BY: NewsPeddlers
 |
| Kunle Adeyanju in London |
Kunle
Adeyanju, also known as ‘The Lion Heart’, travelled 41 days from London to
Lagos on a motorcycle. Arrives Lagos on Sunday, crowd welcome him at Badagry before he left for Ikoyi where he was received by Rotary Club.
Speaking with
ADEBIMPE
OLAJIGA PUNCH reporter he narrated
his journey.
Kunle Adeyanju in Dakar
Kindly
introduce yourself
My name is Adekunle Adeyanju. I am from Kwara State, Offa
to be precise. My marital status is complicated. I have children but the other
part is complicated.
Can you
please summarise your trip? How was it?
It’s been a heck of a ride.
It’s been loaded with experience and pain, lots of pain but also lots of
beautiful moments. That’s what life is. It’s a combination of both. It’s been a
wonderful experience.
Kunle Adeyanju in Benin Republic
How long
have you been in London and what’s the aim of your trip?
I am Nigerian-based but my family lives in London. We’ve
been there for about thirty years. I shuttle between London and Lagos.
Can you
name the countries you passed through?
So I started from London to France and Spain, then I
crossed into Morocco and visited Casablanca. I also passed through
Mauritania, St. Louis, Dakar, Mali, Bamako, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Accra,
Lome, and Benin before getting to Lagos.
What’s the
motivation behind this trip?
For me, it’s all about giving
back. It’s 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?
Kunle Adeyanju enter Nigeria
On this polio
project, what was the push?
For me, 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.
I covered twelve thousand
kilometres for the whole journey. I didn’t ride during the whole 41 days. There
were some days when I had to do some humanitarian work which had to do with going
to the field to immunise children, meeting with people who were volunteers
doing this work, encouraging them and engaging them.
How do you
intend to go back and what’s the plan for your power bike?
(Laughs) I will fly back. I am
going to auction the bike and the proceeds will go to charity.
You’ve
been talking a lot about Zenab? What’s the plan for her? What’s so
special about her and tell us how you met her?
I 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. Do I
want to be with her? The answer is yes. Whether she will say yes or not, I
don’t know. But yes, it is something I’d love to do.
We’ve had
so many people talk about going through that journey, trying to do the same
thing you have done. What do you have to say to them?
Well, if you want to do
the ride, I encourage everyone to go ahead and do it. It will test your limits.
It will inspire you. You will discover your true self. But I also read comments
from a lot of people thinking that is how they can get to Europe. It is a lot
difficult. It is easier to go by flight because, at every point, we have a very
difficult border coast, he told Punch.
Source: PUNCH