My Story told with my pen

All my life my dream is to make a difference. My parents are not rich but at the same time not poor. We’ve always lived our lives by hanging on to God by faith. My first challenge is being the first child and the only son of my family. My mom and dad are the best parents anyone could ever have. My dad wanted to be a certified civil engineer. For the old folks who are conversant with the British education system, since I don’t know if this still obtains these days, he sat for the City and Guild courses and did pass but he couldn’t pursue that dream headlong because of family responsibilities. My father is also the first and only son of his parents. My father sees me as his little self that will be able to pursue and fulfil the dream he once had long time ago. My mother’s story is not totally different from my dad’s. She is not the first child of her family but she is the only daughter. Put precisely, the only surviving daughter of her family. Back in the days in Yoruba land, western Nigeria, a female child is considered second to her male siblings. She couldn’t attend school in good time because no one would send her to school. It was by stroke of luck when the government then announced free education. She was only able to make it to high school.

My parents saw their limitations due to their backgrounds and they did their best to support and encourage me and my sisters to pursue our education to the best of our abilities. And a university degree is of course the least anyone could aspire to in my family no matter how hard it might be to afford it. My parents see me and my siblings as a medium of expression of their lost ambition and they will do anything to help us fulfil our dreams since doing so means fulfilling their dreams too.

My father thought I would be a civil engineer, his long-lost ambition. He is a building contractor but he was hoping I would be a civil engineer while he put me through the practical aspects. When I told him my ambition is to become a lawyer and pursue a career in Entertainment and Sports Law and practice 11 years ago, he barely understood the latter part. But he urged me on and promised to support me.

Growing up with those lofty dreams was quite a challenge. Not so many people understood what I wanted to do and now not so many people still do. My journey through Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife, Nigeria, where I obtained my bachelor’s degree (LL.B) in law, was one of the iconic moments of my life. It was like driving a rickety lorry with a good engine but through a rough dirty road infested with potholes but looking ahead at the most beautiful well-tarred road ahead. There was a time my rickety lorry got a flat tired. That was when I was on the fringe of dropping out because I couldn’t afford the school fees. I remember the time my mother and I took her share certificates to her stockbroker and sold everything. I was broken when she gave me the proceeds at the banking hall on that fateful day in Ibadan, the city of my birth and early years in Nigeria, and told me to pay for my school fees so I could stay in school. But looking back today, I am grateful to God for bringing me through. I graduated in 2008 second class upper with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree and as the first graduate in my family. I cannot forget in a hurry the look of victory on my mom’s tear-stained face as she kept whispering my name (Oluwa-segun – meaning “God has conquered”) and the huge sigh of relief and satisfaction on my dad’s wrinkled face. It was mixed feelings of joy of having their first child fulfil their dreams and the pain of having achieved that at such a huge price.

The joy didn’t last long because I had to enrol for the Call to bar (B.L) programme at the Nigerian Law School. The Nigerian legal education requires every law graduate who intends to practice as a lawyer in Nigeria to go through a one-year mandatory vocational programme. Getting the school fees for this programme was warfare. My parents had to borrow so I could achieve this dream. They wouldn’t give up on me a while in school. For anyone familiar with the Nigerian legal education, this is one of the craziest times for any law student due to the enormous workload and the negative grading system which, put simply, is called “your worst score is your best score”. If for example you had 80 in three out of four courses and had 40 in the last course, your grade will be the last score, that is, a D! The Nigerian Law School requires a student to be well-rounded in all the courses. Moving through this and having to worry about funding could really be much pain. It all ended in September 2009 when I graduated Second Class Upper with two certificates to my credit and to God’s glory. I had just then been admitted to the bar! I have been enrolled to practise law as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

My parents and siblings were the happiest people on earth. The dream that started as a mere wishful thought or ambition of a teenage boy back then did eventually materialise! My mom would not stop singing. My dad kept nodding his head with satisfaction. We all hugged each other in one big bear hug and held each other as one happy family for few minutes and would not let go. It was one of the most memorable days of my life. I had just achieved not just my dream but my parent’s dreams! I remember after the call to bar ceremony in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, my dad and I were at the airport waiting for our flights. We had booked separate flights. It was with mixed feelings of amusement and fulfilment when my father looked at me eyeball to eyeball and told me; “Segun”, he said, trying to get my attention. “Do you know that this is the first time I’ve ever been on an airplane? You made me do this”. You might not understand this if you are used to flying and you don’t consider it a luxury like most Nigerians do. My dad was 56 year old when he got on an airplane for the first time in his life! To him, that was an achievement that only could have come to him because his first child and only son just got called to the bar as a lawyer!

As far as I go in my career, my dream of building a career in Entertainment and Sport Law will not leave me. It has latched to my heart like a leech and the strongest challenge will not take it off my mind. Growing up in Africa, I had so many dreams. My dream to become an Entertainment lawyer came during my senior year at Ibadan Grammar School, the High School I attended in the old city of Ibadan, Nigeria. Having never stepped out of the city, my passion to build a career in entertainment and show business came from reading books, novels, international magazines and watching American movies. The entertainment industry has the potential to catapult Nigeria towards meeting its developmental goals. The American entertainment industry has recorded astronomical success with Hollywood. Its impact on the United States economy and perception in the international circle is obvious to all. The same development has also been recorded in India with the emergence of Bollywood and its economic impact. Entertainment and media businesses are experiencing major development in Africa. The Nigerian movie industry, self-styled “Nollywood” has been ranked second in terms of volume of movies released every month and there is increased collaboration between Nigerian artists and their American counterparts. However, with this growth, there still lies a deep lacuna in protection of stakeholders or awareness of their rights. This in fact attests to the need for building professionalism in the administration, financing and brokering of entertainment businesses.

Presently in Nigeria, there is really no certified Entertainment law attorney. This in fact gave fillip to my dream of becoming one and to build expertise, experience and network in order to replicate the developments in America and other parts of Europe in Nigeria which is in its developmental state and by extension Africa. In fulfilling this ambition after practising law and advising clients in different areas of law in Nigeria for two years, I decided to pursue a master of laws degree and special certificate in Entertainment Law at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law (USC Law).

My dream of becoming an entertainment law attorney and building a career here in the United States are about to materialise here at USC Law. But this might be short-lived not because of inability to do well academically but because of lack of finances. My belief is that no challenge in life should be able to debar one from pursuing one’s dreams. I am still in USC for my programme only because I was able to defer payment of the tuition for this (fall) semester till January 2012. I used my life savings to pay for 25% of the tuition for this semester so I could hang on while God provide help to fulfil my dream. All efforts to get financing from my home country proved abortive. In the event that I am not able to provide the sum of $18,312 by January next year and about $25,000 for the spring semester, I may not be able to fulfil my life-long ambition.

In order to fulfil my dream and be able to make the change I have always hoped for, this is my humble appeal to you for help through donations, gifts or scholarship.

Thank you for your help and support.

Oluwasegun Aluko

(626) 354 3791
aluko@usc.edu
segun.aluko@gmail.com