Q: Please tell us about yourself
My name is Kehinde Nwani. My friends call me Kenny.
I am the last of 6 children and a twin.
I am in my late fifties and grew up in a university environment – University of Ife (now OAU) to be precise.
Growing up in staff quarters at Unife was special. Then, Unife was known as one of the most beautiful campuses in Nigeria, because we had lots of beautiful flowers, trees and hills. Nowadays however, it’s a whole different ball game as the flowers are gone, sadly. I believe the cost of maintaining a beautiful landscape when funds for research etc are not available, is responsible for this.
I am a lifelong learner to the core, which made me pursue a doctorate in my late forties and early fifties. I truly love to learn new things.
Finally, I’ll also say about myself that I believe in excellence in whatever I do. I don’t understand halfhearted attempts in anything. I fully support the adage “Anything worth doing at all, is worth doing well”.

Q: Can you share more about all the hats you wear?

I wear several hats in accordance to the different areas of purpose in my life.
Firstly, I am a child of God. This reality and relationship dictates practically everything I do in life and I find nothing more motivating and inspiring, than the fact that my life should always be lived for the glory of God.
Secondly, I am a wife to my husband – Andy Nwani and we’ve been married for 34 years. It’s been a great journey, certainly with its ups and downs, but what has not broken us has only made us stronger.
Thirdly, as a mother to my 3 wonderful children (4 actually, as my first child is married to the love of his life,) a lovely woman who I see as my daughter. Its been a blessing being a mother and custodian of these children (because really, they belong to God). They truly give me the utmost joy.
As a career woman, I am an Education Entrepreneur and the Founder/CEO of the Meadow Hall Group. Meadow Hall Group is made up of several subsidiaries including 2 private schools (Meadow Hall Lekki and Lagos Prep Ikoyi), a College of Education to train teachers, an Edutainment company and an Education Resource Centre.
Finally, I am a Nation Builder and I have set up several NGOs such as the Meadow Hall Foundation, an organization that focuses on capacity development in public and low cost private schools and A Beautiful Life (ABL), a mentorship initiative that helps women (21+) become the very best versions of themselves. I am also on the board of NGOs, namely ERIT (Education Reform and Innovation Team) and TTN (Transformational Teachers Network).

Q: What are your biggest strengths and what are your biggest weaknesses
My biggest strength, I feel my biggest strength is that, I am extremely purpose driven. I believe, because, if there's no purpose for anything I'm doing, I won't do it. I just need to see where I'm going. It makes me have this growth, mindset, I'm always improving myself because there's a goal. I'm very goal oriented, yeah, I think that's my greatest strength. I'm somebody who is very disciplined, if I'm looking at values. I'm extremely disciplined. I'm hard on myself. I demand a lot from myself. I demand same from people, very disciplined, very hardworking and very loyal to people.

Q: What is greatest weakness?

The main one thing I know very clearly is impatience. I'm an extremely impatient person, not extremely, God has been working on me over the years, but truly, my children say it. I don't understand wasting time on anything, I can be impatient. I think, sometimes, I also expect too much from people and sometimes, they can get in the way of how I react to them. They say your weakness is also your strength, it is exactly that weakness that also helps me generate results. In reform work, in leadership, I take charge of things. People would say, 'Oh dear, oh dear...Ah, see what's going on, what are doing about it?' That same impatience and wanting to achieve result and solution help in that. while people tolerate things that are not right, I can't. That impatience works in both ways for me. It helps me get results because, I will be on that thing till I get the result, but the flip side is, it can put people under pressure sometimes.

