Meet the Future Lawyer, Who Keeps Excelling Against All Odds

VICTOR OYEDOTUN AKOLADE
Success Magazine: How was your growing up like? Kindly tell us about yourself and your background.
Akolade: My name is Victor Oyedotun Akolade, a legal Practioner, in the making, and a son to Mr. Kolade Oyedotun and Mrs Ruth Abimbola. I am a child of the Most High God, born on the 22nd of June in the late nineties. I love to do a number of things; I love to have time for the most important things, so I love to eat, try out new food recipes, read stories of people who have made it despite the odds, learn and I love travelling. I also love listening to people and help where I can. I love to laugh and dance, and a new love I have found is the basketball game. I have nothing to say as per my relationship life at least not yet, I just stay glued to CNN for updates, and finally I just don’t want to stop loving God. I say so because there’s nothing that makes sense outside Him. There’s nothing anyone sees in me today and admires, that happened until I gave my life to Jesus Christ. If you remove God from my life, then we are going to be talking about nothing. Many think I just want to exaggerate religion, but I don’t think I would want to live my life proving a debatable point. I met Jesus in May, 2015 and since then I have not remained the same.
About growing up, I am purely an Osogbo boy. I have practically lived all my life in Osogbo, so to say, that is about to change anyway. I was born and raised in Osogbo, Osun State, attended Good Tidings for my nursery and primary education but completed my primary education at St. Clare’s nursery and primary school. I gained admission into Our Lady and St. Francis Catholic College for my junior secondary education before proceeding to the prestigious Ebunoluwa International School for senior secondary education, and also attended the Bowen University pre-degree school for a year and now, I am a final year law undergraduate of Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State. 
Growing up wasn’t what I wanted, wasn’t as adventurous as I would have loved. It wasn’t that my parents were not there, they were, we seldom had time together. I remember a time we travelled to the Ibadan zoo, we had a swell time but we didn’t get to see the lion and the elephant, two animals that I longed to see (laughs), so for me, I think I didn’t just get the kind of attention I needed. It was characterized by three places, church, school and home. One may ask what else should a child have, well I just wanted to see new things, learn by proxy, travel, mix with other children and have a good feel of the good part of life. But I thank God because salvation has changed a lot, not my salvation experience but salvation did. So I honestly don’t want to stop loving God He has given me a fullness that nothing can threaten or take away. He has made me whole.
Success Magazine: You are privileged to be educated. While growing up, how did you react when you did not see other children like you in school?
Akolade: As I mentioned earlier, my early life was a triangle kind of life and so I did not know that some children did not go to school. After school, I am home and the gate is locked, it would only be opened when daddy is back from work. Until a few years that I begin to cry in my heart seeing very many children out of school. I live in Osogbo and I get to see a lot of these kids on the road. Just a few days ago, I was wondering why the executive governor of Osun State would not establish social service like they have in the United States, every child you see out on the road during school hours is taken to be the government’s until the parents can prove responsibility. But I think if this is done, many parents will not even be bothered. In fact, it is a very great problem for them, they only get to fend for themselves as parents and the government gives care to their children.
Success Magazine: Values like discipline, honesty, humility and diligence are integral in any given society. How did you learn them?
Akolade: If you mean to say that you see all these values in Victor, then wow, victor must be a seemingly good guy. My answer is my relationships. The first is my relationship with the Almighty God, then the relationship with the authority God has placed over me. Daniel, David, Joseph to mention a few had very outstanding character traits, but then it was developed in their relationship with God and the authority God has put over them. So if  anyone considers  that  I am disciplined, honest, humble and diligent, trust me, I had to learn them from the bible and how God deals with me, and the authority He has placed over me have left me with no choice. These things are found in God, I think a child of God must not be far from these things. I don’t have many friends just a few, and these ones too have been of great help. In fact some of them became my friends because I wanted to learn some of these values from them. For example: I see diligence in Atolagbe Stephen, humility in Oriolowo Ayomide, while Koya Ayomide is just a very neat being, just to mention a few. So one day in a discussion with a colleague, I concluded that a man that has made up his mind to walk with God will be a complete man. If he isn’t, give him time. These kind of people, you will likely find no fault in them and as long as the Almighty God doesn’t find a fault in a man, he is good to go.
Success Magazine: How often do you read? Kindly tell us the impact books have made in your life.
Akolade: Books can be quite boring for some of us and so I haven’t read a lot. I have gone through a few though, I love images, so I prefer watching and listening to tapes or podcasts to reading. But books are ways in which we peep into or see people’s minds. A book is a mirror, it reveals people, government, society, love, attributes, values, etc. Books reveal a lot. I have met a lot of authors through their books and just when I am inquisitive about their kind of lives, I’ll get their biographies or decide to pick one of their books and see through their minds to get what I want. Just lately I have invested in Martin Luther King Jr’ books and this guy is good but I found a few faults in him. Now one may begin to wonder “ what do you know that makes you find fault in a man, that has the world’s attention even after his death?” but then I’ll prefer to have my answers reserved. I have listened to a lot of podcasts, so I can only recommend these people. Myles Munroe, Pastor E.A Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor Oluwaseyi Ojo. If you get access to these people, you will know what to read and what not to read. More importantly, I read my bible, since it is a book written by God Himself, it will make you the best of yourself. I am still a work in progress.
Success Magazine: You are the CEO of Mophazar Photography, how did your passion for photography start?
Akolade: On a particular day, I took a picture with a camera I was playing with. My pastor saw it and eventually advised me to go into photography. The journey has been full of ups and downs. And I hope to help the less-privileged by lending my voice through photography.
Success Magazine: We saw in your profile that you hold many leadership positions, how are you able to combine these positions together?
Akolade: A man receives nothing except it be given from above. I will quickly run through what I define as leadership. Leadership is staying by your self-discovery. When you live your identity, you are a leader. Many speakers will always flog the need to be ones-self, there’s a synergy between self-discovery and leadership. A lion will not need to act differently no matter the terrain in which it is placed. It always makes known its identity unless in a sea anyway [laughs]. And that tells us that not all positions are for you even when people say you can do it. By the grace of God, every position of leadership I hold is known in heaven. God has put His assent. I had to reject some leadership positions because God has not put me there, though  people say I can but the One who guides me says I shouldn’t do it and there’s no point doing what I shouldn’t do. So now I can answer the question of how I combine all the positions. Since God has put me there, we get to work together, so though it is not as encumbering as it ought to be, I still have to work a lot of hours. If God places you in a place, He will guarantee your safety.
Success Magazine: What’s your view on leadership from your experience?
Akolade: I have heard people say that, ‘Leadership is influence.’ And some have taken as a state of being a boss. For me, leadership is being oneself. If you can lead yourself, you can lead a nation. Leadership is not being at the frontline. Leadership is the quality of one’s life. If you can lead yourself, you can lead the world.
Success Magazine: What can you say about the expression ‘be oneself’, from your experience as a leader and as an entrepreneur?
Akolade: I’ll say being comfortable is being oneself. It takes a lot to be oneself, you will need more than a thousand pound of courage to be and continue to be yourself, because life is not static and there will always be events. I’ll go further in answering this question by the understanding that I am first a human being before a leader or an entrepreneur, however leadership is intertwined in our beings. Unfortunately, only few understand this so they get to wear a different identity and become what cannot be defined. Being comfortable in your own skin is being oneself. So when one can live as an exceptional being first, incorporating this in other aspects of life and positions isn’t much work as it would be on a person who has not seemed to have a life.

Anticipate... October 1