1. Are things getting better ?
2. Are things getting worse?
3. Where are you ?
4. Do you celebrate New Years ?
5. In the year 2020, _______ (what will happen)
6. Bonus question, any question you wish had been asked; or leave it blank.
Thank you.
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Showing posts with label six questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label six questions. Show all posts
Monday, January 07, 2019
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Six Questions with Mother-Daughter Team - Teacher Anna and Jumoke Joseph
1
Children are _____
TA: a Great Heritage
2
Children want ____
TA: love, attention and to have their way
3
The introductions:
Jumoke Joseph's mother is the famous and spectacularly sweet "Aunty Mrs. Joseph"or "Teacher Anna", who raised thousands of us little ones as a nursery and primary teacher at St. Mary's Private School. I remember learning some of my first skills from her - addition and subtraction, nursery rhymes, Catholic hymns and prayers, with some reading and writing and other classroom skills ... I was four years old.
4
How has your work changed over the years?
TA: 29 years teaching at St Mary’s. 10 years teaching/management at Learningfield. 2 years teaching and management at McLilies. 16 years managing own Preschool and Nursery. I've stayed in the same profession since the age of nineteen.

5
What do you do on weekends?
6
Favourite colours:
TA: Green and sometimes White - Green is a cool colour that reminds me of nature
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Children are _____
TA: a Great Heritage
JJ: an absolute wonder
2
Children want ____
TA: love, attention and to have their way
JJ: affection, attention and fun
3
The introductions:
Jumoke Justine Joseph works as the proprietress of Great Mother's Joy Nursery and Primary School located in Satellite Town, Lagos.
She attended St. Mary's (on Broad Street, Lagos) for primary school, went on to Queen's College
Lagos for secondary school, and then to the University of Lagos where she
earned a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Mathematics and Statistics.
Her
areas of expertise include business management and facilities
management from her previous career, as she worked at The British Deputy High Commission BDHC Estates Group, Lagos from 1998-2011 and CIACO Nigeria Limited, Ikoyi, Lagos from 2012-2015. She also has expertise and has taken courses in child development, classroom teaching,
communication, and elocution.
Jumoke Joseph's mother is the famous and spectacularly sweet "Aunty Mrs. Joseph"or "Teacher Anna", who raised thousands of us little ones as a nursery and primary teacher at St. Mary's Private School. I remember learning some of my first skills from her - addition and subtraction, nursery rhymes, Catholic hymns and prayers, with some reading and writing and other classroom skills ... I was four years old.
Teacher Anna was born on 18th January 1943, the seventh among thirteen children. She
started her primary school education at Our Lady's School, Kaduna, and
proceeded to Lagos after the demise of her mother Mrs. Victoria Saba in 1955. While in
Lagos, she attended St Mathias and then St Mary's Modern School.
She commenced her teaching career in 1962 under
the tutelage of Reverend Sisters at St Mary's Private School, Broad
Street. Between 1975 and 1978, she proceeded to African Church Teachers Training
College, Ifako Lagos. She eventually retired from St Mary's in 1989
after 27years of service.
![]() |
Teacher Anna Joseph |
Mrs Joseph taught for another 10 years
(1989-1999) as Head of Nursery Section at the Learningfield School,
Satellite Town, Lagos. She then proceeded to McLilies Primary School,
Satellite Town where she worked for another 2 years till 2001. In 2001, she established 'Mother's Joy Day Care
Centre and managed this until her daughter came on board as proprietress in 2015.
4
How has your work changed over the years?
![]() |
Children's Day // Professional Day @ Mother's Joy School |
TA: 29 years teaching at St Mary’s. 10 years teaching/management at Learningfield. 2 years teaching and management at McLilies. 16 years managing own Preschool and Nursery. I've stayed in the same profession since the age of nineteen.

JJ: I moved from General Administration to School Administration / Teaching
![]() |
Surrounded by little ones 💗 |
What do you do on weekends?
TA: Saturdays – resting, reading, parties and catching up with the News.
Sundays – generally church and home front.
I sang at the Holy Cross
Cathedral Church choir from 1959 to 1975. These days I serve at the same parish on the Board
of Catechists and Marriage Counsellors and I am a member of the
Confraternity of Christian Mothers. On the home front, I live with my husband Mr. Suru Joseph and love spending time with family including Jumoke and Oladipupo.