Q: What is your typical day like now
Now, my typical day is, because you know I’ve been abroad so it’s a bit different because by the time I wake up it’s already almost noon in Nigeria, I sleep very late so let’s say my day starts in the midnight because I’d have done everything, like prayers, so when I wake up I thank God for waking me up and I get to work immediately, because my people are already 5 hours difference, they’re already in the noon, so I start work. So, by the time I’m done for the day here, maybe it’s still like 2’0clock and for them it’s like 7’0clock, I would have my lunch and then start my second job, and my second job is preparing for all my trainings and speaking engagements, and coaching, and all these other things that I do while it’s day here, so I’ll start working on my presentations and things like that, and I do a lot of reform work, I have projects that I’m working on with other members of organizations, so that’s my second job. So once they’re sleeping, I’m still working. So that’s my typical day here.
Q: How did you start your day when you first started at work
When I started Meadow Hall, my typical day would have been getting to school at 8’0clock, or 7:30, by the way I started Meadow Hall when I was 35, so I’ll get to school by 7:30-8:00, and my leaders and I will be out there, sometimes under the rain with an umbrella, welcoming the children into school and all that, thereafter, maybe do somethings in my office, and then go into the classrooms, and I used to do a lot with the infant school, so that was how it was at the beginning. Even then when I was in Nigeria, after a while, it was more administrative things, being in my office, I also go round on Mondays, making sure that I’m always in the classroom, just maintaining my understanding and knowing from what’s going on in the classroom, I’ll go into the classrooms, then I’ll have meetings with the parents, or with staffs and things like that, so yeah, that would have been my normal routine.
Q: How was your early life growing up, your days as a teenager
It was, I think what I miss would be the security, you know I grew up in a small community, but it was very safe, it was a university campus, I remember myself, I have a twin brother, and I remember one time we we’re going to a party, walking around road 12 to road whatever, and our curfew was 10pm, so one minute after 10 like that you’re grounded for the next few parties, so we were waking back at 10pm, we ride our bicycles, we had a nice road in front of our house, so I think when I think about it, it was just more of security, that sense of safety, and security. And then we had friends, we all knew each other, our parents knew each other, you know the local Osundipe family, this family, that family, so it was quite a closeness, and till today, we look at ourselves and we see the same values, the hard work, the commitment, dedication, whatever we’re doing. Sothere was just something special growing up in a small community where you had educated people, who had been abroad, America, some of them studied everywhere and then all us there growing up with our parents. My teenage years were nothing interesting, I tried to remember, but nothing interesting to be honest, again like I said, I was quite introverted, I was shy, so there was just nothing that I would say stood out in terms of my teenage years.
Q: What made you choose to be in the career you are in today
I think, it is connected to my mother's profession, because my passion for education probably started from there. My mother wasn't in the university. She was a teacher and later became a headmistress in a public school, in town. She studied Education. My father was a Senior Administrator. He was very educated and his father was a university graduate. My father was also a university graduate and had a Masters degree. We lived in a university environment, so I'm certain that all that really had a big of impact on my love for education and learning.
Q: Did the degree you did in school directly help you with your chosen career
Not directly, it did not, but I have found it useful in what I do today so there’s no direct correlation between what I studied and what I found myself in, and of course I studied Law for 14 years before I pre voted into education because I wasn’t fulfilled as a lawyer, I studied law but I did not enjoy practicing law, so when I decided to follow my heart and my passion, no direct correlation, even to change from law to education, I wanted to just do masters in education but I was told I needed to find a bridge coast, that’s when I decided to do Montessori and the PGCE and all that. But I have definitely felt the impact of my study of law in my career and I think it’s just amazing, and I see people who just studied one course, studied education, and there’s a lot of difference between how I reason and how those people reason, and I’m not saying they reason in a bad way, but I just have a broader way of thinking, more holistic way of thinking. If you have one major, or you have two, or you have a major and a minor, there’d always be a difference, I have two majors because I went back to study education and I studied law, so it has an impact on my career and the way I do my things.

