[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
the lights up here um hello everyone
good morning I am so happy to be here I
am gonna treat it like a date because a
first date because you know I have
butterflies in my stomach and I’ve
imagined many things going wrong such as
wobbling up the stairs or my mic not
working so so far on this date we’re
doing well so um on our first date
we’re just gonna get the bad stuff out
of the way and then we get to the good
stuff so we’re gonna start with dreams
there’s a quote cliched probably
overused the future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their dreams
the future belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams dreams ten
years after hearing that quote to hit me
dreams are beautiful dreams are powerful
and dreams when they consume the owner
they force upon the dreamer a mandate to
bring in the future into the present so
let’s talk about dreams on our first
date
my first volunteer teaching summer
school opportunity was in Abuja seven
years ago in a remote village people and
I loved literature
I loved teaching literature I love
stories I love sharing stories so it was
a two-week literature summer camp
with kids from the village and one of
the days I thought why not go I walked
into class I was like you know I’m gonna
leave my curriculum and I asked the kids
what do you guys want to learn today and
the first answer I got was astronomy I’m
in this remote village no electricity
where I was and nothing that looked like
such things to come out of the mouth of
a child then it dawned on me dreams have
no jurisdiction whether you’re in the
village or in the city you can’t drink
and your dreams are valid there’s a
group of people that dream big dreams
weird dreams wild dreams they’re Co
children a dream of flying cards
superpowers they dream easily as others
we’ve struggled to find an idea where
they’ll be 24-hour light but there’s a
child somewhere that really does believe
that tomorrow they can be an idea with
24 hours power silly dreams like my
brother my younger brother when we’re
growing up he read a magic book I think
he must have been six or seven and he
really did believe that he could put
paper in one ear and it will come out
the other air so he practiced and we
ended up a hospital I’m grateful to God
that that was the first trick he tried
because if he had tried the one with the
saw I may not be here today but there’s
a problem that we all live with and
there it’s a dream killer an
industrial-sized dream killer it’s in a
factory near you it’s called the public
education
in Nigeria charleen are children who
can’t read or write in primary six it’s
a scary reality so but let me tell you
what we’re not going to talk about in
this session we’re not going to talk
about the recent statistics that showed
that 25 million Nigerian children might
never go to school we’re not going to
talk about that we’re not going to talk
about the fact that 25 million if it was
a country in West Africa would be the
third largest country right behind
Nigeria and Ghana and right above Cote
d’Ivoire we’re not going to talk about
the fact that our labor force is about
76 million so 25 it’s a huge number to
have to not be educated treat five
million when I want to talk about that
that’s in the committee of Nations
twenty five million plus would make you
number 50 above North Korea Australia
we’re not going to talk about teacher
absenteeism and how you walk into your
average class public school down your
streets and it which I will most likely
be missing and the children we answer
you as your teacher is making paper
we’re not going to talk about that when
I’m going to talk about how our schools
don’t have water electricity yet school
is supposed to be a place of
enlightenment we’re not gonna talk about
that so on our first date let’s talk
about what warms my heart and it’s the
fact that I believed that African design
and African culture can save the
Nigerian education system so let’s look
at what we have now
this is a public school in otaku le a in
Abuja Federal Capital Territory capital
of the giant of Africa if this was a
product and everything is the products
by the way everything you and I we all
sell something we buy not selling ideas
we’re selling something so just like
Apple that tells you to be different or
Nike that sells you just do it our
buildings our schools they sell
something what is the brand promise of
this classroom future guess of this true
dope desk we believe it sells poverty
hopelessness neglect so we had a grand
idea at art West Africa the nonprofit
that I found that committed to improving
the state of public education in Nigeria
like hey you know what Africanism
modernism innovation that was mutually
exclusive there is nothing inherent in
our culture that is backward this is an
absurdity so we’re like what does a
modern African classroom look like so we
said let’s Google so we typed it and we
asked Google and Google showed us
classrooms with no chairs or tables
children sitting on the floor showed us
leaking roofs and pour paints so Google
was no help so we said okay we got
architect and inventor and invent a very
mind to list
arches so that everything we use is
sustainable and a couple of us designers
and people that actually believe we can
make a difference and we thought of this
and we imagined what an African
classroom would look like so we created
this 3d render to do in a pilot school
a new taco that we had adopted the
beauty of this is there was a difference
because I’m sure you guys are thinking
hold up you just mentioned all those
mountains of problem we’re not even
talking about the curriculum that’s
outdated we’re not even talking about
the fact that in our curriculum we have
French but we don’t have French teachers
and we have computer science that we
don’t have computers or electricity in
most of our schools and you’re going to
tell us like you’re going to put
makeover is this this is a face beat or
you know what is this no I’m saying
design an African design can’t change
our education system from attacking the