JJ: Saturdays of leisure – resting, reading, parties.
Sundays – Church and eating out
6
Favourite colours:
TA: Green and sometimes White - Green is a cool colour that reminds me of nature
JJ: Red, Gold and in recent times White
... because Red is bold and cheerful, Gold is regal, and White – c’est très chic!!
![]() |
Teacher Anna and JJ Joseph |
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Saturday, December 31, 2016
Six Questions with Dotun Longe
A portrait of TheDean as a young man:
0. A brief history
Oludotun Williams Longe attended secondary school at St. Gregory's College, Lagos, and recently graduated from Bells University of Technology (Electrical/Electronics Engineering) in Ogun State, where I was one of his teachers/lecturers/professors.
So he's twenty-ish.
He was once an anime-geek, and he spent a lot of his time in uni either making beats or writing code.
Let me translate/expand that for the old people to understand hehehe -
he liked these cartoons/animations in secondary school and basically clustered with fellow fans,
he loves music and creates electronic music and sort of looks like Wizkid lol
and he makes software applications like videogames and stuff.
...the only answer I have to this is school-related. I got fed up with not living up to my potential one semester, so I took charge of my life, by removing so many distractions, I stayed away from the internet, from phones, from friends who weren’t helping much, I practically lived and breathed books. Morning to night, books. It paid off because I got a 4.98/5 that semester, only 'cause I got a B in a practical. Very proud of this.
2. Favourite book? Favourite song? Favourite film?
Book - The Dip, by Seth Godin: he taught me how to quit, when to quit and when to put all your energy into something, knowing fully well the difference between a dead end and a very high but climbable mountain.
Favorite Songs - Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper // Con Te Partirò - Andrea Bocelli // The Longest Time - Billy Joel // Viva la vida - Coldplay
Film - Citizen Kane.
3. Your top five tips for working with software:
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0. A brief history
Oludotun Williams Longe attended secondary school at St. Gregory's College, Lagos, and recently graduated from Bells University of Technology (Electrical/Electronics Engineering) in Ogun State, where I was one of his teachers/lecturers/professors.
So he's twenty-ish.
He was once an anime-geek, and he spent a lot of his time in uni either making beats or writing code.
Let me translate/expand that for the old people to understand hehehe -
he liked these cartoons/animations in secondary school and basically clustered with fellow fans,
he loves music and creates electronic music and sort of looks like Wizkid lol
and he makes software applications like videogames and stuff.
---
1. What is the most perfect thing you've ever done?...the only answer I have to this is school-related. I got fed up with not living up to my potential one semester, so I took charge of my life, by removing so many distractions, I stayed away from the internet, from phones, from friends who weren’t helping much, I practically lived and breathed books. Morning to night, books. It paid off because I got a 4.98/5 that semester, only 'cause I got a B in a practical. Very proud of this.
2. Favourite book? Favourite song? Favourite film?
Book - The Dip, by Seth Godin: he taught me how to quit, when to quit and when to put all your energy into something, knowing fully well the difference between a dead end and a very high but climbable mountain.
Favorite Songs - Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper // Con Te Partirò - Andrea Bocelli // The Longest Time - Billy Joel // Viva la vida - Coldplay
Film - Citizen Kane.
3. Your top five tips for working with software:
Always have some sort of plan for how you want the application to look and behave before doing anything.
If you are just starting to learn, then jump right in, even if you don’t know anything ( A data bundle + google will take you a long way. )
Always try to make a project, instead of just doing examples you see in textbooks or online. When you have a project in your head, preferably a small one, you learn so much more than a 1000 page textbook can teach you.
Once you get stuck, you google.
You will never make a good application in your first trial, I usually start with naming my application something like app1 and end up having a decent looking app, still with a lot of bugs, ..on app45 or something. (Not Exactly Good Practice, But gets the job done).
+1 I use rails most of the time, so I find recreating the application far easier than debugging sometimes, especially when the debugging process is taking longer than a day or two. (Don’t Judge Me).
+1 I use rails most of the time, so I find recreating the application far easier than debugging sometimes, especially when the debugging process is taking longer than a day or two. (Don’t Judge Me).
