‘Advocacy has been monetised in Nigeria’

Weekend Magazine: How did you venture into advocacy?Tolu Sangosanya: I was an undergraduate when I started LOTS Charity Foundation. I started in 2005 when I was 23 years old and still a student at Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State where I studied Mass Communication. The idea was born in 2005, but if you ask […]

Weekend Magazine: How did you venture into advocacy?
Tolu Sangosanya: I was an undergraduate when I started LOTS Charity Foundation. I started in 2005 when I was 23 years old and still a student at Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State where I studied Mass Communication. The idea was born in 2005, but if you ask me, I was wired to do this. God had been schooling me for all I do now. But as an institution, LOTS was registered in September 18th, 2009 with CAC Nigeria.
I’m just fortunate to have realised that true living for me is giving. No man will remember what designer dress I wore last year, but rather, how I have been able to add value to lives. I was coming from Maryland to Ikeja in Lagos, then I saw a child leading her father to beg and I looked into the girl’s eyes and saw hopelessness: no spark, no life. I looked at that girl and thought, ‘what future does this girl have? I have education at least, even if I didn’t have the love of my parents, (or so I thought…) I prayed, ‘Father Lord, I need you to use me to show the kind of love you have for humanity to other people’ and that’s how we started.
WM: Do you consider this as social change advocacy?
Sangosanya: All I understand is my life was created to help get other people to their destination and purpose. I feed, clothe, provide accommodation, give scholarships, teach children via LOTS charity foundation, in Dustbin Estate, a slum in Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria. I don’t know for certain how this will change the GDP of Nigeria as a country, but I know the lives of over 163 children that we care for daily at LOTS resource centre with their families, will not be the same again. And their progress will be seen by all to the glory of God, not me.
WM: How did you know about the Dustbin estate in Lagos?
Sangosanya: I didn’t do a visibility study to identify the ‘problems’ of Nigeria and sort out areas where I will begin to tackle it. So what I will say next wouldn’t make sense for the man that is a ‘process’ person. My spirit said ‘go to Ajegunle’ and I simply obeyed. I called a friend who I knew grew up then, he then introduced me to Christopher and I asked him to take me to the ‘dirtiest’ place he’s ever seen. And that’s how I got to dustbin estate.
WM: You have a personal connection to the dustbin estate, why?
Sangosanya: I had dyslexia as a child. I couldn’t read until I was 10 years old. What I thought was a personal problem apparently is a national issue. Before dustbin estate, I only fed children during festive periods and on my birthdays, so in 2008 after I interacted with the kids there in dustbin estate, I decided to stay there to tackle the literacy problem using the ‘strategy’ my grandfather who taught me how to read and write well used on me.
WM: How was growing up like for you?
Sangosanya: I grew up with lots of families, as my parents weren’t married. I saw life from different people’s point of view, hence it expanded my horizon. My background should have put my back to the ground but I didn’t let it. We have two options in life; make excuses or make progress!
WM: Where would you say your philanthropy has added value to most?
Sangosanya: Education and community development particularly, but with time it changes. The easier my work gets, I realize the motive and reason why I started initially was to get something, which was love and attention and I was giving it out to get that back, and over the period of time I’ve been doing what I’m doing, motives and reasons have kept changing. It came to contributing to Nigeria and Nigeria’s development and preparing kids for the future.
WM: When you started, how did most people respond to you? Did you get help from family and friends?
Sangosanya: Everyone thought I was crazy. And now when I look back, I agree with them. No human being comes out of university and wants to give money and time that they do not have. It was tough, but again I was wired to be stubborn, I don’t give up on anything I believe. The first event I planned failed because I thought people will contribute to make happen what they did not see. So I learnt that no one will ‘die’ with you until you light yourself first. So in December 2006, I used my N35, 000 to feed three hundred children in Ikeja-Maryland, Lagos. In 2007, I was able to raise N438, 000 from friends and family members to feed and celebrate with a thousand children in Lagos. I basically ran the project on my own for a year plus before I got help from friends and family.
WM: Even with disappointment at the beginning, what spurred you on?
Sangosanya: I’m a self motivated person. I most times don’t need external force to push me into action. I have a spirit that is active and alive enough to communicate what I need to do until I do it. And that helped me in my work as it has in other spheres of life. Though, there are challenges in terms of funding, putting structures in place for the organisation, lack of vision on the part of the parents of our benefactors, lack of commitment on the part of some volunteers, we still solve these problems as they come.
WM: From your experience so far, is volunteerism achievable in Nigeria?
Sangosanya: Yes it is, but the motive behind the action is another thing entirely, because most people who volunteer these days, simply do it for bragging right and not really for the love of the kids or social space. ‘What’s in it for me’ is also a major problem. Lots of things in Nigeria have been  monetized  hence the commitment level of people is low when money isn’t involved and they don’t give their best.
Values unfortunately have been traded for money in Nigeria. Some subjects that taught this have been removed somehow from the school’s curriculum hence we are raising a generation that feel money is all that matters in life.
WM: What is your favourite part of this entire experience?
Sangosanya: There is not one event that stands out for me, there are series of what I do that makes me have a permanent smile on my face when I wake up each morning. Balogun Rufai had 264 in JAMB, his name came out 4th on the merit list of FUTO, Akure. HICC church (Harvesters International Christian Centre) gave him full scholarship for his university education. It was a fulfilling experience knowing that all our work over the years isn’t in vain. All who wrote WAEC last year, had minimum of seven credits, including Maths and English. They passed even in subjects that they didn’t have teachers for in their formal schools, but we taught at the LOTS resource centre daily. Too many of my dreams have come through, others are coming through presently and because of these, I wake up smiling, knowing my unseen dreams will be realised too.
WM: Looking ahead, what are your future philanthropic plans? Are there any charitable endeavours you would like to undertake, but haven’t yet?
Sangosanya: My dream is to provide affordable housing for hundred families living there over the next 10 years, using alternative building materials. To start a free Montessori school for 20-50 children in partnership with Discovery House School in Lekki or any other school willing to help.