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Personality
Eronedia Eunice Taiwo is one of the Directors of LoizTours and Travels Limited, a Nigerian company established in 2013. Taiwo is also a coach and a software developer based in the United Kingdom. She is married to Adetokunbo Mobolade Taiwo.
She’s a trained journalist, advertising practitioner, software developer and a certified International Air Transport Association (IATA) professional.
In this interview with VIVIAN ONYEBUKWA, she spoke on several issues concerning life generally.
What was growing up like?
My growing up was quite interesting. My father was a grade one principal of those days, and my mother was a teacher. I am the third child and from a family of eight children. I am very restless. I am not someone who can sit down for hours and study; I would have to take a break or crack jokes. Anything I am doing must have fun in it. That is why I am thriving in the travel industry. That is the best way that I function. So my parents, especially my father, wasn’t happy with me because my siblings were coming first, second or third. But my position was far. I went to Baptist High School, Agbor, Delta State and at that time, we were about 180 students. And at that time and I would take 80th or 84th position and my father would be angry.
My father had to choose professions for my two elder sisters, but when it got to me, I fought back and refused anyone to choose for me. My father wanted me to do nursing which I never liked. I hate to see wounds and blood. He wanted to force me but I resisted. I wanted something that is lively. You can impact life without necessarily being the one nursing them. I am impacting life by assisting people who have been rejected visas severally by advising them on the right things to do, especially with their documentations to be able to get their visas.
What are the implications of choosing a career for a child by the parents?
I personally don’t believe that parents should choose careers for their children because career choice is not about the parents, it is about the child. Personally I had that issue and I could remember when I went to re-take my school certificate examination, my father was a grade one principal, but he did not register me because he wanted me to do a particular profession which I did not like. Parent still do it, trying to force their children into a career. No. When a child wants to choose a career, it is a conversation between the parents and the child. Parents should guide the child, not to enforce a career on the child.
Who did you look up to while growing up?
Yes, when I was growing up my mother was my role model. I love my mother so much, and it was reciprocal. She was beautiful, brilliant, hardworking, and would always tell you to have multiple streams of income. She was a teacher, baker, business woman that thrived in selling wrappers, clothes, jewellery, etc. She would tell you that with multiple sources of income, you would never be broke. So I love that. My mother died at 86 in 2020. Even when she was in her 80s, she was still behaving as if she was in her 50s. She was still doing business, buying land, and was still discussing business ideas. She was well behaved, hardworking, and had a personal relationship with God. She knew the importance of not just praying, but also praying for yourself without asking anybody to pray for you. She had everything I needed in a role model.
Looking at your growing up days, how can you compare the youths of then and now?
The youths of today have a lot of distractions, and one major distraction is the internet. This is one of the causes of marriage breakups. A woman has to keep a home. No matter what you are doing, your home is your first responsibility. Again, the youths of today think that they know too much. They don’t like to listen. They think you are old-fashioned. I want to tell the youths to listen to their parents. I use to tell them that the things they see on social media are not all real. That is why I like the traditional media. They verify before they publish their news.
So who is to be blamed?
I really don’t believe in blame pushing game because everyone has a part to play. The home, government, schools and the society, all have their parts to play. Instead, I rather would sit down and think of solutions. Again, when we generalise youths, that is actually dangerous because you cannot generalise a whole category of people. Not all youths are like that. There are some well organised youths that I know. It is not all about trading blame.
What’s your advice to the youths when it comes to unemployment?
The youths have to generate employment for themselves. Looking at the society presently, I don’t want to say that our government has failed us, but what I want to say is that the youth does not seem to be top priority to the government, and it is discouraging. The thing is that, if the government is not finding them jobs, there is always something that they can do. The problem is that people don’t want to humble themselves and do these things. People need to look at what they can do. Nigeria is blessed in terms of population. If there are no jobs, let the youths calm down and come up with ideas. I know it could be frustrating here. Some of the things that ordinarily you should have, you don’t have access to them. But then, people have a lot of problems. Once you can bring a solution to their problems, they would patronise you. However, many youths are in a hurry. They want to get results as quickly and as soon as possible, but it is not like that. They need to learn and equip themselves with the right skills and expertise. You need an understanding of what you are going into so that you can render professional services. That’s what people are paying for, and if they are satisfied they would introduce more people to you. If they are not, they won’t come back for your services.
Many of the youths are inpatient. What is the resultant effect in the society?
The resultant effect is that there are people whose integrity you always have to question because they don’t deliver professionally. It’s because the experience such as the skills, expertise, knowledge have not been properly got.
How can you compare life in Nigeria with that of UK?
Life in the UK and that of Nigeria are two different settings, but they have their own advantages. Life in Nigeria is interesting if you have money, and that the infrastructure that the government is not providing, you provide it yourself, especially in terms of electricity generation. In Nigeria, when you go for function or you go out, you would see a lot of people who are like you, people who possibly speak your language or who understand your language. It helps a lot to balance your mental health. You are not faced with a crowd of people who are complete foreigners and strangers to you. You don’t know their way of lives and how they do their things. But when you are in Nigeria you feel safe. There is this psychological safety that you feel.
Then on the other hand, when you look at it, UK is a well organised and planned society. That is an advantage of the UK. It is a functioning system. For instance, most of the preparations we were to do at a function I organised here in Nigeria, we couldn’t do them because there was no electricity. There was no fuel, so we could not even power the generator. There was no fuel in the car. Some of our team members came from the UK to attend the function, but they could not attend because there was no fuel. Again, in the UK people obey the laws and processes. No short cut, no favouritism, unlike what happens in Nigeria.
Looking at the situation in Nigeria at present, what can you tell the government?
They should have the people at the centre of their policies because now, we have policies that favour politicians and it shouldn’t be so. The wealth is not evenly distributed. If, for instance, we are in UK now, and there is $10, 000 to be shared, they would have 10, 000 people that they are going to give it to. So everybody is independent, you don’t need to go to anybody for anything. But if it is in Nigeria, one person in government would hold that money. So, they should stop being greedy. When you treat people well, people would also think about you very positively. That is why it seems that Nigerians are not patriotic. Nigerians love Nigeria, we are patriotic, but our government is not patriotic the way they treat us. How do you explain this? A bag of rice is over N90, 000 and salaries are not increasing. Prices are skyrocketing. If you have a government that has the interest of the people at heart, they won’t be doing that. Again, people know that they can rig election and they can get in whether they are voted or not. You can’t try that abroad. They would even ask you to resign. If the government says a particular fund is for a particular purpose, there is no politician that can go and steal it. They would even be writing you a letter to come for it if you are qualified for it. Our government should love the people. People who you love, you don’t mistreat them, subject them to inhuman treatment, or maltreat them, because what I am seeing now is recklessness and gross maltreatment of people that are in Nigeria. People can’t feed and some people are just busy stealing this wealth. I want to use this opportunity to tell Nigerian government that they are ruling human beings, not animals; And don’t degrade people. The way items are rising, is salary increasing? Many businesses are folding up and some of them have relocated abroad. As a result, a lot of people have lost their jobs. Our youths are brilliant. What they need is that little encouragement, support and they will be able to do wonders. Nigeria is a great nation.
