YDi and I

My first contact with YDi was that of a challenge: I had completed my secondary school education and had been hit by the normal University Matriculation Examination failure. I had nothing more to do than to visit a couple of friends in Lagos while waiting for the next UME and the release of my WASSCE results.
There was this friend I always visited who almost practically deafened my ears about one so-called YDi. She would start all our discussions and end them with YDi; and whenever I asked her what it was all about, she would reply, “It is where youths like you challenge you. Come and see youths like you preaching on the road without shame. Come and see youths challenging ladies dressed provocatively on the road...” And I also kept wondering if I could do all those things.
The YDi talk got to its peak the day she told me that there was a member who was just out of secondary school (like me) who was earning over Twenty Thousand Naira (as at 1999-2000). I just wanted to come and see the guy that was earning that much without a higher education! I wanted to come and ask him what he was doing to earn that much! I wanted to come and ask him if I could do the same!
But funny enough, I never saw him on my first visit. In fact, I forgot that that was what brought me to YDi. I was carried away by the sight of youths using their talents so well. The drama that day was so funny that I forgot I was in a fellowship. The choir also gave a number; I think there was also a dance by a youth. In one word, I was just too thrilled by what people like me were doing that I completely forgot about the big earner I came to see.
And by the time the Pastor came on to share from the Bible, I was lost in the word. I wondered what YDi members would have become hearing this sort of word every Sunday. I mean, fellowshipping in my local church then had been an endured task and here was I in the midst of lively spiritual beings...
I did not need follow-up to come back the next Sunday. In fact nobody could have followed me up as my house was at the end of the Ikotun-Ijegun axis (Ijagemo). The transport fare was enough to discourage me, but I did not mind spending my entire One Thousand Naira monthly allowance then on going to YDi every Sunday, usually after a long strenuous church service as a worker in my local church.
Let me quickly share a lesson I also learnt which was never taught with mouth- promptness. YDi meetings started at the dot of 2.00pm whether or not we were up to ten! That was the first place I would see a meeting, a ‘church programme’ for that matter start as scheduled. Silently, I learnt to keep to time, and it quietly became my habit till date. Today, when I see youths that do not value time, I just tell myself, “This guy missed YDi...”
Funny enough, the more I came to YDi, the less I saw the lady who introduced me. It was like a substitution reaction! But I never minded because I was getting blessed day-by-day. Before long, I joined to choir...
One great thing that endeared me to YDi is that fellow youths were allowed to come out and challenge you, so it was not theoretical! You don’t hear about a youth doing exploits in YDi, you see the youth live and you are moved to buckle up. You would see yourself and then see a fellow youth that is where you desire to be; something within just tells you that you are sleeping, and can also get there if you would up from your slumber like that youth.
YDi’s Champions Forum was of tremendous impact. It was a customised forum for secondary-school leavers that were still seeking admission into the higher institution. That was like a training ground for soldiers, because I learnt a number of my skills there.
“I am perceived to see far ahead of others, because I am standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Wednesday after Wednesday, undergraduates would come and give us gist about school; I mean that was enough to wake up the sleeping giant inside you! They went further to give us tit-bits on how the university system operates, the course unit system, ensuring success in school, career talk, fellowships, handling relationships et al.
Having not been to the four walls of a university, I was already loaded to succeed because via the Champions Forum, I knew what to do and what not to do in school. Of a truth a number of those things I paid attention to in Champions Forum in 2000 made me an academic god in school eventually. Champions Forum was a total package that formed a vital part of the meal I lived on that made me so fat that, today, people can draw out of me.
As a matter of fact, my admission came late, but I was giving my friends who got into school ahead of me effectual keys to success (I learnt at Champions Forum) that most of them wrote me back to say ‘thank you.’ And before long, I became I student of Obafemi Awolowo University, where I began to put all I had learnt from the forum into practise, and they worked wonders.
It was so exciting to find out that YDi also existed in O.A.U. when I got there. I quickly joined in and became committed. But YDi-O.A.U. was quite different from YDi in Lagos for obvious reasons. While in Lagos, I sat back getting fed, in YDi-O.A.U., demand was quickly placed on me; and I either had to be dedicated or quit.
Before long, I became an executive and I had to come to the front many a time to talk to members. As uncomfortable as I felt at first, I gradually developed confidence and today, I owe my ability to speak eloquently in the public to YDi.
YDi also helped me by celebrating my little successes. For the first time after my UME failure, YDi gave me my first academic award for having the highest CGPA in Camp Joseph 2002. That restored courage in me and also gave me an additional reason to be diligent in school.
So, in school, aside trying to be the best I could be, I did extra work so as to receive the next YDi academic award. The extra work the award caused me to put in culminated into a First Class result on graduation in 2006.
This means YDi played two important roles in making me the First YD with a First Class: One, YDi equipped me through the Champions Forum to succeed; and Two, YDi motivated me along the line to finish tops with the several annual awards.
When God asked me to write The Academic god in 2004, I was a bit pessimistic, wondering what a little boy like me could offer. But God reminded me of Joseph Principle, written by Dr. George, a YDi member, which was so much celebrated by Pastor Joe-Jesmiel Ogbe and all YDi members, and I summed up courage. And of a truth, The Academic god came into existence and has spread far and wide today as a reason of the network I have built through YDi, what more can I ask for?
It is suffice to say therefore that YDi is the greatest singular entity that has made the greatest influence and impact in my life; And Pastor Joe-Jesmiel Ogbe is the greatest man that has made the greatest influence in my life.