4. What do women want?
I don’t know o, Teach, What Do Women Want?
5. The best and worst things about school?
The best thing about school?
The Worst thing about School?
Freedom from life’s constraints, you don’t
really have to worry about money unless you paying yourself through school. You
have complete creative freedom, you get to experience a side of life that only
lasts 4 -5 years, where you can focus yourself into anything and everything you
want for the fun of it.
The increasing rate of unemployment seems
to defeat the purpose of school itself. This might sound very simplistic and might
have a little sprinkle of exaggeration, but in this country a so called good
education, only seems to make your English better. You Forget 90% of everything you learn, so I
stand by this.
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Thursday, December 31, 2015
Six Questions with Doctor Ameenah Hassan
Amina Muhammad Hassan earned her MBBS in April 2006 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
She subsequently worked at:
- Uthman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto - Internship
- King of Kings Specialist Hospital, Asaga, Ohafia, Abia State - 8 months of NYSC
- Kawo General Hospital, Kaduna state - last 3 months of NYSC
and since then, she's been with the
- Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of King Fahd Women and Children's Hospital, Gusau, Zamfara State. She is currently the Head of Clinical Services in the hospital.
Alongside this, she serves as
- a State Trainer in the Malaria Action Programme for States (MAPS)
- a master trainer mentor for MNCH2 (Maternal, Newborn and Child Health 2)
She is a member, and former Zamfara state treasurer, of the Nigerian Medical Association.
She is married, and enjoys taking walks and admiring nature in her spare time.
Back in Queen's College where we were classmates from January 1991- June 1996, Amina was often class captain and when she became a house captain, as expected her Obong House was swiftly transformed into a winner at inspections and sports.
I remember her as a Muslim person of principle.
Also, I think it was she who started the trend in our class of going regularly to the library to enjoy the reference books on the upper floor, that is, not just when we had homework. I came to enjoy the habit very much too.
I badly wanted to ask her a few questions for only my fourth ever Six-Questions feature:
1. Tell us a story about the oldest person you've met at work. And the youngest?
2. What are the two biggest solvable problems you encounter regularly at work?
3. Three things we should all do for better health?
4. How did you decide to become a medical doctor?
5. What is the meaning of life?
6. Does Nigeria need more doctors?
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![]() |
Ready, Set, ... |
- Uthman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto - Internship
- King of Kings Specialist Hospital, Asaga, Ohafia, Abia State - 8 months of NYSC
- Kawo General Hospital, Kaduna state - last 3 months of NYSC
and since then, she's been with the
- Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of King Fahd Women and Children's Hospital, Gusau, Zamfara State. She is currently the Head of Clinical Services in the hospital.
![]() |
An old photo: Zamfara is quiet |
Some more-recent photos HERE
Alongside this, she serves as
- a State Trainer in the Malaria Action Programme for States (MAPS)
- a master trainer mentor for MNCH2 (Maternal, Newborn and Child Health 2)
She is a member, and former Zamfara state treasurer, of the Nigerian Medical Association.
She is married, and enjoys taking walks and admiring nature in her spare time.
Back in Queen's College where we were classmates from January 1991- June 1996, Amina was often class captain and when she became a house captain, as expected her Obong House was swiftly transformed into a winner at inspections and sports.
![]() |
SS3Y Class Photo in 1996: Ameenah is second from left, with face obscured by Fatima's head (precursor surgical mask? :) I made sure my face got in :) @3rdLeft |
Also, I think it was she who started the trend in our class of going regularly to the library to enjoy the reference books on the upper floor, that is, not just when we had homework. I came to enjoy the habit very much too.
I badly wanted to ask her a few questions for only my fourth ever Six-Questions feature:
-------
1. Tell us a story about the oldest person you've met at work. And the youngest?
The oldest patient I've attended to was a 60-year-old
woman with uterovaginal prolapse, we managed her successfully.
The
youngest was a neonate born with ambiguous genitalia, we referred [this child]
to the teaching hospital in Zaria.
[Ask Google/Wikipedia, like I did :) ]
2. What are the two biggest solvable problems you encounter regularly at work?
Late-coming especially the HMIS staff,
and
Attitude - we generally need to be proactive.
