I am a person of many cultures and influences, born in the
West Midlands in the middle of what was then termed Black Country, and that is
nothing to do with race but industry, in England of Nigerian parents who were
students from the Western Region of Nigeria, in the 60s.
For about the first 5 years, I was the
only child until siblings appeared in quick succession when we returned to
Nigeria. I have lived in Kaduna and Jos in the North of Nigeria and have
blogged extensively about my childhood in Jos, of which I have fond memories.
We moved to Southern Nigeria in the
late 70s, I was in Sagamu where I attended secondary boarding school because my
parents wanted to toughen me up and get to me imbibe the culture, learn our traditions,
and speak the lingo. I have my misgivings about this decision and much as I am
moulded by the experience, I retain no enduring ties from there, in friends or
the alumni.
We lived in Lagos where I had part of
a failed tertiary education, ruinous students’ union politics and started over
again after stints in Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, I
eventually settled on Electrical/Electronic Engineering because I was
interested in computers.
From working for a computer services
company, I ended up in the middle of a desktop publishing phenomenon that swept
other legal publishers including one of great renown and civil rights
accomplishments out of the way. I became a partner in a company for which a business
visit to the UK acquainted me of knowledge had a marketplace for my skills if I
was ready for the opportunities.
After returning to Nigeria, I planned
my return to the UK for pastures anew, of keeping abreast of technology and the
makings of a senior computer geek. A vocation in which I was both successful
and thrived.
London, Ipswich, London and Ipswich
again was the point at which an occupational psychotherapist told me I was
suffering the classic signs of a mid-life crisis 10 years early. The end of a
7-year relationship hastened things up.
That is how I landed in the
Netherlands but as an Englishman abroad, a new life, a changed life, a
post-graduate qualification in Computer Science, many interesting jobs and
projects with a personal blog running since December 2003 that started at the
defunct http://akin.blog-city.com with opinions that reflect a rather
libertarian view of issues. I migrated the whole blog here between 2010 and the
beginning of 2012.
Oh! There was a brush with cancer in
2009, all that pain, 5 months of chemotherapy and the struggle to rebuild my
life again without losing my zest for living, my humour and sometimes crazy
optimism – I suppose when you have had a close hit-and-run with death, it puts
a lot of things into perspective.
Now, I have been back in the UK, since
August 2012, soon to reach my diamond jubilee, a pseudo-grandpa failing to
escape the grip of adolescence. I have fallen in love with an extraordinarily
handsome Zimbabwean, and we have plans, exciting plans indeed.
I would hate to think of where my
youth has gone, I have ideas for all sorts of exciting stuff like someone with
a new lease of life and in the midst of that, I love travel, history,
architecture, the sun, photography and good food.
I am yours truly.