Q: What was your first job
A: My first job was with a law firm. I worked with Mr Oladimeji Longe. He was a Lawyer and he was a Litigator. He used to go to court so he was a Barrister at law. That was immediately after my law school. I worked with him, somewhere in Aguda. Thereafter, I worked with a man called Musa Ibrahim at his practice in Western House. After, I got married, I still stayed with him for a year or two and then I decided to go on my own. I set up my own chambers, Kehinde Nwani & Co. That was what I did until I decided to follow my dreams.
Q: What was it like getting your first salary pay cheque
A: In those days it wasn’t a lot, lawyers weren’t paid anything, maybe twenty thousand because in law, you’re taken to be doing a tutelage with any senior you’re working with, it’s like apprenticeship, so they barely pay you, just maybe for your transportation, I remember my first paycheck was maybe twenty thousand or something like that and even all the years I was practicing, I doubt if it got to a one hundred thousand, that’s why sometimes when I hear all these teachers complain I’m like honestly just go and look at other professions, don’t we have charge and bail lawyers everywhere on bikes with dirty collars and all, everybody, all professionals, but you would then walk through all those things then you can become a senior, then you become a San and you can rise and you become a senior advocate, a senior barrister at law and things like that. So it wasn’t anything to write home about. But then, of course the very first paycheck, we’ve been taught you have to send some to your parents to say this is my first paycheck, to thank them, and of course my dad being a reverend, we learnt about tithing, he taught us about tithing, so that was probably what I did with my first paycheck.
Q: Did you have a mentor in your early days at work
A: No, no formal mentor at all, in fact, I’d say that for a long time I had no formal mentor, you see I was the last child, my twin and Iare the last children of a family of six, our eldest brother is seventeen and half years older than us, so my brothers were older, my sister, the immediate older to us is 5 years older, so we learnt a lot from our siblings, so there’s no need for any external mentor and my father wasamazing in developing us, I remember we’ll sit down and talk, he’s a very smart man, we’d watch a show and he’d ask us what do we think about it, we’ll read newspapers and he’d ask us for our thoughts, just to develop our critical thinking. And he was our absolute role model.
Q: What is your current or your last job
A: Okay my role in Meadow Hall is still the chief executive officer I’m the CEO of Meadow hall. I have all the leaders, not all, but we have a very good structure, but I have at least 4-5 leaders reporting to me. And apart from that, as I said to you, I’m a business leadership coach, and I’m very much into education reform so I do those three, and with the schools and the other subsidiaries, I just make sure that I put very very good leaders who have also groomed so they can self manage and self lead, but those who report to me we meet weekly, we have ur meetings and they report to me what they’ve been doing all week, but also I wet up with them once a week, training them on leadership. So, there’s constant training on leadership going on even as they’re reporting to me, so that’s to do with it, but then I’m very much into leadership and business coaching now, and I do a lot of reform work in education with my NGO.
Q: How do your balance your work and your life
A: It can’t be balanced perfectly all the time, but once you see you are getting out of line in one area, you quickly readjust your priorities.
Without a strong and solid support system, you can’t be a good mum. Not in this day and age.
I am intentional and deliberate about taking care of my nannies and drivers. I treat them well, so they can in turn treat my children and husband well.
I am intentional about developing my PA so she can manage me effectively and efficiently.
My husband is definitely a huge support for me and we take turns in ensuring that we are there when our children need us.