thinking that says this is okay because
it’s the thinking that allows this to
sit comfortably in our neighborhoods in
may tomorrow so for an Ocoee or VI
because school sits on prime real estate
in Nigeria and it’s absurd to have even
from a business perspective to have a
school sit on prime real estate and it
looks like this and private schools are
not doing it any better you know why
because even their classrooms are devoid
of culture they have become breeding
ground to train our children to be
America’s workforce UK’s workforce the
Middle East’s workforce anyplace but
Nigeria so when we talk about brain
drain it comes from design because the
classroom when you say education is
important the average public classroom
claps back and said no you’re a liar and
the private schools they tell you that
everything outside of yourself
everything foreign is good so a school
you walk into a problem a private school
in Nigeria you can’t even tell if it’s
in Turkey or the UK or the US so I
believe
that culture are just in my experience
of traveling across Nigeria doing
research there’s a beauty in our culture
that’s not harnessed I have walked into
homes poorest of homes and they’ve
offered me food because the Nigerian
spirit would never walk into a house and
they would not ask you come and join us
and eat no one has been too poor to feed
me
not even inch deep villages in Benue
State or in Gombe om pouchy where when I
walk in if I make the mistake to even
say I really like this masa when I’m
leaving they will pack a bunch in my
boots we’re a given people this is
absurd it’s not normal it doesn’t fit
our culture it doesn’t fit the culture
that tells in southwest where we do pray
singing the dramas are our weddings
imagine we’re examination malpractice I
didn’t mention that but it’s also one of
our mountains of problem what usually
happens for instance even on a primary
school level so by the time kids gets
into secondary school and oh if they get
into uni they’re definitely lost on go
on a common entrance what the teacher
does to facilitate cheating and copy and
he walks out of class so that his
students can’t copy why because he works
in a defeatist environment he truth is
not encouraged and half of his kids
can’t read or write anyway and they need
to pass so he walks out of class but
imagine if when he was walking out there
was a quote on the door in your about
mile that says ROTC or Moyna to Jeff
which means remember whose child you are
if he saw that quote on the way out it’s
possible he might just turn back
something was think and say this isn’t
right
it’s possible that our culture
transferable skills from my culture
chooses the act of raising priests
singers imagine priests thinking you
into success like they do with the
talking drum it would be impossible to
fill or imagine now you’re gonna know my
real Heights but at least I’m real on my
first day walking into our classrooms in
the north where we most of us walk into
our homes with no shoes because most
learning is informal not formal and we
learn with pace sound sight smell and
there’s something sacred about walking
into a classroom with your bare feet
touching the ground it connotes intimacy
which is why touch countries they do
hardwood floors and children walk in
with no shoes the same thing in Japan
and these are the top education systems
in the world was why they have notice
that when you walk into your classroom
without shoes there’s a sense of
sacredness the sense of seriousness
there’s a sense that you can’t mess this
up this already in our culture but we
keep treating things our education and
our culture like they’re mutually
exclusive and they’re not so I’m going
to talk about my dreams some of them
have come true I dreamt in primary
school I dreamt of stinging I have sang
in different university grounds across
the UK I dreamt of dancing that in will
quite work out
I’ve also dreamt of writing and I’ve
been able to write a few articles I’m
hoping to write a book one day I’ve
dreamt of politics and being one I’ve
been I dress first female president yes
I said it
night dress first female president and
my dreams are valid and yours are to
everyone in this room’s dreams are valid
and so is every Nigerian child sitting
in a classroom narrows ourselves them
hopelessness selves and poverty and
creates an economic injustice that makes
it impossible to come out of poverty
so for the sake of this great nation for
the sake of our future the future is not
random it must be designed whose
reimagine in the next 30 years of
Nigeria otherwise we’ll keep singing the
same track hit records that we sank now
that we sang that independence bad
schools no teachers this and that who is
designing it who is thinking about it
who is reimagining it we must and for
the sake of this great country we must
stop killing dreams
we must stop creating environments of
hopelessness Nigerian problems need join
Nigerian solutions the more problems we
have the more potential problem solvers
we have so in our classroom the
lampshade was hand woven baskets why
because most of the kids in our schools
when we did our survey their parents
were market women so we showed without
writing anything on the board we showed
that a basket of tomatoes can be used
for design
we’ve not taught anything the teacher
became more interactive more engaging
did we did we do teacher training no but
we created a new pathway that allowed
him to walk into the middle of his class
look into the faces of children and
teach better than he’s ever taught
before our children were sleeping by 10
a.m. because our classroom was too hot
when we connected the classroom to
electricity they became more alert that
we motivate them to be better students
know the environment did that so if we
love this great country let’s use the
beauty of our culture to redesign it and
make it not only a giant in Nollywood
and in music or in fashion but let’s
make it a giant in education a giant in
agriculture a giant in architecture and
so on and so forth god bless you and god
bless my dress
you
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