3. Three things we should all do for better health?
Eat healthy, laugh a lot and exercise.
4. How did you decide to become a medical doctor?
I initially wanted to read accounting, like my Dad.
The turning point was JSCE Book-Keeping [back in 1993, as a JS3 / 9th-grade student.] It got me tied up in knots, lol.
At that point I decided to save lives instead. All I had to do was pass JAMB so I got admission in ABU Zaria.
5. What is the meaning of life?
Life is a gift. Cherish it and make the best use of it, irrespective of the circumstances.
![]() |
The Doc with her handsome baby. |
Where I work the ratio is one doctor to 40 [patients]
averagely, this can be overwhelming.
A conducive working environment and
more hands will help.
[Today, it's New Year's Eve] I saw outpatients and now I'm in theatre to perform an elective Cesarean section, and work still continues after the surgery.
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Friday, November 28, 2014
Six Questions with musician Le'mmon
Le'mmon may be (just) under-30 but he is already an accomplished vocalist, songwriter, and producer. With his silky smooth voice, fun-but-mature themes, and classic R&B aesthetic, this Nigeria-based musical artiste may just become one of your favourite.
Q1: If you couldn't be a musician...
I would still be in the art world. Fine arts. Or maybe military.
Q2: Best and worst things about your job?
Imagine a world without music! The best thing is that my work touches people's lives everyday.
Also, music is a profession, so personal growth and career satisfaction are the other best things about my job.
The worst thing, however, is that in Nigeria there isn't enough support - opportunities, mentoring, management, and resources - for talented artistes. Nobody wants to build from
scratch with a talented nobody... It's different overseas.
Also, instead of perceiving a newcomer as a source of inspiration and fresh ideas, most established and successful artistes who ought to help these newcomers see them as a threat and in turn refuse any call for help.
Q3: Studio Rat or Stage Bunny? Lol.
I consider myself more of a studio rat because it's a world that knows no limit in terms of creativity and production especially in this part of the world where we don't have the best technology for stage/analog production.
Q4: Tell us about the album...
I have no album for now but I'm putting out a mixtape titled #10,000hours in early or mid 2015 which is a compilation of carefully selected songs showing my prowess as a songwriter, producer and a sound engineer from the start to the present.
Q5: Your top 5 artistes?
Q6: Three rules you live by?
Mom, Music, Money and in that order too..it's self explanatory..those are the things I devote my heart to and love as I grow as a person...They keep me grounded...
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![]() | |
Twitter: @lemmonchukwu |
A brief history of Le'mmon: A true Lagosian, born to an Igbo father and Yoruba mother. Real name Vincent Osuagwu. A former church boy, was in the choir at eight. Won Most Creative Student In Art award in school. Le'mmon is notable for stubbornly producing different flavours of Rhythm
and Blues music throughout the 21st century. He will make you listen!
![]() |
Listen to Vintage Le'mmon. I love That's All. |
I would still be in the art world. Fine arts. Or maybe military.
Q2: Best and worst things about your job?
Imagine a world without music! The best thing is that my work touches people's lives everyday.
Also, music is a profession, so personal growth and career satisfaction are the other best things about my job.
![]() |
Live at the Civic Center |
Also, instead of perceiving a newcomer as a source of inspiration and fresh ideas, most established and successful artistes who ought to help these newcomers see them as a threat and in turn refuse any call for help.
![]() |
Past EP projects: Rejected By All, Heart On Paper, and more. I have two dozen Le'mmon tracks and keep discovering more. |
Q3: Studio Rat or Stage Bunny? Lol.
I consider myself more of a studio rat because it's a world that knows no limit in terms of creativity and production especially in this part of the world where we don't have the best technology for stage/analog production.
Q4: Tell us about the album...
I have no album for now but I'm putting out a mixtape titled #10,000hours in early or mid 2015 which is a compilation of carefully selected songs showing my prowess as a songwriter, producer and a sound engineer from the start to the present.
![]() |
Coming soon: #10000HOURS |
Q5: Your top 5 artistes?
John Lennon
because of how he'd make a song so simple with his lyrics and he was a rule breaker and therefore changed music without knowing he was.
Fela Kuti
for stamping it hard on musicians especially from Africa and Nigeria that music knows no language.
