Amazing Story of TAIWO MURISIK BALOGUN – from truck boy, bus conductor to Education Secretary

Every generation produces an eccentric and unusual figure, who ironically represents the measure, the values, and indeed, the essence of that age and becomes the icon of that generation. They are not conventional persons, they are peculiar. Somehow, in spite of their unusual way of life, they remain unusually lovable. They cannot be ignored. They are usually un-obstructive yet their presence is forceful. They remind us of who we secretly would wish to be but for our lack of courage and convictions.

And according to Denis Waitley who stated that, “There are two primary choices in life, to accept conditions as they exist or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Such is the life of Taiwo Murisik Balogun, a proper model and adequate educationist that works round the clock to ensure a better tomorrow for Nigerian youths and populace.

When Balogun roars like a lion, other beasts keep silent; he may be viewed as a man of few words but he is a man of effective and enormous works. Why? His elegance, influence and authority are only visible to men of vision and faith like himself.

This man popularly called Warrior was born in 1967 into the family of Alhaji Ganiyy and Silifat Balogun of Abeokuta in Ogun State, Nigeria – but his mom’s death in 1976 almost shattered his dreams and grounded his abilities.

After his nursery and primary education in Oworonshoki area of Lagos, his dad relocated the whole family to a village called Ishaga on the outskirt of Lagos where his family discovered an area now called Balogun. In those days, Ishaga was in a thick forest called Iju and the houses in that region, which were mostly mud-houses and huts, could be counted on the fingertips.

His dad and step-mom enrolled him in Iju Grammar School for his secondary school education that he completed in 1985.

To survive through high school, Taiwo and his twin brother, Kehinde (a lecturer at Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education) would go into the forest to fetch wood they could sell to the neighbours in order to earn extra income to augment their allowances. Warrior also served as motor-boy to most water-tank trucks and a loader on pick-up trucks called aje’gboro in those days.

After his secondary school, he got a marketing job with Cadbury Nigeria Limited in 1986 and served there for six years (mostly on part-time basis – and during this period, the company was doing a lot of promo for éclairs chocolate candies and knorr seasoning cubes). That gave him a great opportunity to raise enough money to finance his GCE O’ level external examinations to complement his further studies requirements and that actually paid off in 1987 as he gained admission into Anwar-ul Islam College, Agege for his A’ levels which he completed in 1989. (His set was the last in NIGERIA educational system).

In 1991, he secured an admission to study Economics Education at the Ogun State University (now referred to as Olabisi Onabanjo University) and he graduated with second class lower in 1995. Although his dad was responsible for his tuition fees, but he had to work as a bus conductor (in Ikeja Mass Transit buses known as Okiki o p’osu) during the holidays in order to raise money for textbooks, handouts and stationeries plus other students’ necessaries throughout his four years stay in the university. He also on several occasions, travelled to Cotonou in Benin Republic and Lome in Togo to buy second hand trousers, shirts and shoes that he would sell to his classmates to raise more money for a better living.

Taiwo Balogun after his NYSC compulsory service year at Anambra Federal Government Girls College returned to Lagos and his bus-conducting business from where he was able to raise enough cash to fund a tutorial centre, BRILLIANT BRAIN, with his cousins and friends – and in 1997, he proceeded to the University of Lagos for his Masters degree in Education Administration.

Although, he had always been involved in local politics since his university days but he became a full-fledge politician in 1999 as soon as he completed his second degree.  In the year 2000, Warrior got a job with the Lagos State Ministry of Education as Education Officer 2 (Level 8) and paid his dues, contributed a lofty service for ten solid years.

In 2007, he contested for a place in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ifako-Ijaiye constituency 1, and was denied the ticket by Hon. Dayo Saka Fafunmi who actually won the election but his effort was rewarded by an appointment as Education Secretary, Ifako-Ijaiye LGEA in 2010 and he stayed on the job for five years.

In 2015, he voluntarily retired and returned to the Ministry of Education as Education Sector Inspector Level 12 – and as at Press Time, he was planning to return to the university for his PhD.