I Prefer to Stick to Food And Master it - Iyiola Daniel
Can we meet you?
Daniel: I am
Iyiola Daniel, a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University. I finished from the
department of Family, nutrition and consumer sciences (Food, Nutrition and Dietetics
option). I am from Osun state, Iwo, precisely. I am the CEO and brand director
of Ecstasy Consults. I am a Christian. I am single.
Tell us about your
background.
Mr. Daniel: I was
born in ijanikin, along badagry express road in Lagos state. I grew up there. I
finished from Damtops primary and secondary school. I’m very industrious and
very enterprising. Immediately I finished primary school, I enrolled as an
apprentice at Definite art studio where I learnt portrait painting, greeting
card designs, banner design and screen printing. At some point in jss3, I
enrolled for a two-week training, where I learnt bead making. My secondary
school days were tasking, being that I had to combine academics with artisan
works. Also, I’m a very good scrip writer, and I act very well. I featured in a
couple of stage plays in secondary school. There is this book, piece by pieces – it is a literature
book. I have forgotten the name of the author. I acted as the chief in the
stage drama. I also featured in two Christian movies. The first one is, Iponju
Alaimokan, a Yoruba movie in 2004. The second one is great manipulation, in
2008. While in secondary school, I took up a lot of responsibilities. In Jss3,
I was the time keeper. In ss1 I was the laboratory prefect, in ss2, I was the
punctuality prefect, in ss3, I was the assistant head prefect. University days
was fun. In part one, I was sedentary – I spent most of the times in my room.
In part two I was more enterprising and I was carried as the bible study
secretary in the fellowship. So, when we resume, I had too much on me that I
had to manage academics, business and fellowship responsibilities. the bible says, the glory of the youth is in
his strength. So I decided this is the best time to serve God. Business can
always come later. So, I basically dropped business to focus on academics and
serving God.
What is the one
experience you will always remember?
Mr. Daniel: I
think I will always remember my moments with coach Mexico. That was when I was
general secretary for The Apostolic Church Student Fellowship of Nigeria
(TACSFON OAU). Sometimes, during after exam when I go to see him, he’ll just
look at me, and say, Bobo, come. You
don’t have anything doing, let me teach you somethings. Oya, sit down, and
we’ll start discussing. I learnt administration from him. I also learnt not to
assume on anything. Although a lot of people had issues with him. Some were
scared to see him. Summarily I had a wonderful experience with him.
As touching your
relationship with people, some say you are not approachable, some say you are,
some say you are too formal. What is your take on that?
Mr. Daniel: Alright,
for every individual, they are right. It is just the side of me that they know.
First, I will not crucify anyone. It depends on the terms on which we are
meeting….
Most times people say
your personality tends to carry this formal atmosphere
Mr. Daniel: (laughs)
I will just say it is the side of me that is available to them. If you meet
some of my close friends, they won’t say that. If you meet someone like Daniel
Victoria, (laughs), she might say that, but on a larger scale, she is most
likely to tell you that this person is funny and jovial. I think it’s just the
side of me that is available to people is what they see, what they talk about,
and is how much they can know. But if they dare to come closer, they will see
all other sides of me that there is different from what they think. But I won’t
dispute the fact that most times I appear formal. Probably because for some
times, now, I’ve been engaged in formal duties. So, it has taken a significant
part of me, and it’s reflects in some of the things I do.
Who are the audience
of Ecstasy?
Mr. Daniel: It’s
global. And that was one of the reasons we went into the project, “maximizing
web 2.0 … a healthier you at a click”. The result of that project was our
website. We wanted to reach a global audience. We wanted to make consulting
available to our audience at a click. From our website, you can send us a mail
and we’ll reply via the site. However, with the fact that most of the team
members of ecstasy are students of Obafemi Awolowo University, we have the
university as our primary audience.
The issue of hunger
is a global one, and even more severe in Africa. What is Ecstasy’s contribution
to this challenge?
Mr. Daniel: Making
food secured in the country is not an issue that only ecstasy can handle. The
government, agriculturists, those in transport sector, shopping malls, even
those who are into storage facilities production have their role to play. We
all have to work hand-in-hand with other bodies who share the vision and
passion. But on our own little way, meeting our own primary audience, we
discovered that their challenge is not actually severe hunger but food choices.
And you know, a lot of times, what actually causes malnutrition is not actually
the non-availability of food, as it were, but wrong choice of food. A lot of
people don’t actually know the right choice of food. There was program I
attended last year, where I illustrated the situation of a student having N110
and wanting to eat. You walk past a suya joint and bought N100 suya and N10 sugar
to take garri. Now how about N110 will afford you risky on campus, a combination
of bread, egg, spiced with pepper and other ingredient. Now that affords you a
healthier diet than the former. With that, you are now getting two different
kinds of food even at the same amount. And a lot of students don’t even buy N100
suya, they buy more than that. So, the challenge is, people don’t know the
right food choice to make even with the little they have. Another thing is that
a lot of people don’t use the local food they have. The western culture has so
much infiltrated into us that we now adopt their cuisines at the expense of our
local ones. I was speaking with an associate professor sometimes last year, and
has speaking on the benefit of pap to us. So, there are so many of these local
food that we hardly pay attention to. But it is the issue of malnutrition that
ecstasy is currently addressing. But sometimes in the future we would address
the issue of severe hunger.
