How Education Made Me: Sumbo Akintola

1. Which part of the country are you from and how were things growing up?

I am a Lagosian through and through from Ita Akanni area, and we are neighbours to the popular “Oluwole” in Lagos Island. I am somewhat teary-eyed when I go back to that aspect of my life. I tag it as my age of “no responsibility”. I was born during the Biafran war. Although in Lagos, I was blissfully unaware of the war or situation of post-independence strife in Nigeria. My memories of Lagos up until when I became more aware was delightful. I lived all over Surulere, but my most memorable aspect of Surulere life was when we lived on Adeniran Ogunsanya Street. We were five minutes away from UTC. It had everything a child could ask for. There were also shops in the complex that sold comics; Famous Five etc,. I was an avid reader and I read a novel a week. I was not all studious though; I also had a Raleigh bicycle that my father taught me to ride and we played “ten ten”, “hide and seek”, “mummy and daddy”. After our evening shower we would be caked all over with Saturday Night Powder as we listened to stories about Ijapa and Yanribo before going to bed.