Benjamin Kuti moved to the United Kingdom in 2008 to study Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering on the advice of his mother.
Mr Kuti is known as Oluomo ‘Blessed one’ of Derby on Twitter where he enjoys large following by Nigerians at home and abroad looking to work in the health sector.
According to him, the name Oluomo of Derby came from his aunt who was fascinated by the progress he had made living in Derby.
“She said to me; Benjamin, if you leave Derby, things might not go well with you.”
Mr Kuti studied at the University of Derby, England. After four years, he graduated and began work at Rolls Royce, Derby, as a computational engineer.
“I came to Derby to study and after studying, I decided to stay back. You know how life is; God just lifts you from one place to put you somewhere and everything has been as good as gold.”
At Rolls Royce, his earning was not enough to pay his bills and send money home to his family in Nigeria. Like Oliver Twist, he wanted more to meet his needs and that of his family. So in 2016, he took a part-time job as a cleaner for a care home to augment what he earned at his full time job.
Working as a cleaner is often regarded as a job for the uneducated, especially among the Nigerian elite.
At the care home he worked on weekends. Little did he know it was going to be the start of something great.
Not long into his new cleaning job, Mr Kuti found himself recommending others for a similar job at the home he worked at.
“They were always recruiting people, always short of staff. I said to myself, ‘there are a lot of people willing to work in London.’”
He made a call to his friend about the opportunity and asked him to come down to Derby to take the job.
“I spoke to the management, I spoke to Sally, who said if I had people I should bring them down. She was going to train them and they needed people,” Mr Kuti said. “I brought folks down, the first week they employed one person. The guy was so good that Sally asked if she could get another person just like him. I recruited two more people for them,” he narrated.
Mr Kuti had an epiphany at this point. “I said to myself, hold on, I actually just gave three people to this home, why don’t I start doing this as a part-time job?”
He continued to work on weekends while recruiting for the care home.
“The manager requested a payment invoice. I asked if the money was not to be paid to my account and she said no, explaining all that was needed.”
A typical Nigerian, Mr Kuti consulted with the elders (his uncles) who advised him on what to do “and the rest is history.”
Sally, Mr Kuti’s manager at the care home, would later call to inform him that she was being moved to another branch and would be needing him to bring five more people. “Then I realised this was a new place God was taking me to.”
With this new job as a recruiter, Mr Kuti was now earning half his monthly pay in a week. It was time for him to leave his white-collar job.
According to him, he derived more satisfaction from the smiles on people’s faces when he found them jobs.
“I feel what made me happy the most was that I was giving opportunities to people; people were happy, people who have not worked in a while. And most of the people I recruit are Nigerians, knowing that we must help ourselves,” he said.
Responding to how he was able to suppress the ‘African’ pride that accompanies a degree to work as a cleaner, Mr Kuti said, “Once you travel out of Nigeria, your mindset changes so much. You learn and unlearn a lot here; taxi drivers, cleaners etc over here own properties.
“Over here, it does not matter who you are, everyone gets equal respect. My mindset had changed already to the fact that at the end of the day, I am not committing any crime, I am only trying to put food on my table. I also understand my situation, so it is either I get out there and get something done or keep on complaining,” he added.
“This was not something I planned.”
He added that if he had stayed back at his former place of work, his pay would probably have increased but not as much as he earns now.
What started off as a part-time job, is now a business paying about 18,000 pounds weekly. It is now known as Genuine Care; a partnership between Mr Kuti and his Sudanese friend.
“I am recommended to care homes who need staffers who I in turn help to recruit people who are ready to work. I employ a lot of Nigerians, knowing how difficult it is to settle in when you get here and I am where I am today because someone helped me too.”
Mr Kuti added that Nigerians abroad are a family. “if something happens to me here, it is the Nigerians here that will help me first before calling my family in Nigeria.”
Some Nigerians on social media say that helping another Nigerian in a foreign land can be a great undoing. Mr Kuti affirms this statement but believes that kindness always wins.
“It is very much true but the bottom line is for us to try to be good in our own little way.
“There was a lady who came to Derby from London, someone called and said she needed help. The guy who brought her from Nigeria was abusing her and there were many stories around her. I told the person who contacted me that I had a job and if she wants to come, there are no problems.
“I did something I would not ordinarily do and I regretted it. She came from London, I rented a room at 350 pounds and an upfront for the next month which made it 700 pounds. We agreed on how she would repay. After six months, I think she got too comfortable. She went to one of the managers at the home where she was posted to and asked why her pay was being sent to me and not to her who does the job.”
Mr Kuti immediately got an email from the manager asking if the lady was not aware of the contract agreements.
“I called her and she denied it. She said the manager was making it up; I told her it was not true and asked why it had to be her.”
At this point, Mr Kuti knew it was time to let her go. If he did not, his story would have been that of “using reggae to spoil blues”.
Comparing the affection between Nigerians abroad who are mostly not related and the animosity and antagonism back in Nigeria, Mr Kuti said, “Tribalism killed our parents’ generation and if we are not careful, it will also be our undoing.
“Abroad, it is very unlikely to see someone you know and so we are always glad to see anyone with the same skin colour or who looks like us. It is a foreign land and we know we are all we have so the question of my Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo brother never plays out.”
Mr Kuti nurses a political ambition, but moving back to Nigeria is a dilemma that he needs 10 years to resolve.
“When you have lived abroad for a while, you find it difficult to live in Nigeria – the poor healthcare, the bad roads – unlike here where I can access health services in a blink. And we have our leaders coming abroad for healthcare.”
He said he believes Nigerians are not demanding enough from the government, a factor, he said, contributes to the state of the country.