Reported by Mike Awoyinfa
My brother and friend Chief Dele Momodu, in an impromptu speech on Instagram and Facebook, uplifted a distraught lady whose world came crashing after she was denied a visa to Canada. Listening to Momodu’s homily, I was impressed enough to use it here as a piece of evangelism, as a motivational, newsworthy, mentorship speech for all our Japa-conscious youths in search of a better life abroad:
***
Being denied a Canadian visa is sad but it is not the end of the world. Every disappointment has taught me that there is a blessing if you look deeper. Don’t even lose faith. Just hold on to your God. Go to church tomorrow and dance more than ever. All shall be well. Trust me, trust me.
I wanted to be a teacher as a young man. I applied everywhere after my Master’s degree in 1988, and I got denied. I wanted to be a lawyer. I applied for law at the University of Ife. I got denied. My mum broke into tears. She thought the reason I was being denied everything was because I have a first degree in Yoruba. Everything I tried failed. At a time, I was the only jobless person in our house. Everybody would go to work in the morning and I would be the only one lying down on my mattress in our Boys’ Quarters. And my brother would enter, look at me, shake his head and slam the door. He would say: “It’s good to be jobless.”
And at a time, I thought maybe witches and wizards were after me. But I didn’t know God was preparing me for a life of a journalist. I never planned to be a journalist. I never went to journalism school. When I came to Lagos, I applied to work at The Guardian newspaper, I was rejected. I have been rejected in my life so many times. I failed School Cert, I wrote School Cert three times: 1976, 1977, 1978. I did university exams three times. So we became the first set of Jambites in 1978. Three times I failed. I am telling you the story of my life. I lost my father at the age of thirteen—I was thirteen when my father died in 1973. And I was left with a poor illiterate mother. Looking at you, you are not even a village girl. I was a village boy. So, I am begging you in the name of God, don’t think that Canada is the only place you can make it in life. People are making it in Nigeria. Aliko Dangote is not in Canada. He is in Nigeria. Mike Adenuga is in Nigeria. Abdul Samad Rabiu is in Nigeria. Femi Otedola is in Nigeria. We all went to school at different times in Nigeria. And we are doing our work.
I can live anywhere I want to live today. But I am living in Nigeria. Trust me. We will make it. When you make it and you have money, no country will dare reject you for visa. In fact, they would be begging you. The Ambassador would come and visit you at home.
I am prophesying into your life today. So, trust me. For every disappointment, there is a blessing somewhere. I told you I was rejected by The Guardian newspaper. And then, my friend suggested I should go to Concord and try my luck. But I said “No, I don’t like Concord. I hear MKO Abiola is a fanatic, is this, is that. Fela sang against him.” You see, that is why you should not hold any bias against anybody. You won’t believe what happened. I didn’t know Concord was where my life was going to turn around. MKO Abiola later became my adopted father. This is a man when I was going there, people were discouraging me, saying “Don’t go there, it’s a bad place, he is a bad man.” Look, the experience of my life has shown that there is God. Yes, as a human being, you will feel pain when you are rejected once in a while. But I am telling you, I am a good example and testimony to the greatness of God, to the awesomeness of God, that when it is God’s time, all these visas you are talking about would all be yours.
When I started Ovation magazine, at a point, I got totally broke. And I was ready to kill myself. So, don’t think that it’s an easy story or easy journey. I was ready to die. And then, I entered my car in London, I was driving, I didn’t know where I was going. I was telling God: “Just take me away. This shame will be too much. I have failed.”
From my experience, what makes people disappointed sometimes is the shame of failing. There is nothing wrong with failing. When you fail, you rise up again. And God will lead you to your destination. I was ready to die. And then, my godfather called. My phone rang. Chief Alex Duduyemi was on the line. Someone had told him that the way they are watching me, I would go and injure myself. And he called. And I reluctantly picked the call. He said: “Dele, where are you?” And I replied: “I don’t know, Daddy.”
“Why won’t you know where you are?”
“I just don’t know, Sir. I am just in the car driving.”
“Please, don’t injure yourself. Turn back wherever you are. Turn back and come to my office.”
And I went to his office and he lectured me that day. He told me: “What is not enough today would become so plenty it would be overflowing tomorrow.”
And that is what I am prophesying into your life. I don’t know why I am doing this today. I have not done this on Instagram in a long time: chatting with people and bringing them on my programme. So maybe God wanted me to speak to you. I left my food just to be able to talk to you, to encourage you and to tell you that don’t let the devil make you unhappy. The job of the devil is to make you unhappy. Don’t let anything in this life make you unhappy. Going to America or Canada or wherever, it’s not the end of the world. There is so much you can do. Even the money you are going to spend to buy a ticket to Canada would probably cost you three to four million naira. Trust me, and I am not just making mouth, three or four million naira will take you far in Nigeria today. You can set up a business that would turn you into a billionaire in Nigeria today, if you think of something original.
When we started Ovation, we didn’t have all the money we needed. We needed one hundred and fifty thousand pounds when we did our business plan. We were able to raise only twenty thousand pounds. And that twenty thousand pounds was what we sowed. Against all odds, we were just trying this and that. And we turned it into a multibillion naira business. So in life, I am telling you, nothing is impossible, if you don’t give up. Only if you give up. So, that money for your ticket, if you already have it in a bank, keep it very well. And go and tell experts what your passion is. If it is food, if it is cooking, if it is trading, whatever it is, they would do a business plan for you and with that four million naira, you will become a billionaire by the grace of Almighty God. God doesn’t want you to go and burn money, maybe to go and be washing plates or whatever. It doesn’t mean you won’t get a better job abroad but I am telling you, maybe God has a better plan for you. So don’t close your eyes, don’t close your heart, don’t close you mind to what God wants to do for you. God will be with you.