Q: How do you manage stress
A: I draw strength from quiet a lot. I travel a lot more these days and I just love the stillness around me, especially wherever there are lots of trees, flowers and nature in general. In this kind of environment, I research and learn and work on my trainings or chill and watch TV.
Q: What are your hobbies
A: I love reading and I love learning and I actually find it therapeutic. After being on the laptop or wherever, researching, learning, preparing my trainings, looking forward to trainings and all that, I just put my feet up and I watch TV, Netflix, reality shows and things like that.
I love watching Reality Shows – shows like Love is blind, Married at First Sight. I honestly just enjoy such shows. I call it mindless watching. They are shows that require very little brain work and help me relax.
Q: What is your ideal vacation
A: When I go on vacation, especially when the children were growing up, for me, the ideal vacation wasn't so much the place, it was the hanging out with family and being together. After every summer, we would travel and that was the highlight for me, because everybody would have been at work, school, so just being together, Disney World, anywhere, we travelled quite a bit. We used to do a lot of cruises and I really loved cruises because I loved nature. I could be on a cruise, on the balcony, hours just daydreaming. I'm also a daydreamer . My daydreaming is usually connected to my work, the next step, the next project and things like that. I use to love cruises and lovely hotels. I love being pampered. I really don't like walking out in the sun, carrying back packs and you're climbing, ah! no! (laughs) it's more of the place, the hotel, being with the family, than going from place to place taking pictures, no, it's not me.
Q: Your favorite food, dessert and Snack
A: Rice. I love rice. I don't eat swallow at all. I don't like the way it goes down the throat. I have never liked it. I eat vegetables by itself, I eat okra by itself. I've always been a rice person. Any rice, fried rice, jollof rice, white rice. I have loved it from when I was young. Rice and vegetable is really my favourite, not rice and stew.
Q: Your favorite place in the world outside Nigeria
A: I love Europe, France, Spain, and Barcelona. I love Europe a lot. I love places in America too, but there's one place that I remember, it was on a cruise actually. I got there and I thought wow! It was Santorini in Greece. I felt it was just special. It has this wall all around it and it was just beautiful, so I would say Santorini stood out in my mind but then I really like Europe. I love France, I enjoyed when I was in Barcelona. I would say Europe.
Q: How did you meet your Spouse
A: I met my husband during my Youth Service. Went for a common friend’s birthday party and that’s how we met. This tall, dark and handsome (TDH) guy approached me and that was how the story began. We have been married for 34 years to the glory of God.

My hubby is an Ibo man from Ezi, in Aniocha Local Govt in Delta State. He’s been a business man forever and he was the one that modelled good business practices to me, before I cut my own teeth around business. He is a good and kind man.
Q: How many children do you have
A: I have 3 adult children aged 32, 23+, 19+. I could not have wished for better children. All of them are well behaved, but above all, they have a reverential fear for their maker. And of course, I have an amazing daughter in law who incidentally attended Meadow Hall. By the way, my son attended BIS and they never met until they both had passed out, gone to school abroad and relocated back to Nigeria. Then providence brought them together. They are perfect for each other and I thank God always for their union.
Q: Did you want more
A: After my first, I had a long delay, eight years of nothing, no pregnancy. I was just too thankful when my second child came. Then, I remember saying to God that if I ever get pregnant again, let it be a girl and I then got a girl. It was just perfect, three, perfect number.
I never really wanted a big family. I was just happy with the three that God gave me.
Q: Did any of them follow in your footsteps, career wise
A: None of them studied Education or want to be teachers or head of school, no, they're not interested.
Q: How does that make you feel
A: No way at all. I train on succession planning. It is very important for people to understand that succession planning doesn't mean that, it has to be your children
Q: What do you think of people that force their children to do what they want
A: It's absolutely wrong. It is so wrong. It's a matter of time, it will collapse. The children will not be happy. Anyway, do you think people can still be forced? Children of today, I don't think you can force them. Maybe in those days, when they say you must be a lawyer like me. These ones that want to be social media influencers, they're not going to be forced to do anything. I think it's less of a problem these days.
Q: What is your favorite time of the day
A: Absolutely morning. I hate night. When it's time to sleep, I'm like , oh Lord! I just wish this cup would pass over me and it can be morning. At the first ray of sunshine, I'm awake, my spirit, my everything is awake. I absolutely love the morning, the few hours of the morning, it's like hope.
Q: What experiences have you had in your life that you’d say have shaped you to be the person you are today
A: I think where I am today, I’m not sure it’s experiences, but I think it’s my upbringing, definitely, my upbringing has made me who I am today, the values, the Christian home, the hard work, the humility, and we were taught that good name is better than any other thing, that definitely. The second thing, maybe not an experience, but I’d say shaped me, I remember before my dad passed, my mom is still alive, but I remember me and my siblings will kneel down, the ones that will kneel, the ones that will prostrate will prostrate, just thanking them for who we are today, because if not for them, and to the glory of God we’ve gotten to the height of our chosen career. My brother who passed away last year, but he was a judge, he got to the court of appeal, I have a brother who’s a judge, my sister is a professor, so God really helped us through our parents, so I’d say our background, but maybe who I am then and who I am today, when it comes to experience would be my waiting on God for a second child.