Frank Sinatra
for his timeless voice and "never give up" spirit through his rejected times coming up as a back up vocalist.
2face idibia
for being a great source of inspiration to Nigerian
artiste who celebrate his longevity and ability to move along trend as
they change over the years in the industry.
Robin Thicke
for his strong will to succeed in a pop-dominated music industry that saw him work hard for 17yrs before he got his big break with the hit song "lost without you"Robin Thicke


Q6: Three rules you live by?
Mom, Music, Money and in that order too..it's self explanatory..those are the things I devote my heart to and love as I grow as a person...They keep me grounded...
![]() |
Listen to Le'mmon Heart On Paper |
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Six questions with Kunmi Otitoju aka minku
My sister was born an artist. She was raised in Lagos, passed through the USA, and settled in Barcelona, Spain.
At Tade Nursery School in those days, her favourite subject was PATTERNS. She loved art throughout school (St. Mary's Private; Queen's College), and at home, she loved cutting and tearing, then stitching and glueing and just making things.
Many years later, Kunmi attended the real HU, graduating summa cum laude in Computer Science in 2005. She was a programmer and usability engineer and design fanatic who got to intern at Goldman Sachs and FAST (Microsoft), edit a magazine, see Europe, present research, learn languages, design corporate websites, and earn a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction from Virginia Tech, ...before making a return to creating objects, products, and culture via Minku, her bespoke leather goods company.
For my second-ever UpNaira interview (see the first), I thought to ask minku to share some of that magical ability to be authentic, brilliant, creative, distinctive, eloquent, fashionistique...ok, I'm getting carried away here. Let's go...
What do you love about working with leather and fabrics?
minku: I generally enjoy doing fun things with colour and texture: this exploration is the one thing that is consistently evident in the bags I make. When I was in art school here in Barcelona, I did not really care which media I used for my projects, as long as the colours and textures I was conveying felt right to me. So working with leather, which comes in so many colours and textures, is for me like being a child that can eat all the candy she wants.
Is minku loved by all, and if not, describe the typical minku loyalist.
minku: Ahh, loved by all ;-P
The typical Minku loyalist gets a kick out of knowing that hours of skilled blood sweat and tears went into making something, of which there is probably only one in the world. Maybe this makes them art collector-type people. They may not care much for Campbell soupcans arranged in a certain order, but they will spend hours lost in the intricate brushstrokes of Yayoi Kusama's White Infinity Nets, for example. The typical Minku loyalist has a strong ability to respond emotionally to everyday objects made in an unusual way.
What is the financial potential for a company like yours?
minku: I ask myself this daily :-) Oh man. Considering that Louis Vuitton started similarly to me (as a malletier, making travel trunks for wealthy people on a one-on-one basis) and is now worth about $25.9bn, I think there is hope. It would take time though, years and years of building a base of trusting customers. But I am fine with this consistent-climb approach.
For me, part of the reason I love doing this is that I dream of a day that more sub-Saharan leather goods makers, with their heritage of excellent craftsmanship, would be as renowned as Hermes Paris, Prada Milan or Loewe Madrid.
Why did you study Computer Science in uni if you knew you were going to end up in design?
minku: I think that even though I used to make things by hand when I was younger, I did not know the word 'design' as it exists now. Fashion design seemed like something tailors or Paris Fashion Week designers did, and both seemed distant from my reality. Yet what I do now is somewhere between product design and fashion design. I did not know such a realm existed until during/after my masters studies at Virginia Tech.
My journey to design has been an interesting one, and I think my work is all the more interesting because I haven't been so schooled in design and materials use, so for example I don't care if a certain type of leather should only be used for shoes, or if aso oke should only be worn on heads and waists -- if I conceive a bag I can make with it, I will just follow through.
Actually part of the motivation for starting Minku was that I finally, for the first time in my academic life, got accepted into a design program - Stanford's mechanical engineering masters with the product design option. This was in April 2010. By this time, I was just loving Barcelona life and not sure I wanted to leave (the folks at Stanford were very understanding and let me defer for a year). During the year, I got to experiment answers to the question: "can I build a product-design project that would be on a similar level to if I were a Stanford graduate?" I had Virginia Tech's human-computer interaction masters and a handful of art courses under my belt by this time, and I managed to convince myself that though Stanford would be a super cool place to be, my combined educational and travel experiences had already given me a great foundation for what I wanted to become.
