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While the majority of my childhood memories are beautiful, I also have experienced the challenges that Nigeria has faced since independence.

I lost my parents when I was fairly young.

Nigeria has had the misfortune - no, the fortune - of seeing the worst face of capitalism anywhere in Africa. The masses have seen it, they are disgusted, and they want an alternative.

From 1967 to '70, Nigeria fought a war - the Nigeria-Biafra war. And in the middle of that war, I was 14 years old. We spent much of our time with my mother cooking. For the army - my father joined the army as a brigadier - the Biafran army. We were on the Biafran side.

Friends at school were always quite shocked that we holidayed in Nigeria, but it was all pretty middle-class, really.

My parents were in short street, so they had to go abroad to economize.

My father, who was jailed for stealing on more than one occasion, just abandoned his fatherly responsibilities and disappeared. I grew up working from the time I was nine years of age. Money was a big issue everywhere I lived.

Most of the money I made has gone back to Africa or is going back to Africa.

I lost my parents very early in my life. My mom died three weeks after I graduated from high school, and my dad died two years after I got married.

My parents didn't have any money.