the lights up here um hello everyone
good morning I am so happy to be here I
am gonna treat it like a date because a
first date because you know I have
butterflies in my stomach and I’ve
imagined many things going wrong such as
wobbling up the stairs or my mic not
working so so far on this date we’re
doing well so um on our first date
we’re just gonna get the bad stuff out
of the way and then we get to the good
stuff so we’re gonna start with dreams
there’s a quote cliched probably
overused the future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their dreams
the future belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams dreams ten
years after hearing that quote to hit me
dreams are beautiful dreams are powerful
and dreams when they consume the owner
they force upon the dreamer a mandate to
bring in the future into the present so
let’s talk about dreams on our first
date
my first volunteer teaching summer
school opportunity was in Abuja seven
years ago in a remote village people and
I loved literature
I loved teaching literature I love
stories I love sharing stories so it was
a two-week literature summer camp
with kids from the village and one of
the days I thought why not go I walked
into class I was like you know I’m gonna
leave my curriculum and I asked the kids
what do you guys want to learn today and
the first answer I got was astronomy I’m
in this remote village no electricity
where I was and nothing that looked like
such things to come out of the mouth of
a child then it dawned on me dreams have
no jurisdiction whether you’re in the
village or in the city you can’t drink
and your dreams are valid there’s a
group of people that dream big dreams
weird dreams wild dreams they’re Co
children a dream of flying cards
superpowers they dream easily as others
we’ve struggled to find an idea where
they’ll be 24-hour light but there’s a
child somewhere that really does believe
that tomorrow they can be an idea with
24 hours power silly dreams like my
brother my younger brother when we’re
growing up he read a magic book I think
he must have been six or seven and he
really did believe that he could put
paper in one ear and it will come out
the other air so he practiced and we
ended up a hospital I’m grateful to God
that that was the first trick he tried
because if he had tried the one with the
saw I may not be here today but there’s
a problem that we all live with and
there it’s a dream killer an
industrial-sized dream killer it’s in a
factory near you it’s called the public
education
in Nigeria charleen are children who
can’t read or write in primary six it’s
a scary reality so but let me tell you
what we’re not going to talk about in
this session we’re not going to talk
about the recent statistics that showed
that 25 million Nigerian children might
never go to school we’re not going to
talk about that we’re not going to talk
about the fact that 25 million if it was
a country in West Africa would be the
third largest country right behind
Nigeria and Ghana and right above Cote
d’Ivoire we’re not going to talk about
the fact that our labor force is about
76 million so 25 it’s a huge number to
have to not be educated treat five
million when I want to talk about that
that’s in the committee of Nations
twenty five million plus would make you
number 50 above North Korea Australia
we’re not going to talk about teacher
absenteeism and how you walk into your
average class public school down your
streets and it which I will most likely
be missing and the children we answer
you as your teacher is making paper
we’re not going to talk about that when
I’m going to talk about how our schools
don’t have water electricity yet school
is supposed to be a place of
enlightenment we’re not gonna talk about
that so on our first date let’s talk
about what warms my heart and it’s the
fact that I believed that African design
and African culture can save the
Nigerian education system so let’s look
at what we have now
this is a public school in otaku le a in
Abuja Federal Capital Territory capital
of the giant of Africa if this was a
product and everything is the products
by the way everything you and I we all
sell something we buy not selling ideas
we’re selling something so just like
Apple that tells you to be different or
Nike that sells you just do it our
buildings our schools they sell
something what is the brand promise of
this classroom future guess of this true
dope desk we believe it sells poverty
hopelessness neglect so we had a grand
idea at art West Africa the nonprofit
that I found that committed to improving
the state of public education in Nigeria
like hey you know what Africanism
modernism innovation that was mutually
exclusive there is nothing inherent in
our culture that is backward this is an
absurdity so we’re like what does a
modern African classroom look like so we
said let’s Google so we typed it and we
asked Google and Google showed us
classrooms with no chairs or tables
children sitting on the floor showed us
leaking roofs and pour paints so Google
was no help so we said okay we got
architect and inventor and invent a very
mind to list
arches so that everything we use is
sustainable and a couple of us designers
and people that actually believe we can
make a difference and we thought of this
and we imagined what an African
classroom would look like so we created
this 3d render to do in a pilot school
a new taco that we had adopted the
beauty of this is there was a difference
because I’m sure you guys are thinking
hold up you just mentioned all those
mountains of problem we’re not even
talking about the curriculum that’s
outdated we’re not even talking about
the fact that in our curriculum we have
French but we don’t have French teachers
and we have computer science that we
don’t have computers or electricity in
most of our schools and you’re going to
tell us like you’re going to put
makeover is this this is a face beat or
you know what is this no I’m saying
design an African design can’t change
our education system from attacking the
thinking that says this is okay because