Having said these, computer science has been good to me, even as a designer. Knowing how to create the precise brand identity I want online, and how to modify my site and e-store without having to rely on someone else's timelines, have made my life easier.
What will your next collection be about?minku: My next collection will be about rebels. A working quote is "She wore her crown as an eyepatch and declared mutiny on the land." I came up with it, if you were wondering, a few days after reading some Yalla poems on your site... you awakened my poetic side :-)
We did a preliminary photoshoot for the collection last month, and it is about subtle subversions of authority through dress.
Earlier this year, I attended a job interview wearing an afro. And that got me thinking: I had to wear my hair that way because the resources for the management of 2-inch long African hair in Barcelona are quite scarce. But in wearing an afro to an interview, something unexpected happened -- I felt cool, powerful almost, in being so "rebellious", considering how university career services counselors used to advise that we wear our hair for interviews.
For the collection, I am also creating a limited line of menswear and womenswear to help convey the theme. The bags would still play the prominent role of course.
You live in Barcelona but grew up in Lagos. Which is the more exciting city?
minku: Both are exciting for different reasons. Barcelona has metro, Lagos has traffic. Exciting life can be witnessed while traversing the city in both...
At Tade Nursery School in those days, her favourite subject was PATTERNS. She loved art throughout school (St. Mary's Private; Queen's College), and at home, she loved cutting and tearing, then stitching and glueing and just making things.
Many years later, Kunmi attended the real HU, graduating summa cum laude in Computer Science in 2005. She was a programmer and usability engineer and design fanatic who got to intern at Goldman Sachs and FAST (Microsoft), edit a magazine, see Europe, present research, learn languages, design corporate websites, and earn a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction from Virginia Tech, ...before making a return to creating objects, products, and culture via Minku, her bespoke leather goods company.
For my second-ever UpNaira interview (see the first), I thought to ask minku to share some of that magical ability to be authentic, brilliant, creative, distinctive, eloquent, fashionistique...ok, I'm getting carried away here. Let's go...
What do you love about working with leather and fabrics?
minku: I generally enjoy doing fun things with colour and texture: this exploration is the one thing that is consistently evident in the bags I make. When I was in art school here in Barcelona, I did not really care which media I used for my projects, as long as the colours and textures I was conveying felt right to me. So working with leather, which comes in so many colours and textures, is for me like being a child that can eat all the candy she wants.
![]() |
The Fagunwa bag is a minku classic |
minku: Ahh, loved by all ;-P
The typical Minku loyalist gets a kick out of knowing that hours of skilled blood sweat and tears went into making something, of which there is probably only one in the world. Maybe this makes them art collector-type people. They may not care much for Campbell soupcans arranged in a certain order, but they will spend hours lost in the intricate brushstrokes of Yayoi Kusama's White Infinity Nets, for example. The typical Minku loyalist has a strong ability to respond emotionally to everyday objects made in an unusual way.
![]() |
This "man bag" is another minku classic |
minku: I ask myself this daily :-) Oh man. Considering that Louis Vuitton started similarly to me (as a malletier, making travel trunks for wealthy people on a one-on-one basis) and is now worth about $25.9bn, I think there is hope. It would take time though, years and years of building a base of trusting customers. But I am fine with this consistent-climb approach.
For me, part of the reason I love doing this is that I dream of a day that more sub-Saharan leather goods makers, with their heritage of excellent craftsmanship, would be as renowned as Hermes Paris, Prada Milan or Loewe Madrid.
![]() |
minku did Barcelona Fashion Week in January |
minku: I think that even though I used to make things by hand when I was younger, I did not know the word 'design' as it exists now. Fashion design seemed like something tailors or Paris Fashion Week designers did, and both seemed distant from my reality. Yet what I do now is somewhere between product design and fashion design. I did not know such a realm existed until during/after my masters studies at Virginia Tech.
My journey to design has been an interesting one, and I think my work is all the more interesting because I haven't been so schooled in design and materials use, so for example I don't care if a certain type of leather should only be used for shoes, or if aso oke should only be worn on heads and waists -- if I conceive a bag I can make with it, I will just follow through.