That was when I really, you know when you talk about being broken, that’s when I realized got to know my God and anything that I do today, even when I built Meadow Hall, people say how do you feel today, I say I feel nothing, and I guess that was God’s way of preparing me for whatever was coming, He had already dealt with me during that period, taken out whatever he thought could be a problem, mounding me, keeping my focus on him, so that experience of waiting on God for a while for eight years, not knowing if there’d be another one, and then the one I have will be asking “why am I the only one”, he’ll be begging security men to play with him, he’ll come crying, and then he’ll come crying and I’ll go back to God crying, and yet nothing was happening, I’d pray, go to camp, and until God was ready, nothing happened, so that experience was what I think have made me what I am today, asides from my background.
Q: What one thing do wish you could go back in time and do all over again
A: There’s not really anything I’d change but maybe it I’d have studied education from the beginning and not do law, and then practice law for fourteen years and then come back to education. I thank God, at the end of the day I can see the benefits of having done the law, I always say to people that maybe if I’ve done education, maybe my husband would not have married me, maybe my path would have been different, so I don’t regret studying law, but the work that it took going back to school to study education, starting my PHD at the age of 48, you know most people would have finished their PHD in their thirties, but I was determined to get the pinnacle for my career, if the knowledge in my own area.

Being an educationist, having a doctorate is actually a plus, it’s not as if I’m doing marketing or doing engineering and then getting a PHD, I’m in the line of education, so it wasn’t easy, what I went through, studying at at level and then running my business and my home and having children, it was very tough, I’d look back and that time and say ah! I should have done this education, done my masters, done my PHD before getting married, because I think I finished school very early, I was in university by 15 plus, by 19 I was done , before 21, I was done with law school, so having to go back and then studying studying studying, so if there’s anything I’d change or regretted then maybe I’d be that, I think my path would have been easier.
Q: What are the best qualities you look for in people
A: I like happy people around me. Maybe because I'm quiet, so if someone is morose or melancholic, I will just avoid them. I don't understand sadness. I don't want somebody to make me feel sad, so I like happy people. I like genuine, authentic people. I can smell a fake from a mile away and I would avoid such people. Loyalty is one of my greatest values. I'm loyal to the core and I can't stand when people are two-faced.
I would say, happy people, authentic people and loyal people are very important to me.

Q: How is your relationship with God
A: My relationship with God, like I said started when I was young, in the household where I was raised, you know I had to go to church, my father was a clergyman, we grew up as Christians and we grew up understanding, because pastors will say because your car is in the garage doesn’t mean you’re a garage, you’re a car, so the fact that I was born in a Christian home doesn’t make me a Christian, so I had to still give my life to God, which I did in 1990, just before I got married, because before then I thought no, I’m not leaving my boyfriend and I’m not going to become born again, because I’m already a Christian anyways so I got married that same year I gave my life to Christ, so that’s it. I’m a believer, I don’t believe in religion, but I believe in being spiritual, and I’m constantly being led by the Holy Spirit, I believe I have the Holy Spirit inside of me, he leads and guides me. I can be a bit of a rebel when it comes to faith,o, but I’m still among those that will go to church, because some people will say because of that I don’t go to church again, but no, fellowship is still important to me but nobody can pull any wool over my eyes, it’s not possible.