it’s the thinking that allows this to
sit comfortably in our neighborhoods in
may tomorrow so for an Ocoee or VI
because school sits on prime real estate
in Nigeria and it’s absurd to have even
from a business perspective to have a
school sit on prime real estate and it
looks like this and private schools are
not doing it any better you know why
because even their classrooms are devoid
of culture they have become breeding
ground to train our children to be
America’s workforce UK’s workforce the
Middle East’s workforce anyplace but
Nigeria so when we talk about brain
drain it comes from design because the
classroom when you say education is
important the average public classroom
claps back and said no you’re a liar and
the private schools they tell you that
everything outside of yourself
everything foreign is good so a school
you walk into a problem a private school
in Nigeria you can’t even tell if it’s
in Turkey or the UK or the US so I
believe
that culture are just in my experience
of traveling across Nigeria doing
research there’s a beauty in our culture
that’s not harnessed I have walked into
homes poorest of homes and they’ve
offered me food because the Nigerian
spirit would never walk into a house and
they would not ask you come and join us
and eat no one has been too poor to feed
me
not even inch deep villages in Benue
State or in Gombe om pouchy where when I
walk in if I make the mistake to even
say I really like this masa when I’m
leaving they will pack a bunch in my
boots we’re a given people this is
absurd it’s not normal it doesn’t fit
our culture it doesn’t fit the culture
that tells in southwest where we do pray
singing the dramas are our weddings
imagine we’re examination malpractice I
didn’t mention that but it’s also one of
our mountains of problem what usually
happens for instance even on a primary
school level so by the time kids gets
into secondary school and oh if they get
into uni they’re definitely lost on go
on a common entrance what the teacher
does to facilitate cheating and copy and
he walks out of class so that his
students can’t copy why because he works
in a defeatist environment he truth is
not encouraged and half of his kids
can’t read or write anyway and they need
to pass so he walks out of class but
imagine if when he was walking out there
was a quote on the door in your about
mile that says ROTC or Moyna to Jeff
which means remember whose child you are
if he saw that quote on the way out it’s
possible he might just turn back
something was think and say this isn’t
right
it’s possible that our culture
transferable skills from my culture
chooses the act of raising priests
singers imagine priests thinking you
into success like they do with the
talking drum it would be impossible to
fill or imagine now you’re gonna know my
real Heights but at least I’m real on my
first day walking into our classrooms in
the north where we most of us walk into
our homes with no shoes because most
learning is informal not formal and we
learn with pace sound sight smell and
there’s something sacred about walking
into a classroom with your bare feet
touching the ground it connotes intimacy
which is why touch countries they do
hardwood floors and children walk in
with no shoes the same thing in Japan
and these are the top education systems
in the world was why they have notice
that when you walk into your classroom
without shoes there’s a sense of
sacredness the sense of seriousness
there’s a sense that you can’t mess this
up this already in our culture but we
keep treating things our education and
our culture like they’re mutually
exclusive and they’re not so I’m going
to talk about my dreams some of them
have come true I dreamt in primary
school I dreamt of stinging I have sang
in different university grounds across
the UK I dreamt of dancing that in will
quite work out
I’ve also dreamt of writing and I’ve
been able to write a few articles I’m
hoping to write a book one day I’ve
dreamt of politics and being one I’ve
been I dress first female president yes
I said it
night dress first female president and
my dreams are valid and yours are to
everyone in this room’s dreams are valid
and so is every Nigerian child sitting
in a classroom narrows ourselves them
hopelessness selves and poverty and
creates an economic injustice that makes
it impossible to come out of poverty
so for the sake of this great nation for
the sake of our future the future is not
random it must be designed whose
reimagine in the next 30 years of
Nigeria otherwise we’ll keep singing the
same track hit records that we sank now
that we sang that independence bad
schools no teachers this and that who is
designing it who is thinking about it
who is reimagining it we must and for
the sake of this great country we must
stop killing dreams
we must stop creating environments of
hopelessness Nigerian problems need join
Nigerian solutions the more problems we
have the more potential problem solvers
we have so in our classroom the
lampshade was hand woven baskets why
because most of the kids in our schools
when we did our survey their parents
were market women so we showed without
writing anything on the board we showed
that a basket of tomatoes can be used
for design
we’ve not taught anything the teacher
became more interactive more engaging
did we did we do teacher training no but
we created a new pathway that allowed
him to walk into the middle of his class
look into the faces of children and
teach better than he’s ever taught
before our children were sleeping by 10
a.m. because our classroom was too hot
when we connected the classroom to
electricity they became more alert that
we motivate them to be better students
know the environment did that so if we
love this great country let’s use the
beauty of our culture to redesign it and
make it not only a giant in Nollywood
and in music or in fashion but let’s
make it a giant in education a giant in
agriculture a giant in architecture and
so on and so forth god bless you and god
bless my dress
you
[Music]
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