Actually part of the motivation for starting Minku was that I finally, for the first time in my academic life, got accepted into a design program - Stanford's mechanical engineering masters with the product design option. This was in April 2010. By this time, I was just loving Barcelona life and not sure I wanted to leave (the folks at Stanford were very understanding and let me defer for a year). During the year, I got to experiment answers to the question: "can I build a product-design project that would be on a similar level to if I were a Stanford graduate?" I had Virginia Tech's human-computer interaction masters and a handful of art courses under my belt by this time, and I managed to convince myself that though Stanford would be a super cool place to be, my combined educational and travel experiences had already given me a great foundation for what I wanted to become.
Having said these, computer science has been good to me, even as a designer. Knowing how to create the precise brand identity I want online, and how to modify my site and e-store without having to rely on someone else's timelines, have made my life easier.
What will your next collection be about?minku: My next collection will be about rebels. A working quote is "She wore her crown as an eyepatch and declared mutiny on the land." I came up with it, if you were wondering, a few days after reading some Yalla poems on your site... you awakened my poetic side :-)
We did a preliminary photoshoot for the collection last month, and it is about subtle subversions of authority through dress.
Earlier this year, I attended a job interview wearing an afro. And that got me thinking: I had to wear my hair that way because the resources for the management of 2-inch long African hair in Barcelona are quite scarce. But in wearing an afro to an interview, something unexpected happened -- I felt cool, powerful almost, in being so "rebellious", considering how university career services counselors used to advise that we wear our hair for interviews.
For the collection, I am also creating a limited line of menswear and womenswear to help convey the theme. The bags would still play the prominent role of course.
![]() |
The designer, chilling |
minku: Both are exciting for different reasons. Barcelona has metro, Lagos has traffic. Exciting life can be witnessed while traversing the city in both...
minku's Twitter, Blog, Shop, Facebook
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Six Questions with Chude Jideonwo
Chude Jideonwo is very young. He attended Nigerian Law School, and has become an important entrepreneur in media and related services. Some of the things he has been involved in: writing for magazines, hosting TV shows, running a media company, being a part of EnoughisEnough, using facebook then twitter A LOT, co-founding The Future Nigeria awards, speaking up at the Goodluck Jonathan youth lunch, running a serious PR firm, publishing Y! one of my top-two magazines, being an employer, writing newspaper editorials, marching on Abuja with the youth in March 2010, organizing workshops on social media, ... I admire the guy. Soooo...
I asked him a few questions in my first interview ever:
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
CJ: Honestly in 5 years, I expect to have built a business to be proud of. I look at people like Aliko Dangote and Fola Adeola and I just keep going. These are iconic men so I am by no means comparing myself with them; I am simply inspired by them.
The urgent need to create value, and a brand that will change the way Nigerians access the media – to provoke thought and to inspire action and growth – drives me daily. I am resolutely convinced that the more entrepreneurs our country has, the more its capacity to regenerate itself.
In 5 years, I’d have reached my 30 mark, build a system that can grow and survive outside of me, and move on to the next stage of value creation.
2. Tell upnaira readers four things that make you indescribably happy (PG version o!)
CJ:
A woman I love.
To produce a magazine edition that wows.
Great food!
Great, over-achieving staff.
3. Describe your business philosophy in three words
CJ: Humaneness. Relentlessness. Integrity.
4. Name your two biggest crushes ever :)
CJ: I can’t even lie 0 – I have a crush on Studio 53 presenter Eku Edewor (and there’s a line of people who will roll their eyes when they see this!).
And Angelina Jolie – I can look at her for days!: )
5. Where did you learn to take the initiative and "just do it?"
CJ: I honestly don’t know – I think some people are made that way. In my 5 years or so of being a manager or employer I have seen people who are amazing and competent but who are just not driven and don’t take initiative by themselves – as staff, partners etc. And I don’t take too much offense, because no one taught me. I just knew to achieve the things I want to achieve there’s no choice. Recently I have begun to read biographies, and to find out that its really the spirit that drives any kind of leap.
