The story of the death of Mohbad is a very sad one, no matter what the result of the investigations are, it will still be a very sad and unfortunate one. Inasmuch as we are really pained by his death, there is not much we can do for him now, he is gone, sadly.
However, we can help thousands of other Mohbads out there before it is too late. Mohbad was really killed by his environment and when I say environment, I don’t mean ikorodu, I mean everything that influenced him growing up. The government (this one is a big one), the family, religion, his peers and more. I saw an ID card he made as a carpenter. Ask yourself, how many carpenters do you know who have an ID with the title CEO? That really shows the boy had real aspirations but lacked good mentors and role models but still, he kept pushing.
This is the real fuel for what we do at Skillup Africa. Though the least financially rewarding, Skillup Africa is my proudest endeavor so far. Time will fail me to begin to share stories with you but I will share a few. A young boy came to Skillup Africa, he was wrongly mixed up with some people and had issues with EFCC, he was arrested, detained, and mentally messed up when he came to us. A boy that is 20+ facing all that. But today that boy is a senior developer with a fintech company, now living fine and well.
Another one came who had attempted suicide many times, he even attempted it again while at Skillup Africa, at some point I was like “God, I didn’t sign up for this o”. But that same boy today is a senior full-stack developer striving. Another one came at a time, interesting, he came from ikorodu. He didn’t know what to learn he just knew he wanted to do tech and become good at it. The initial test I give to my mentees to gauge their interest and commitment that usually takes 2 weeks on average, he finished in 3 days. Today, he is in Australia living fine as a developer.
Another lady who was a receptionist earning 40k monthly challenged herself and joined Skillup Africa against all odds and in six months, she got a job that was paying her 250k per month. This is not about Skillup Africa, well maybe it is, but more about all of us doing what we can for the rest of us so that we all can become better. That’s the spirit of Ubuntu and that’s our mantra at Skillup Africa. We shouldn’t only show love when someone dies but do what we can every day to prevent such. Many of the people crying and all now, miss the opportunity to save another Mohbad daily.
Can we have a “Skillup Africa” for the music industry so boys who want to sing can thrive without issues? Can we have a “Skillup Africa” for dance, For Nollywood, for creative arts, for tech, for education, for every field? By doing so we will save the rest of us from danger and help build a better world really. This is a call to action, take action.
If you want to learn more about our current endeavors at Skillup Africa, check the comments below.