What do you recommend for daily feeding?
Mr. Daniel: Basically, in the nutrition world entirely, we’ve stopped the concept of balanced diet because what is balanced for you might not be balanced for me depending on our health condition. So, what we are advocating for now is adequate diet. And this because what is adequate for you might not be adequate for me, depending on our health condition. The diet adequate for a person with diabetics is different from the diet adequate for the person suffering from ulcer. Meanwhile, their health conditions does not allow them to eat the same kind of food. So, basically, we study each individual and we prescribe the food adequate for each individual health condition.
The people that have
access to the internet are the educated, and those who can afford the gadgets
to access ecstasy. However, there are more people out there, especially in the
rural places that cannot afford it due to low financial capacity and level of
exposure to such information. How do you intend getting across to such group of
people?
Mr. Daniel: the
challenge of nutrition cuts across everybody, but will just see those ones as another
audience we have to address. To the glory of God, the Ecstasy Water Education Program (E-WET) actually aims to address audience in rural areas, and by the
grace of God, we are planning to start it soon. And our target is to go into
the rural communities and breed a very good water culture, alongside nutrition
among infants. I think with that, we can address those audience too.
How does ecstasy
intend to finance her project?
Daniel: As need
be we would get sponsors and partnerships from like minds who are ready to run
with the vision of ecstasy to sponsor some of our projects.
So, ecstasy is not
planning on, having a financial arm in the nearest future apart from
partnerships and sponsors?
Mr. Daniel: Basically, as the name implies, ecstasy is a
consulting firm. Let me just put it this way, what ecstasy is doing presently
will eventually be re-branded as Ecstasy Foundation. But for now, the other ways
by which we will be sourcing for fund is to get clients who consult us for
personal treatment. That has to do more with area of dietetics. We could use
that too, to support what ecstasy do.
Are you having any
project in mind to work on, as soon as you are through?
Mr. Daniel: Before
the magazine came up, we were working on project WET I talked about – the
ecstasy water education program. What we are aiming at is that we look for
rural communities who have core issues with water. Project wet is what we are
currently working on, which we need sponsors for, because the project is
capitally intensive. We hope to provide a borehole water system. We are working
with the mindset of going to the rural communities and solving the problems,
not just educating them on it and after leaving, they still continue with their
normal routine. The program is capital intensive, but we are working on it. I can’t
really promise our audience that project wet is the next project we are going
to commence after the magazine. But we really trust God to help us.
Where will ecstasy
consults be in the next 10 years?
Mr. Daniel: Wow.
That’s awesome. By then, we’ll have subsidiaries, and ecstasy foundation would
have been consolidated. By then, I believe ecstasy consults should be able to
fund ecstasy foundation effectively.
Why should people
read the online magazine, the voice for the unheard?
Mr. Daniel: The
reason everyone should read the magazine is because we are speaking for a
vulnerable group that can’t speak for themselves. We are speaking for children
under five. They are vulnerable groups at the mercy of the decisions the adults
make. What make their conditions pathetic is, they can’t verbalize their
plights. I think every individual should read the magazine, first, to listen to
their plight. Second, to make more conscious decision that will actually make
the world more sustainable for them. The magazine is now available for download
free on www.ecstasyconsults.com.ng
Your elder brother is
a music producer, and a good musician, but you chose to go in the path of
family nutrition. Professionally, you are at two distant ends. Why didn’t you
go in the line of music in the first place?
Mr. Daniel:
Alright, I actually love good music. I have flare for good sound, even though I
don’t do music like produce music or play instruments well. I play drums though
but I’m not the kind of person who wants to go fully into music that much. But
I have flare for good sound. If something is wrong with your sound… I love the
sound. I think that is just my convergence with music. I can tell when you are
making good sound and when you are not. It is not like I can’t do it. It just
that it is a different field entirely, which requires total devotion. And I
don’t want to pick this, drop it, pick another thing and drop it. I prefer to
stick to food and master it.
Apart from food, what
else do you love?
Mr. Daniel: I
love graphic design so much. I love anything that has to do with ICT, not
because I want to go fully into it, but because I want to be versatile and
because it is an area I use in ecstasy very much. It is a field I interact with
every day to make ecstasy achieve its goal. ICT plays a very key role in
ecstasy, talk about cartoons web design, etc.
Let’s go back 200
years before now, when ICT was not available, especially in Nigeria. What would
you have done with ecstasy?
Mr. Daniel: I
think, basically, that would have informed our line of action, activities and
the modalities by which we deliver our services. 200 years ago, I think ecstasy
would have informed people on the essence of taking organic foods only with
emphasis on local foods with respect to location.
What would you like
to tell our audience, and the people who have same or similar vision with
yours?
Mr. Daniel: To my
audience, I want to assure them that ecstasy is still committed to making sure
they are healthier. Our goal is to achieve healthier individual. And to others
with same or similar interest, my advice is, they should keep at it and not
relent. It might be tasking but they should keep at it. My general advice is,
they should learn to delayed gratification. An average youth wants financial
gratification for whatever they do. It is a syndrome that has eaten deep into
an average Nigerian youth. We need to find pleasure doing NOBEL things free.
Thank you so much for
your time
Comments