6. How can more Africans learn to be problem-solvers?
CJ: Tosin honestly I have no idea. But I will hazard a guess. We need more Aliko Dangotes and Mo Ibrahims. People who show Africans the way the Henry Fords and the Rockerfellers showed the Americans it is possible. That way we learn that we have the capacity to do great things. We sorely need inspiration – practical examples.
You're welcome.
From Chude's profile at RED:
A lawyer and award-winning journalist, Chude has, for more than ten years, garnered key experience in all forms of traditional and new media and has worked as a communication professional with blue chips including the Nigeria LNG, Virgin Nigeria and Bank PHB’s The Apprentice Africa.
Also known as a development expert especially with regard to the youth demographic, in 2007, he was selected as one of 101 Young African Leaders by the African Business Forum; in 2009, he was selected for the US Government’s International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP); in May 2010, he was selected for the Nigeria Leadership Initiative’s (NLI) Future Leaders Fellowship. In May 2011 he was appointed a member of the awards committee for the Ford Foundation Jubilee Transparency Award, alongside distinguished Nigerians like Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte and Rev. Fr. Matthew Kukah.
He was member of the Editorial Board of NEXT Newspapers, is the youngest recipient of the Nigeria Media Merit Award, and is concluding a Masters programme in Media and Communication at the prestigious Pan-African University, Lagos.
He is Managing Partner at RED, and oversees Creative, Content and Communication.
I asked him a few questions in my first interview ever:
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
CJ: Honestly in 5 years, I expect to have built a business to be proud of. I look at people like Aliko Dangote and Fola Adeola and I just keep going. These are iconic men so I am by no means comparing myself with them; I am simply inspired by them.
The urgent need to create value, and a brand that will change the way Nigerians access the media – to provoke thought and to inspire action and growth – drives me daily. I am resolutely convinced that the more entrepreneurs our country has, the more its capacity to regenerate itself.
In 5 years, I’d have reached my 30 mark, build a system that can grow and survive outside of me, and move on to the next stage of value creation.
2. Tell upnaira readers four things that make you indescribably happy (PG version o!)
CJ:
A woman I love.
To produce a magazine edition that wows.
Great food!
Great, over-achieving staff.
3. Describe your business philosophy in three words
CJ: Humaneness. Relentlessness. Integrity.
4. Name your two biggest crushes ever :)
CJ: I can’t even lie 0 – I have a crush on Studio 53 presenter Eku Edewor (and there’s a line of people who will roll their eyes when they see this!).
And Angelina Jolie – I can look at her for days!: )
5. Where did you learn to take the initiative and "just do it?"
CJ: I honestly don’t know – I think some people are made that way. In my 5 years or so of being a manager or employer I have seen people who are amazing and competent but who are just not driven and don’t take initiative by themselves – as staff, partners etc. And I don’t take too much offense, because no one taught me. I just knew to achieve the things I want to achieve there’s no choice. Recently I have begun to read biographies, and to find out that its really the spirit that drives any kind of leap.
6. How can more Africans learn to be problem-solvers?
CJ: Tosin honestly I have no idea. But I will hazard a guess. We need more Aliko Dangotes and Mo Ibrahims. People who show Africans the way the Henry Fords and the Rockerfellers showed the Americans it is possible. That way we learn that we have the capacity to do great things. We sorely need inspiration – practical examples.
You're welcome.
From Chude's profile at RED:
A lawyer and award-winning journalist, Chude has, for more than ten years, garnered key experience in all forms of traditional and new media and has worked as a communication professional with blue chips including the Nigeria LNG, Virgin Nigeria and Bank PHB’s The Apprentice Africa.
Also known as a development expert especially with regard to the youth demographic, in 2007, he was selected as one of 101 Young African Leaders by the African Business Forum; in 2009, he was selected for the US Government’s International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP); in May 2010, he was selected for the Nigeria Leadership Initiative’s (NLI) Future Leaders Fellowship. In May 2011 he was appointed a member of the awards committee for the Ford Foundation Jubilee Transparency Award, alongside distinguished Nigerians like Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte and Rev. Fr. Matthew Kukah.
He was member of the Editorial Board of NEXT Newspapers, is the youngest recipient of the Nigeria Media Merit Award, and is concluding a Masters programme in Media and Communication at the prestigious Pan-African University, Lagos.
He is Managing Partner at RED, and oversees Creative, Content and Communication.
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