Growing up in a slum in Nigeria I witnessed what abject poverty could do to the human person. Poverty contributed to illiteracy and increase in school dropout rates in primary and secondary schools. Despite my background, I did not want to be part of the statistics; neither did I want the trend to continue. I made a resolution to become a teacher and to contribute to the provision and promotion of quality education for children and the youth.
In 2004, a year before my secondary school graduation, my father passed away. This resulted in major financial difficulties for my family. My mother, a low-income earner, was left to raise six children on her own. Even though she sold off some of our property to raise funds, my mother still struggled to make ends meet. I found my dream of becoming a light to my family and community slipping through my fingers.
Despite this, my mother together with some relatives committed to availing tuition funds. I then had the responsibility of ensuring I have study materials and resources and that my daily needs were met. I overcame this challenge by borrowing textbooks and using internet cafés to access online academic and study materials. One might expect that this would impact my studies negatively as I could only access the cafés at certain times of the day and when I have enough funds. However, through this challenge I learned how to focus and schedule my studies and I was able to maintain good grades.
During this time, I also took on teaching lessons during holidays to ease the financial stress on my mother and save up for the coming semester. Although it was stressful, the income helped pay for my transportation and clothing. I also tutored some freshmen in Business Mathematics in exchange for meals. Overall, I learned that resilience; planning and innovative thinking yields positive results.
My hard work and resilience despite the financial challenges paid off; in 2016, I was the third best graduating student in my department. Since becoming a teacher, I have endeavoured to stir up a passion for mathematics in my students by approaching education in an innovative and fun way. For example, as the Corps Liaison Officer during my National Service year, I organized and developed academic quizzes and debate competitions for students. The end results were decreased absenteeism and proactive students. Along the way I picked up an interest in poetry and have had poems published in school and departmental magazines. My love for writing led me to start a blog (oiroegbu.com). I am passionate about community health and sanitation. Currently, I am the Secretary to Azuka Drive/Extension and Environs Landlords/Tenants Association, a registered organisation working to improve sanitation, environmental cleanliness and community service.