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In spite of the troubles that have
dogged the nation from independence till now, and the sense of anger
and disillusionment it has aroused in the Nigerian citizenry home and
abroad, it is always remarkable to find a Nigerian who chooses to see
and project what is right about the country.

This is not your run-off-the-mill,
unrealistic rebranding project. This is a project that speaks
practically and distinctively to the Nigerian experience. This is the
‘8th Wonder of the World: Made in Nigeria’, a book written by
Olaboludele Simoyan.

Simoyan comes across as amiable and
ready to engage you with her ideas. For instance, she walks into the
newsroom for the interview and asks a reporter pointedly to tell her
two good things about Nigeria, and she would reward him with a special
handband. He reels off a satisfactory answer which she considers
noteworthy because her usual encounters with people always turn out
unsatisfactory as they cannot recall even one good thing about the
country. Simoyan speaks to NEXT about her new book and her unrelenting
passion for Nigeria.

Give us some insight into your background

I was born in
Washington DC in 1965. As a diplomat’s kid I lived briefly in different
parts of the world, but I was educated in Nigeria. I went to an
exclusive American missionary school in Miyango Town, which is 25miles
to Jos. I attended the Federal Government Girls College at Oyo, and in
1982 I gained admission into the University of Lagos to study
Architecture. As my community project, I put up a playground for the
kids. I took wooden unused NEPA poles to build swings, slides and
spiral slides. Before I left, the villagers had started stealing the
wooden seats and using them for firewood. (laughing). But the thing is
I had made up my mind that wherever I was sent to serve, I would make
an impact and leave a legacy

Do you think all of these were pointers to the line you would eventually tow?

Yes. And there was
also the fact that I had always been very nationalistic from a very
young age no thanks to my father who always made us proud about our
heritage. He always made us take pride in who we were and where we were
from. In fact, in those days, the Nigerian Passport commanded a lot of
respect.

How did your interest in writing begin?

While I was at the
Kent Academy in Miyango, I was often told that I was a poor reader and
I continued to carry that impression around. It was after my School
Certificate Exams that I took interest in reading the popular romance
novels, Mills and Boon. Then I also began buying and reading lots of
Jeffery Archer novels because I just loved his ‘Kane and Abel’. This
also moved me into reading a lot of books about Nigeria and the black
race like Achebe’s ‘The Trouble With Nigeria’. I read motivational
books too, especially by Mike Murdoch. It helped me channel my energy
into knowing what to do about my purpose. Also, after youth service, I
worked in a company called Architecture Services and they had a
magazine. So I contributed some writing to the magazine just to augment
my salary. I also sold advert spaces in the magazine.

Tell us how the book was born

Sometime in the
mid-nineties I left Architecture Services. Another company had offered
me a sales job because they were impressed with my work at Architecture
Services, but I turned it down preferring to go into freelance
marketing. I later left this for a job in an insurance company, but in
spite of everything, there was still something missing. I was
unfulfilled and money ceased to be a motivation for me. I had ideas
that had been burning on my inside and that needed to be let out. The
reason Nigeria is the way it is is because our politicians are
determined to steal us blind. So those who have the interest of this
nation at heart can pursue it with the same single-minded determination
as the corrupt politicians. I resigned, took my gratuity and continued
to read some more. I began to live on a shoestring budget, secluded
myself and just wrote and wrote and wrote. I started writing the book
in 2005 and I had a mentor who I kept going back to for feedback. It
was he who advised me to publish the book in series because I had
written too much for one book to contain. The first of the series
finally came out last year.

Why use a book to convey your message?

This book is a
springboard to many other things. It is a container of ideas for a new
Nigeria. I first thought setting up an NGO was my best bet to reaching
Nigerians, but I later decided it would be best to contain all my
thoughts in a book first.

How did you deal with the hassles of getting published?

The book is
actually self-published. The truth is I did a lot of things in the book
that I think very few publishers would have wanted to publish it.

Can you give some information about the book?

It’s actually two
books in one. I wanted the book to challenge people’s basic
assumptions. So that anyone who comes in contact with the book will see
that anything is possible if it’s possible to have two books in one.
Immediately you see the book, you get a paradigm shift.

‘The 8th Wonder’ is
something incredible, remarkable and distinguishing. ‘The 8th Wonder’
is a vision. As Nigerians, I want us to create our own 8th wonder in
our own sphere of contact. For too long we have taken solutions from
the West. We need a Nigerian solution to a Nigerian problem. When I
started the book I asked myself: if the future of Nigeria was dependent
on me, what would I do? With that I began to get solutions. The
foundation of a nation is how the people think. Again, in the book, I
drew attention to our positives so the book also focuses on what we are
doing right. We have focused on the bad things for too long. For
instance are you aware that Jos had electricity before London? When you
find out what you are doing right, you can repeat it.

What was the reason behind your using illustrations in the book?

People say
Nigerians do not read so I tried to make it more user-friendly and fun
so that even a kid can make sense of it. If you are the type who cannot
be bothered to read the whole book, you can read the African proverbs.
So everyone can get something out of it.

What further plans do you have regarding this project?

I have been doing
some inspirational marathon bus rides where I go to UNILAG and ride the
buses with the students and talk with them. I also have a blog,
www.the8thwonderworld.com, and in January 2011 I want to create an 8th
wonder on the blog. So everyone should look out for that.