A lot of people up till date feel like it is an easy cop out. They say “so she’s lazy, she may not have done well enough or she’s spoilt.” Those who have just come out of school, people we say “oh her parents probably have too much money she can do whatever she wants.” Or “her husband has too much money, it’s a hobby.” A lot of people have said that and still say that. It is changing because perhaps Nigerians are seeing the potential in it.

Nowadays children look at everyone in the magazines and they want to be a basketball star or on a television show, but there is only so many people who can do those things and not that you shouldn’t aim or dream for these things, but there are so many other fantastic jobs. So it’s good to talk about how to get there and how difficult it is to get there.

The kids I see are lazy. Nobody wants to work. I teach physics. It takes years to master. But all the kids want to dress like Charlie Sheen and make a million dollars before they’re twenty-eight. The only way you can make that kind of money is in law, investment banking, Wall Street. Places where the game is paper profits, something for nothing. But that’s what the kids want to do, these days.

The bad thing about us (Nigerians) is that, once we perceive any opportunity, business or profession as lucrative, everybody wants to go into it, whether or not they have the experience, training or the knowledge about it. I always tell them that if you don’t learn it properly, you can’t know it.’

Nigeria is such an unpredictable place, but I would like to become somebody African youth can identify with.

Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas. — PAULA POUNDSTONE

Poor financial literacy is another. It is only when the vast majority of the Nigerian population is financially literate that they can participate in the formal financial system; the reverse is the case.

As a girl, you were always told you were not supposed to be able to live from football. Adults try to tell kids to choose the right way, but what they knew as normal when they were kids doesn't necessarily mean it was normal when we grew up. It was a goal to prove them wrong, and eventually developed to: 'I want to show that I can live from it.'

I have always believed that one of the biggest problems we have in Nigeria is having the wrong orientation, the wrong mindset towards life, which has aided corruption, high crime rate and an increase in unemployment. Our youths have misplacement of priority and most of them are lazy both in reasoning and creativity, they just want to get quick money. Self-discovery is a major key in accomplishing great things in life and through my NGO.

The problem we have in Nigeria is that, most of us in the education sector got there because we couldn’t make our first choice ambition in other fields (then we find our ways into the classroom), whereas in the developed parts of the world, people that are in education would absolutely die for it.

Nigerians love a quick fix and that is where we get it wrong. We want to win the World Cup by speaking big grammar and not to work hard.

As a child, I wanted to become a scientist, a magician, a poet, an architect, an illustrator, a sculptor, an actor, a philosopher, a photographer, a playwright and an animator. So by the time I was 13 or 14, I was convinced that it would be possible to a be of all of these if I made films.

This facilitated the implementation of policies that relate to the rights of the child with respect to access to education, health and social welfare. Therefore, in Nigeria today, in order to conquer the consequences of illiteracy and poverty, we cannot afford to wait until all our children are educated.

They (up and coming actors) should work on their God given talent first and then try and train to understand the business, they should also remain focused. It is much easier to make it in Nigeria as an actor or actress; of course they should go to the right places and hang out with the right crowd. Hard work is also part of the game, they shouldn't get tired of auditions even if they are not landing the parts, they should try harder, and eventually the producers and financiers will take notice.