Aside being an easy and interesting read, Samuel Damilola Owoeye’s Chapter 40: A Story of Resilience, is inspirational in the truest sense of the word. When you hear rag to riches, you needn’t look further than the story of Owoeye, who attained the landmark age of 40 on December 30, 2015.
Born to truly indigent parents at the Mission House of The Apostolic Church, Ifako, Agege, Lagos, Owoeye could have used that as an excuse for failure but he did not. He lived in a room with his parents and two siblings in a house that was practically an extension of a motor park, and had to wake up every morning by 4.30 at age seven to fetch water from a distance of about 400 metres from his house and thereafter trek to his school, Methodist Primary School, Tabon-Tabon, Agege.
Through other privations he suffered, like taking garri without anything except water, working with bricklayers, going through five years of university education without pocket money, Owoeye kept his eyes firmly on the ultimate goal – success.
Instructively, while his circumstances were enough to deter the faint-hearted, Owoeye did not see them as privations. The way he sums it up is striking. “It is one thing to be aware of what one lacked, while it is completely different when one does not even know that one lacked anything. The basic thing for me while growing up was education and it was available.”
For those willing to learn and be inspired, Owoeye’s ongoing life story, which by God’s grace will continue to be positive, contains many important lessons young people may do well to imbibe.
Hard work, diligence: “Seeth thou a man diligent in his work, he will stand before kings and not ordinary men” says King Solomon in the book of Proverbs. That the author is able to stand before great men and women today is because of his hard work and diligence. Though many now acknowledge his brilliance, young Owoeye was not brilliant in primary school. Narrating how he came about improving his school grades in this memoir, we see a hardworking, studious student who refused to settle for average.
Brilliance did not drop on his life; he sweated for it. He recalls in the work: “I always consider myself as an average student who needed to continue to study hard beyond the average in order to succeed”.
Altruism: It was Woodrow Wilson, a former US president, who once said: “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”
Christ: By strength shall no man prevail, according to the Bible. In all he has achieved, Owoeye is well aware of God’s place. He confesses that: “It has been a rough road but I keep clearing it with God by my side and laying solid asphalt as I move ahead.”
For Owoeye, people of this generation are like an athlete trying to run in a bog. As he takes a step, the other leg remains buried in the mud and he has to expend a lot of energy pulling out that leg before taking the next.
The difficulty is best imagined and this describes Owoeye who has refused to roll over and be overcome by his circumstances. Many, especially the young, who take time to read this memoir may learn lessons of life that could also propel them beyond their circumstances of birth.