canadian university?
Canada and other countries in the developed world have built strong educational systems that usually help young scholars and innovators to excel. It is also important to add that, life after school is another reality that comes to play when it comes to the choice of the country to study. The first line of call after school is to go back home to reconnect with families and friends, while seeking opportunities that can make it easy to add value to our motherland. But to be quite honest, you also want to put yourself in a situation where if you fall in love with your new environment and want to stay, the system would accept you with open arms.
Canada is a country that is very hospitable to immigrants. There are so many immigration pathways to explore if you want to stay and settle in the country legally. More importantly, the province, Newfoundland and Labrador, where my school is situated is a very beautiful place with amazing people. For someone like me that has experienced years of loud, rough and crazy city life in Lagos, Nigeria, the choice of a quite and peaceful environment like Newfoundland was an easy one.
Were you a beneficiary of a scholarship or self-funded student?
This question is loaded for me and I don’t even know where to start from. Okay, I will start from somewhere. You can say that I’m a self-funded student with a soft scholarship who later became a beneficiary of a huge scholarship. This is how that played out. Years of saving from work for this dream, as well as the support of family and friends, had put me in a situation where I was ready to start the journey as a self-funded student, but it was definitely going to be a tough one.
My school, Memorial University of Newfoundland was nice to support at the start with a soft scholarship of 5,000 Canadian dollars. After the first semester of courses, I finished with a perfect GPA having scored A (above 80) in all my courses. As luck would have it, it was the same time the department had extra funds for exceptional performers especially those on the thesis route who were about to start their research journey. I was selected as one of the beneficiaries and my scholarship was increased to 20,000 Canadian dollars.
This was a remarkable development that helped me a lot and also prepared me for an exciting research journey. My research thesis was on Brexit and the title is “The illusion of Public opinion: A descriptive analysis of media framing of immigration in the Brexit campaign”. Even though the dream was to finally graduate with a perfect GPA but I ended up getting a B in one of my courses in subsequent semesters. It was a little painful as it is just one course (and I actually scored 75 in that course but A starts from 80 and above in Grad school here). Nonetheless, I’m very grateful for the opportunities, the research funds, and how beautiful everything turned out in the end.
You studied Political Science at undergraduate level at the Lagos State University. Having stayed abroad, how would you compare the learning experience?
No doubt, the system here is very developed and you have access to so many facilities that would make your life easy. But I think we have so many things to be proud of in the Nigerian educational system as well. Despite the socio-political and economic problems in our country, we have students who give their all to achieve remarkable success.
We also have a group of brilliant academics who have committed themselves to developing the next generation of scholars. Some of the great lecturers who taught me have left an indelible impression on me. They include the likes of late Professor Abubakar Momoh, Dr. Abiodun Fatai, Dr Tobi Oshodi, Dr Sylvester Odion, Dr Adewale Aderemi, Dr Dele Seteolu, and so on.
Speaking about the Nigerian educational sector, much work still needs to be done to match the standard of some of these international universities. Frequent strikes of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are a result of government’s failure to fulfill promises made in the past. The government needs to take education more seriously by increasing the budget for the sector. Also, every form of corruption in the educational system must be addressed to save the future of the country. On this very last one, everyone has a role to play.
Do you intend to further your studies to perhaps doctorate level?
The idea of going further to do a PhD is an interesting one. But for now, I’m not really considering it. Right now, all I can think about is enjoying this moment and focusing on my professional career. Perhaps later on, there might be enough motivation to delve into that challenging academic journey.
A number of Nigerians, especially young people, are now migrating to other parts of the world in search for greener pastures. What is your opinion about this?
This is a sad development. The country is gradually losing great minds due to the failure of the government to provide an enabling environment for us to succeed. It is difficult to blame anyone who decides to leave the country to chase their dreams. I did the same thing and have no regrets so far. I think this ‘Japa’ trend will continue unless we miraculously get the right set of leaders who are ready to take the country to another level.
What is the next big thing for you in the coming years?
I’m considering a number of options, but I’d rather take things one at a time. With God’s grace and hardwork, every good thing planned would be successful and become big.
