I am person of many cultures, born in Walsall, England of Nigerian parents from Ogun State in 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, 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.
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 and I was out to the UK to find out that my knowledge had a marketplace 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.
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 ended up 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 and a blog running since 2003 that started at http://akin.blog-city.com with opinions that reflect a rather libertarian view of issues.
Oh! There was that brush with cancer in 2009, all that pain, 5 months of chemotherapy and the struggle to build my life up 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 am back in the UK, coming to 5 years now, helping myself into the half-century, a pseudo-grandpa failing to escape the grip of adolescence.
I would hate to think, 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.
