•I moved from F9 to A1 in Maths
Mrs. Oluyemi Olunloyo Buckner is the first child of the prodigious former governor of Oyo State, Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo. In this interview by SAM NWAOKO, she relives some of her experiences as the daughter of a mathematics genius. She discloses that she failed mathematics at her ‘O’ Level secondary school examination but her fortune turned around when her father taught her the subject. She also speaks on a whole lot of issues concerning her late father and how he motivated and helped his children to excel in life.
You had such a wonderful father who tasked the intellect of all those who got close enough to him. As the first child of a man like that, what are some of your earliest memories of Dr. Victor Omololu Sowemimo Olunloyo?
I can say that as the first of his 11 children, I am privileged. When others acted in certain ways, I remember daddy would say ‘Yemi is my first experience of being a father.’ So everybody saw my father as being preferential to me. He was always doing so much for me. For example, I have been travelling since the age of six months. When Daddy was the Commissioner for Education, he went on many trips all over the old Western State and Nigeria. He took me on so many of those trips. I remember myself as a two-year-old on the coast of Dahomey, Togo, Ghana; I travelled to many West African countries because my dad always took me. He would leave my mum at home and take me all over. That was where my love and interest for travelling started.
Also, like you said, he tasked the intellect. Some people would say ‘Yemi was his favourite’ and all that because my dad really pampered me and wanted me to do everything as best as possible. I remember becoming a teenager and he would tell me that he wanted me to get a PhD and I would say ‘Daddy I’m not interested in a PhD please’. Then he tried the MPhil. He said to me: ‘Yemi, you could easily go to the University of Ibadan, University of Ife or wherever but I am sending you to England to go into a university mostly to have exposure to other cultures.’ So that was how I left Nigeria at the age of 16 to go to Oxford, England. My dad wanted me to be in a prestigious environment. He paid for me to go to a school called Edward Green’s Tutorial Establishment which was a one-on-one design. He paid so much money for me to be tutored by Oxford University graduates who prepared me for the GCE to be able to enter the university. So, I lived in Oxford for about a year and a half being prepped by the University of Oxford graduates. I was the only student they had. So, that was a very interesting experience.
Back to my secondary school, I went to Queen’s School at Moor Plantation, Apata, Ibadan from 1974 to 1979. Unfortunately, we had a setback with my brother, Akintayo, being in an accident during the ‘Ali Must Go’ time. That splintered the family and I never really had that one-on-one time with Daddy to help me with my mathematics. Unfortunately, I failed my WAEC, I got an F9 in mathematics! That was an eyesore. It was like ‘how in the world could something like this happen?’ I was so scared to go home when the results came in. I was shaken: “What would Daddy, a mathematician whose child scored F9 in mathematics do?”
What did he do when you eventually got home?
When I got home, he said ‘put that file on the table. From tomorrow morning you are going to wake up every day at 4:30am and I’m going to teach you mathematics.’ By that time we were living at No. 2 Bedwell Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. Daddy was working as the Secretary for Science and Technology in the government. So I ended up going to the Federal College of Science and Technology to be able to do a remedial for my School Certificate. So, it was a gruelling nine months of waking up in the AMs. Daddy would tell me to meet him in the garden in the mornings. He would be cutting the grass and teaching me the basics of mathematics. I had to learn the foundations of mathematics all from scratch.
Why was your maths that bad?
I just wasn’t serious. I could also say that my teacher at school was not that helpful, and I never gave Daddy an indication that I wasn’t doing well. Some of us were in the boarding house and mummy had travelled trying to help ‘Tayo, and we didn’t have that opportunity of one-on-one time with Daddy like that. Some of us were kept in the homes of relatives. Kemi and I were with the Lagundoyes; Shola and Funke were with the Ogunmolas. We were splintered and by the time we reconnected, he was in Lagos.
So, he began to teach you by himself?
Oh, my goodness! Like I said, by the time we reconnected he was in Lagos and I was enrolled in FSS. It was nine months of gruelling, back to the basics of understanding mathematics. I was frustrated, I was tired and I was angry with him but he was consistent. Up to about mid-point, say month four and a half, I started to appreciate what Daddy was trying to do for me. I felt like I was in a boot camp. By the time I took my exams, Daddy was with me every step of the way, tutoring me, schooling me, trying to prepare me. I’m here to say to you that my next result for mathematics, I went from F9 to A1. And not only did I get A1, I also did Applied Mathematics which most people were not even trying to do then. So, it was General Mathematics and Applied Mathematics and my love for mathematics developed and blossomed at that point to the point that I then became a mathematics teacher as I graduated college and all that.
Being a mathematics teacher requires a lot of patience. How did you wade through that period and how patient could your father have been?
Daddy taught me something about mathematics: first of all when you solve a mathematics problem, most people are looking for an answer but Daddy expressed how you have to go through the steps. That is why, till today, when I teach people mathematics, they want to quickly run to the answer, but I ask them to show me the steps that they must go through. So, for example, if you are doing a quadratic equation don’t give me answers, show me the steps that would take you to the final solution of the problem. That was the main lesson I learnt from Daddy. Don’t jump steps, go one step at a time to show your work. There are multiple choice exams and there are those in which you havelas to show your work. I excelled in that because Daddy taught me extremely critically how you must go from one step to another. Daddy taught me the importance of diligence and taking my time and not rushing.
