DIT student Taofeeqat Olanlokun, is living in Ireland most of her life, but work priorities means her mother spends most of her time between her native Nigeria and China. Living in Dublin proves complicated...
Accents can tell us a lot about people but they don’t always tell the full story.

The soft Dublin accent of Taofeeqat Olanlokun would tell the listener she is a Dublin native with a good education and excellent manners. The listener would be correct in discerning this but it does not come close to telling the story of this 17 year old and her family.

Taofeeqat moved to Dublin with her mother, father and two older brothers. Her two older brothers are now in Galway and Athlone studying IT and biochemistry respectively. Since moving to Ireland her parents have had two more children to take the number of children to 5.

Last January Taofeeqat’s mother moved to Nigeria where she works in fashion retail and despite communicating often Taofeeqat understandably misses her. Taofeeqat’s mother has to alternate between living in Nigeria and China which makes it difficult to get back to Ireland and with Taofeeqat’s dad working as a Taxi driver she needs to help out a lot at home.

Nigeria, like many other countries, is affected by terrorism. Boko Haram in particular is a very active terrorist organisation in Nigeria, often in the media for abducting schoolchildren and committing crimes of violence on Christian villages particularly against women. Taofeeqat says she does not often worry about her mother’s safety as the area in which she lives is relatively violence-free.

"Where my mam lives there are protestors but they are usually not violent. The problem with Boko Haram is that you don’t know where they will attack next and the government are not doing much to catch them."

Having spent most of her life in Ireland but with family in Nigeria, would Taofeeqat consider visiting her family’s homeland?

"I would love to visit. My dad and brother went to visit last summer for two months."

Life in Nigeria is not what people may think, with a smirk she says:

"We don’t live in huts, we have big houses with swimming pools and everything is a lot cheaper over there."

Ireland has not provided complete stability for the Olanlokun’s since moving to Ireland; Taofeeqat had two secondary schools, her two older brothers have moved away for college as well as their mother moving back to Nigeria.

With one parent at home and two younger brothers’ ages 8 and 14 I get the sense Taofeeqat helps at home.

"My dad is the bread winner so we have to help him, I cook when I go home and I make my brothers clean the house," she says.

There is no sense of self-pity from Taofeeqat. She speaks constantly with a broad smile and a slight giggle which makes it sound like she’s chatting about one direction and not terrorist groups in the country in which her mother lives.

With her families interesting and decorated past covered, we discuss what the future holds.

"In 5 years I want to be making films I want to be done with education. I want to make a controversial movie and have diversity of characters in the movies."

Taofeeqat speaks with a sense of confidence and possess the right amount of kindness to make you believe she can achieve anything she sets her sights on. Her families proven work rate is instilled in her and she has every opportunity to follow her dreams thanks to her family.

Sitting in DIT’s coffee shop Taofeeqat is surrounded by her peers and her friendly smile and exterior reveals none of her fascinating story which she has just shared and which is only just starting.

SOURCE: http://campus.ie/surviving-college/personal/long-journey-nigeria-dublin

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