When a pastor is talking, to be honest that’s why I thank God that I have an orthodox background, you can’t just tell me the Lord told me to sow something or I have to sow something, if the Lord wants me to, he’ll tell me exactly what to do. So, it’s very difficult to pull a wool over my face because I studied the word, I know the word, so when a pastor does anything that is bad or they fall, it doesn’t bother me, because I don’t follow man and by the way I’m an ordained minister, an ordained Pastor myself, so that’s me and my God, I have a very intimate relationship with God. Now I’d also say about God is that nobody knows Him truly, I gave my life to Him in 1990, but I’m still learning new aspects of him, it’s almost like he moves the goal post, as you’re getting there, then something happens and you’re like wow! God, so He keeps it interesting, He keeps you wanting to know him more, and more, so yeah, it’s a beautiful relationship I have with God.

Q: If you could pick 3 people to have a conversation with either living or dead, who would they be
A: I love to have conversations, I don't know about that dead o (chuckles), but I love having conversations with my friends, prayer partners, my children and my mentor, Pastor Nkoyo Rapu of Freedom Foundation and Pastor Tony's wife. She is a mentor to me, I love talking to her a lot when I get the opportunity. I always learn from her. I have different mentors for different aspects of my life. I would say, conversation with my mentor, my prayer partners, my family, my husband and my children.
Q: What are your 3 greatest achievements thus far
A: I always tell people that my circular and spiritual life, I can’t divide them, that’s why sometimes I always sound a bit like God God God, but unfortunately I’m not able to segment them, so for me the first thing would be my children, and when I say that, they’re not perfect children at all, but when I see that I have achieved to some extents my desire to look beyond me to God, so when I’m old, and by the grace of God and I go, they already have the relationship with their father, I’m only a custodian, so when I see them pray, and they’re funky, my children are very funky, so when I see them even in their funk, they understand that there’s a God and I think honestly, beyond being well behaved, that understanding of this higher person and not just the God of their mother, their God, and it’s ongoing, honestly I think that’d be my greatest achievement, pointing them to their creator, I’ve seen God bless the works of my hand, help me to move beyond my own expectations and I know it can’t only be God and I know that he still has more in store for me, so I’d say my career.

Q: Beef or Chicken or Fish
A: Chicken
Q: Hot or Cold weather
A: Hot, I hate the cold
Q: Morning, Afternoon or Night
A: Morning
Q: Sweet or spicy foods
A: Sweet
Q: Read, Watch TV or Listen to music to relax
A: Watching TV
Q: Iphone or Android
A: iPhone all the way
Q: Native, Formal or Casual clothes
A: Native, I love wearing my Nigerian clothes, Iro and Buba, Gele and all
Q: Window seat or aisle on a plane
A: Window sit, always
Q: Europe, Asia or North America to visit
A: Europe
Q: Going out or staying home
A: Staying at home

Q: Please can you give some advice to the young people coming behind you
A: I think they should discover purpose. Some would call it vision or a calling. When there's something in you, it keeps you motivated. You keep learning. It excites you and you're passionate about it. Most people don't do that, we just go round and round in circles. You don't take up any job and relocate. You must know the purpose for which you've been created and follow it.
It is also said that, 'Safety is found in your place of purpose.' When you are in your place of purpose or wherever God has created you for, He will keep you safe in it. You would not be out of His jurisdiction. It's always important to discover purpose. Sometimes, people struggle with that, so I'd say to them, just keep doing what you're doing passionately. Purpose will discover you because God did not create anybody to be confused about why they're here. Some people know very early, some people don't know very early, but once you're purpose driven, it dictates every other thing you do. Then, the Person that gave you purpose, hold on to Him, till the end. He'll be directing you. There will be plenty of challenges, but because He is with you, He will continue helping you, guiding you on how to navigate and achieve.