The Journey: 2019
It was a year of many stories to share and moment to learn from, I tagged the year as, “Give yourself permission to be”.
How did that come about? At Elevate your Game last year by Oyindanmola Johnson, I just wanted to inspire myself to be more as a development expert. Knowing that in few months I would be out of paying job but I was positive the values in me will always attract me to more success, but did my expectation turns out to be real? Let’s find out.
I was operation manager at Japan International Cooperation Agency for 27 months during those periods, I have had the privileged to learn from expert in public health, government, private sectors, community stakeholders and development expert, engaged in project critical thinking and design, coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. I must say it was one of the busiest projects for me in this decade, with regular meetings with stakeholders, partners and top government officials at Lagos State Ministry of Health, Ministry of Science and Technology, Budget and Planning, Primary Health Care Board. I finally found what I love doing and also growing on the job but it will soon be over? Thankfully, one of the top officials in government found me valuable and kept asking who will take over the project when the expatriate returned to Japan? I was super excited, hopes are high again I will be able to continue to add values to the project I have managed for 27 months overseeing one hundred Primary Health Care facilities in Lagos State in other to reduce maternal mortality and achieve Universal Health Coverage using mobile technology.
Alas! Project was over, I got recommendation to work with the state government but before that could happen, am sure you understand the bureaucracy in government, I decided to continue to work pro bono for the project for the next six months, before that I already had my plan to invest in my personal development in IT sector with the goal to continue to learn how to use technology to solve health challenges. Did the recommendation I got land me a job with the government? Obviously no, so I had to stay focus with personal development while I do things I love to do sharing values with people, teaching large network of youths about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and consulting at www.facebook.com/hallidayconsulting.
As the Director of Programs at Sustainable Development Goals Awareness Initiative, www.sdgsai.org I have served voluntarily in the organization for three years and had help created the SDGs on Campus project which has covered three prestigious Universities in Nigeria and trained several other students across more than five other universities in Nigeria, this was how I found myself occupied and more valuable while I was investing in becoming a professional programmer.
The moment of truth came around early August just like an August visitor, a test my resolve about what the year means to me, one of the Directors at the Ministry of Health said one day at biweekly meeting, “we need to secure a job Sheriff so that we do not let him go, because if he moves to another organization its not going to be good for us”. Then I was hopeful that my valuable time will soon be rewarded, I said to myself “the job is coming soon” but months later the whole issue died off.
I became frustrated, getting depressed after how much time I have invested in sustaining the project and nothing forth coming, this started affecting me at a programming class, I was not focus again, I started skipping classes, my energy level was low, I could not find an answer but thank God I was able to pick up and tell myself again, this year is about giving myself permission to be who I want to be.
Fast forward to September 2019, a very great opportunity came my way, I was selected for the Microsoft Innovative Education Expert Program and I also got a tweet from one of my mentor to facilitate a training on SDGs for the entire Permanent Secretaries to the government of Niger State for the project Solution 17 for Niger State, www.sustainable-nigerstate.com.
How did all of these happened in the last quarter of the years and how it help me to get my focus once again? Watch out for the concluding story on my next post.
