Olaboludele Simoyan, the 8th Wonder as she’s more popularly called is wearing a series of hairstyles leading up to the commencement of the world cup in Brazil to inspire the Super Eagles to bring the cup home. But there’s more to this woman than her theatrical hairstyles as she tells Thenation in this interview.
Tell us about your hair and the story behind it?
This hair is an 8th wonder world cup hairstyle. It can be called an extraordinary world cup hairstyle, the reason I did this hairstyle is to inspire the super eagles to do the extraordinary
at the world cup and bring the world cup back home. It’s a campaign for the super eagles.
I do this because I dare believe; I believe the super eagles can do that because if anyone is inspired, they can do anything. What I’m doing is to inspire the super eagles and inspire coach Keshi to believe in themselves and believe that it is possible to bring the world cup back home. The hairstyle is called “Keshi kick off right” there are other hairstyles that I’ve planned for a series of world cup hairstyles. I’ve been talking to people and distributing the stickers “I dare believe” to sensitize the people as to what we are about and why we believe the super eagles can bring the world cup back home if they are inspired.
What is your inspiration?
I’m a patriot and I believe in Nigeria. I believe that Nigeria is a great nation; I also know that many of us don’t believe in Nigeria, many of us don’t think it’s possible for us to make Nigeria a good country. That’s what my book is about, building Nigeria to become the 8th wonder of the world so that people can wonder if it’s the same Nigeria we are seeing now. Just like Dubai became the darling of the world in less than 10 years and I’m saying that Nigeria can become the darling of the world once we begin to believe in ourselves and believe in the possibility of our nation becoming one of the great nations of the world.
I’m passionate about Nigeria because I love Nigeria, I wasn’t born in Nigeria. I’m a diplomat’s kid and was born in Washington DC but I have only one passport, the Nigerian passport and that’s what I carry and I don’t intend to get an American passport because I believe that Nigeria is the greatest country in the world we are better than this, better than where we are. I believe a lot of us don’t even know what we have but foreigners come in and out of this country every day, they see the potential and the opportunities.
There’s so much mineral resource but I talk more about the human potential. There is a lot in Nigeria and a lot in us the people. We need to believe in ourselves and see that it is possible for us to achieve greatness. It is possible for us to bring out the best in ourselves and take Nigeria to the promised land of greatness where the world would look at Nigeria as a country to reckon with.
What have you achieved so far?
I believe in a generation change and I work with a lot of young people and I’ve been doing so for the last 25 years. I go to secondary schools because I believe that if I can sow the seeds in them now, in 5-10 years from now we can create the new Nigeria of our dreams. I tell them not to come with an entitlement mentality rather come out with the belief that you are the answer to a problem in Nigeria because you’ve been wired in a particular way to solve a particular way to solve a particular problem. Look for that problem and solve that problem. If you and I do that, we would have a lot of problems being solved and we can build the new Nigeria of our dreams.
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