But the joy of excelling with him notwithstanding, you still didn’t do that PhD he craved so much. Why didn’t you do it?
I just wasn’t interested in a PhD. I was lazy and felt like it was too long. Most of the people doing PhDs were doing it for seven years minimum, and I was not feeling like doing that. I will not give any excuses but I ended up going into Economics. I got my Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Social Studies. I went to the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England and from there I went to the University of Kent at Canterbury for my Master’s in Development Economics. Guess who also helped me with my dissertation? Daddy! The title of my dissertation was “On the Debt Problem of Nigeria”.
Looking back, are there any regrets about not doing the PhD or are you just fine?
I’m okay. I guess part of it also was thinking about money and all that. So, eventually for myself, I wanted to do Business Administration. After graduating and working for many years, I moved to the United States, started my family and I decided to return to school. I went back in 2013 to St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia where I got my Executive MBA. I tried going to the London School of Economics but I was not accepted but I did get my MBA at the age of 50, so I am fine with that because that’s what I wanted.
When you look at your trajectory, especially as being the first child of such a popular public figure with a lot of siblings, you must have had some sibling rivalries that would still be ringing in your head. Or don’t you recall any?
It is pretty much what I’ve said to you. Kemi is the one right after me and she is always at my heels. I have always been a low key person and she has always been more boisterous since we were kids, and she has always been at my heels trying to outshine me. And Daddy would always say to her: ‘Calm yourself down. Yemi is my first child, there is nothing you can do about that.’ I guess that kind of set in some emotions for her as you already know. Sibling rivalry was mostly with her; the rest of them, we are all very well connected.
You don’t have to thrive in your father’s success and you have made your own success. How happy would you say you are with your siblings regarding your father’s impact on their lives and their own levels of successes too?
I am very happy because, each and every one of us when you get to know us, you can tell that Dad insisted on getting at least a university degree. I remember he used to say something; he would say ‘I don’t care what you go to university for but you must go. If you want to go and learn how to do needle and thread; if you want to go and learn arts or something, you must get a college education.’ So, Daddy insisted on that. So, every single one of us did. I went into business, I have an MBA; Gbenga is an engineer; Funke is an architect; Ayobami is an engineer, and he also has an MBA from Cambridge University. How prestigious is that? He is the one whose trajectory is almost like Daddy’s as far as academics and mathematics is concerned. Ayobami is extremely brilliant, he is the closest to Daddy. I think all of us are brilliant. Then we have Olusola who did everything that Daddy wanted us to do; he went to Drexel University in Philadelphia but Shola decided that he wanted to move to a totally different realm as a chef. Shola is a Master Chef in the United States and he is well known all over the world. So, I pray that someday people will get to meet him. Our culture sometimes does not open doors for people to do non-traditional things but Shola stepped out in faith and he is now one of the most recognised chefs in the United States. He works with some of the top French chefs around the world like George Perrier. And shola is very mathematically inclined because everything he does leads back to the love we were all given of mathematics from Daddy.
These successes and his principles would always trigger the thoughts of a great dad you had. What are some of those things you will not forget about Dr. V.O.S. Olunloyo?
His constant desire to learn. I would get calls from him at home, I would look at the time and I could tell that it was like 2am – 3am and Daddy is still in the library or reading something and he would like to talk to you about three key things: Mathematics, music, wine because he was a wine connoisseur. He always talked to me about photography because that is something he always liked. He used to force me up in the morning to go in the garden with “wake up I want to take photographs”. Many of the photographs back then you could see my face all squeezed up because I was just waking up. But Daddy was always exposing us to new fields of learning – non-traditional fields because he just wanted to broaden our horizons. That is what I would miss. I would miss that very much.
He was declared as the elected governor of Oyo State in 1983 but before then he had served as commissioner. He was a very popular and successful man who left a lot of records in his trail. Do these things affect some of the things you did as his children or do people usually ask if you are related to the popular Olunloyo of Ibadan?
Yes. They do…
What are the expectations of people from you?
There are expectations for excellence. And, not to brag, that is one thing that all of us have always exuded – the desire for excellence in everything that we do. Daddy taught us to not be mediocre. Mediocrity is not acceptable in the Olunloyo Family, no matter what it is that we are doing. So, that would always stand out, the desire for excellence.
Now that he has moved on to eternity, are there things you have heard about him which you don’t like or agree with? Are there misconceptions or postulations from Nigerians to which you would rather say ‘No that is not my father’, because many Nigerians are superstitious and, sometimes are not as critical as would be expected?
Well, I will just be as honest as possible: I haven’t really heard what outsiders have said. But I’m sure you will be remiss to know that one of us, which is our Number 3, Kemi, has been online maligning Daddy and all that. The honest truth is that no family is devoid of dysfunction and that is what the reality of all families is. She is the black sheep of our family and she wrote some disparaging things about our Daddy. So, those are the things I don’t like. People have been asking me online ‘Yemi will you refute these’. I am not engaging with people about the content of what she is saying because it is all erroneous. I am the first child. I know my Dad and we all have experiences living in the same house with him. So, all the stuff about occultism and all that is absolutely not true; and I am categorically saying as the first child of this man that everything that might have been said about him is a total lie.
Would this not upset you and cause some squabbles among your siblings and thereby sadden you?
No, I am a realist sir. I’m not one to hide things. That is another thing I got from Daddy: Facing problems head on and not pushing them to the side. Accept faults, fix them and move on.
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