31/01/2026
SPOTLIGHT 🚨😲
May your life transform like the life of Samuel the tiler —
the boy whose quiet gratitude melted an entire nation’s heart.
I barely slept last night. Around 3 a.m., Samuel’s story kept replaying in my thoughts. It refused to let me rest. I kept asking myself: how many young people like him are scattered across this country, unseen, unheard, unnoticed?
Samuel is 19 years old today. When Adebayo interviewed him, Samuel said he started learning tiling in 2017. Do the simple math.
He was about 10 years old.
At an age when children should worry about schoolwork, play, and laughter, Samuel was already worried about survival. School was not an option — poverty had closed that door early. So he chose apprenticeship. He handed himself over to a trainer, learning how to lay tiles just to stay alive.
Ten years old.
Deep down, that should disturb us.
Yet, we casually excuse leadership failures that force children into adult responsibilities. Samuel did not choose hardship — hardship chose him. Still, he refused to be swallowed by the streets. No gangs. No drugs. No reckless shortcuts. No begging on busy roads. He was still a child, yet he carried himself with dignity.
After learning the trade, he could not afford to pay for his freedom. He did not complain. He followed a friend to construction sites, picking rubber and scrap metal, selling them for barely enough to eat. That was his choice.
He could have gone the other way. He did not.
Wise or unwise, he chose the hard road — the unpopular road. And somehow, that choice changed everything.
Samuel carries a level of discipline many adults never develop. Emotionally, mentally, spiritually — life forced him to grow before his time. He did not just grow older; he grew stronger.
His mother’s prayers, combined with his quiet determination, have now begun to bear fruit. Today, Samuel can pay for his freedom, work independently as a tiler, and slowly rebuild a future that once felt impossible. And through it
