....how necessity brought me to fore
What strikes me now, many years later, is not just the boldness of my actions at 25, but the clarity of conviction I carried into that room.
I did not approach Chief Adekunle Ojora and Erelu Ojora as a desperate young man begging for favour. I approached them as a young professional who had done the arithmetic of value and found the system wanting.
At the time, Nigeria had normalised an absurd contradiction:
a freshly graduated doctor—after nearly eight years of intense, high-stakes training, sleepless nights, life-and-death responsibility, and relentless academic rigour—was paid ₦20,000 a month, while an entry-level graduate in an oil company earned ten times that amount simply by virtue of industry, not intellect.
What I did in that encounter was to refuse that narrative.
I argued, respectfully but fearlessly, that intelligence, discipline, and capacity are not industry-exclusive. A medical degree is not a limitation—it is one of the most versatile first degrees on earth. If AGIP recruited graduates, then I was not only eligible, I was exceptionally qualified.
My confidence unsettled them—not because it was arrogant, but because it was logically irrefutable.
And that is an important lesson:
Power listens when clarity speaks.
They laughed, not in mockery, but in recognition. Recognition that this young man was not wrong. Recognition that brilliance had been underpriced. Recognition that courage backed by reason is hard to dismiss.
The instant job offer was not charity. It was respect.
Another deeper lesson was access. I did not waste time navigating gatekeepers or submitting applications into faceless systems designed to filter out originality. I understood that decisions are made at the top, so I went to the top. That required research, audacity, and the refusal to accept artificial distance between myself and power.
Young people often underestimate how accessible greatness can be when approached with preparation and self-belief.
Ironically, although I went in search of an oil company job, I walked away with something far more enduring—a wife 😂🤣.
Life sometimes rewards courage in ways you never planned.
That single encounter recalibrated my adult life. It taught me that:
• Doctors are not condemned to poor remuneration.
• Professional worth is transferable.
• Systems can be challenged intelligently.
• And destiny often opens when confidence meets opportunity.
I did not sign a covenant with low pay.
I did not accept the lie of professional inferiority.
I demanded recognition not entitlement and I received it.
That moment remains a reminder that knowing your worth, and being willing to defend it in the right room, can change the entire trajectory of your life.
Dr Olayiwola Ajileye, MD
EagleStrideTV
+234-806-255-3971
Comments