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It was only a few
weeks ago that I wrote about an experience which I had in Abuja
regarding the attitude of Nigeria’s older generation towards the up and
coming generation. I have also written about our culture of
‘gerontocracy’, the attitude of making the younger ones take a back
seat regardless of how many goofs are made by the elders.

Last Sunday, I was
at a friend’s place when we were introduced to a young man whom I am
very impressed with. His name is Tolulope Iruoye. Mr. Iruoye is twenty
seven, but has already achieved a lot. The problem is that he has not
exactly been recognised by his country, more importantly, his good work
has not received the attention it deserves, and as a result has not
started to touch the lives it is capable of touching.

Mr. Iruoye took an
early interest in knowing how things work and naturally gravitated
towards engineering. He says that he loved viewing pictures of
electrical designs from about age six. By the time he was six (when my
three-year older self was climbing trees), Tolu had built his first
batteries, and by ten (when young Chxta was being heart-broken for the
first time), Tolu was already repairing electrical devices. Two years
later, he had built a mini-radio transmitter. Six years down the line
at age eighteen, self-trained Tolu designed and built an inverter.

Over the years, he
has designed and constructed many different devices such as voltage
stabilizers, inverters, home security systems, solar power systems, and
a whole lot more. The device which impressed me the most is what he
calls ‘Magic Box’ which gives the user access to his electrical systems
from anywhere in the world using a mobile phone. This device was tested
in our presence when someone from London made a call to turn on a
device in front of our very eyes. He has clients in Lagos, Benin and
even in neighbouring Cotonou, Benin Republic.

However, I am of
the opinion that Tolu’s capacity is nowhere near being realised. For
crying out loud, the boy lugs a rucksack around to show his devices.
This in an economy where power is still a serious issue.

What Tolu needs is
money to achieve his potential. How does he raise that money? Does he
go to a bank? Nigeria’s banks are not lending at the moment, and even
if they were, the interest rates would be such that Tolu would
essentially be working for them, and would not achieve much. I have
seen too many good business ideas crumble under the unrealistic burdens
imposed by Nigerian banks. So how does he get the money?

In 2004 a young
Harvard student started a web site and moved from Boston to California.
He met with some people who liked his idea, believed it could work, and
invested $500 000 into it. Now the young man is the world’s youngest
billionaire, and the people who gave him money have reaped their
investment many times over. That story leads to the question where are
the people in Nigeria who have money? Why can they not invest in
bright, young minds like Tolu who would not only give them an excellent
return on their investment, but also ease the burden on Nigeria by
providing employment for a lot of other young Nigerians?

We need venture capitalists in Nigeria, unfortunately, our older generation refuses to think out of the box.