Day 21 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Write Your Own Eulogy
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Born in the late seventies in the shadows of the Somorika mountain range in the then Bendel State of Nigeria, the few months he spent there before high tailing it across the country to Ife where his mother was studying for a degree set the tone for the rest of his life - pretty much not bound to any physical location but an aspiring global citizen. Seven or so months in Ife were followed by a couple of years in Imeri, then Igueben and then Benin where his academician father was studying for a PhD. The back end of the eighties saw a move to the adjoining town of Ekpoma where he would spend the bulk of his childhood.
Growing up, he quickly garnered a reputation for quiet analysis, often eschewing the limelight in most of the settings that he moved in. A reputation for academic excellence quickly grew, the highlight of which a long running tussle with a particular classmate for the top position out of a class of just over a hundred spread out over five arms. The first few years went to E, but after the Junior Secondary school exams, AJ left all and sundry in his slip stream, culminating in a city wide leading six alphas in his O’levels just before heading off to University in Benin, the place of his early years.
At University, the accolades continued, albeit tempered by the rawness of youth. Mechanical Engineering had its attractions as did fiction and being an active member of a campus fellowship. A Chevron scholarship helped mitigate the cost of studying in a different city in those terrible Abacha years, especially for academics.A chance decision to intern at a steel plant would change his career forever, sowing the seeds for a love of metals and corrosion that would define his illustrious career. After a year spent serving the nation in the relative backwaters of Ilorin, AJ’s first stint was with an oil major where he was one of five fresh graduates selected from a nation wide interview and assessment process. He would spend five years there, learning the ropes before becoming a program lead in his final year. As part of that role, he developed a novel solution to a particularly intractable pipeline cleaning problem that resulted in yet another award - for dedication to duty and technical excellence. After the oil major years, grad school in Newcastle, UK followed after which more work in the corrosion and materials field followed.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12FwV1IC09Y7gziuqr6d0DBf634kbUjjFfzqe2gCH6uM/edit