Adekunle Adeyanju, also known with the #tag “The Lion Heart, End Polio, ThinkAfrica, London to Lagos. Said, is so good to be home after 41 days on the road. He tells Adebimpe Olajiga about his journey.
I am a Nigerian based but my family lives in London. We’ve been there for about thirty years. I am from Kwara State, Offa to be precise. He also said, his blessed with children but the other part is complicated.
“It’s been a heck of a ride, it’s been loaded with experience and pain. Lots of pain but also of beautiful moments, that’s what life is, it’s a combination of both. It’s been a wonderful experience.
He said the motivation behind his trip it’s all about giving back. Its all about using my skills and lifestyle to touch the lives of the underprivileged. I look at it that every one of us has been blessed, some people may say theirs are not enough but we have all been blessed. So those things you’ve been given, how can you use them to touch the lives of other people?
On this Polio project, when I started, I said we were going to use it to support a noble cause. It’s a personal thing for me because I knew someone who had Polio. As a boy, when I was growing up we used to play football and swim. But a friend of mine couldn’t join us, not because he didn’t want to but because he couldn’t do it as he was limited by the polio disease. I knew what he went through before he finally passed on. So, I promised myself that I must do everything possible to ensure that another person doesn’t go through what my friend went through.
He said, “I have knew Zenab six months ago and we’ve been talking. I discovered that she is a lady with a very good heart, she’s very tough, If you ask me, do I like her a lot? The answer is Yes. Whether she will say yes or not, I don’t know but yes,it’s something I’d love to do.
The list of countries I passed through:
I started from London to France and to Spain, then I crossed into Morocco and visited Casablanca. I also passed through Mauritanian,St. Louis, Dakar, Mali, Bamako, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Accra, Lome, Benin before getting to Lagos.
How I intend going back, “I will fly back. I am going to auction the bike and the proceeds will go to Charity.
A message to those that intend to go through that journey:
Well, if you want to do the ride, I encourage everyone to go ahead and do it. It will test your limits. But I also read comment from a lot of people thinking that is how they can get to Europe. It is a lot difficult, it’s easier to go by flight because at every point, we have a very difficult border coast.
