By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nations are made by individuals who believe. Mrs. Adenike Obayemi, the CEO of Her Excellency, a skills development centre at 8 Owodunni Street, off Allen Avenue, in the Ikeja area of Lagos State is one Nigerian who believes in the drive to make Nigeria great through the grooming of young entrepreneurs. She has just published the well-packaged book, Make The Millions In New Businesses, an exquisite guide specially put together for children and teenagers in junior and senior secondary schools, students and undergraduates in sundry tertiary institutions and universities, and indeed all who want to excel in life. The book is a treasure-trove aimed at enabling the reader to acquire the relevant skills, domestic values and the necessary sense of responsibility to make it through life.

An English Language Education graduate of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Adenike Obayemi is a teacher, master trainer, mentor, motivational speaker and consultant. Through the publication of Make The Millions In New Businesses, Adenike puts on the front burner her abiding mission to empower and develop the inner potentials of Nigerian children and youths for positive results. The added dimension is to promote self-employment and entrepreneurial culture in the wider society. On the practical front, there is the pivotal mission to teach the young female children the art and skills of baking, cookery and the production of drinks.

The essence of the book Make The Millions In New Businesses takes pride of place as it has been discovered that most of the vices and challenges today’s youths are faced with in terms of gross unemployment, under-employment, prostitution, fraudulent practices, idleness, lack of self-esteem, and self-worth are due to the fact they have not been properly exposed to a complete form of education. Adenike Obayemi strongly makes the case that for a child to completely fit into the present world, there is the need to include into the school curriculum some form of handworks and skills acquisition programmes. She stresses that the best time to do this is from the early years in school.

Make The Millions In New Businesses is meant to serve several purposes such as wealth creation, youth and women empowerment, poverty eradication and skills acquisition in different areas; and “it is not gender biased”. It smacks of ignorance for supposedly educated people to underestimate handworks because they feel it is only meant for the uneducated and school dropouts. The book makes the crucial point that the days of education for white collar jobs are gone.

Written in simple, straightforward language and unique style with a step-by-step procedure, which makes it very practical and easy to follow, Make The Millions In New Businesses is designed to help the students and their parents alike. The author knows that the busy lifestyles of the present-age parents have not helped matters for the young children because a lot of the roles the parents are supposed to play have been neglected or completely transferred to the school. She avers that it will therefore be in the best interest of all concerned for the schools to take the bull by the horn and ensure that this aspect of the child’s development is properly addressed.

Adenike knows the heart of the matter through direct personal experience because, in the past few years, several parents have, during the long vacations, brought their children to Her Excellency centre to be trained in cooking and food preparation, cakes and bread making, pastries and beads making. She feels fulfilled that these acquired skills form an addition to their educational qualification, therefore making these children to have an all-round education.

Make The Millions In New Businesses is meant to serve several purposes such as wealth creation, youth and women empowerment, poverty eradication and skills acquisition in different areas; and “it is not gender biased”. It smacks of ignorance for supposedly educated people to underestimate handworks because they feel it is only meant for the uneducated and school dropouts. The book makes the crucial point that the days of education for white collar jobs are gone.

It is meet to adopt the words of Akinniyi I. Sowunmi, Leader/CEO of Popeman, Lagos in his Foreword to Make The Millions In New Businesses, to wit: “Since March 27, 1944 when Asa Griggs Candler registered the Coca Cola patent and used his entrepreneurial skills to launch Coke, a drink originally meant to be patient medicine by its inventor, John Pemberton, into the most valuable global brand available at all nooks and crannies internationally… the challenge is to get fired by the ideas in the book to launch a business bigger than the Coca Cola onto our tables very soon with the guiding designs here provided.”

With spiraling unemployment, there is no escape for young Nigerian who do not embrace the step-by-step methods made for practical use in Make The Millions In New Businesses. There is the shining example of Tolani who “graduated from one of the best universities in South West region of Nigeria” who was frustrated during years of unemployment and under-employment only to eventually become a very successful employer of labour after undergoing training in Cakes Baking and Decoration at Her Excellency Centre.

Adenike Obayemi undertakes a hands-on step-by-step procedure in Make The Millions In New Businesses. One gets to learn how to prepare small chops such as puffpuff, vegetable springroll and asun (peppered goat meat). Cocktail drinks like chapman, tropical sunset, pineapple on the rocks and strawberry sensation are ready grist to the author’s mill. Nigerian indigenous soups, notably edikang ikong, egusi, efo riro, afang, banga and oha soup, are picturesquely featured. The richly illustrated chapters encompass bread making, snacks and pastries, cake baking and desserts.

In all, by studying the recipes adroitly set out in Make The Millions In New Businesses and going ahead to practice and master the productions, one will definitely be on the success-laden road of starting a fulfilling business that will help move Nigeria forward economically. I wholeheartedly recommend that Make The Millions In New Businesses be adopted as a textbook for junior and secondary school students across all the states of Nigeria.

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist and author.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.