Leslie is a playful, opinionated, deeply sentimental man who loves his people fiercely and is still learning to be kinder to himself.
1986
Born in Ajegunle,
Lagos, Nigeria
I was born in Ajegunle, Lagos, in 1986.
My mom, at the time, was a Fine Arts teacher, who did her best to get by with sewing, tie & dye and selling clothes. I, on the other hand, was totally invested in being a menace, as all toddlers would at my age.
1993 - 2002
Finding my own thing
Growing up in the 90s is something difficult to capture in words
The music was better. The fashion was better. I was six, seven, eight years old, and everything felt new. There was so much to discover, and my imagination was constantly getting ahead of what I’d actually seen.
I was a proper school nerd.
And a pretty good one, too.
For a while, academic excellence was pretty much my entire personality.
I was particularly good at mathematics, regularly came first in class, won academic prizes, participated in competitions and debates, and eventually became Head Boy.
I had a close-knit group of friends, and we started discovering life beyond textbooks and classrooms. We'd find random places to hang out, sneak off on weekends, play games, gist about life, and generally enjoy being teenagers.
2002
With great freedom,
comes great responsibility
Being good at school hadn’t prepared me for everything that came next.
I arrived at UNIBEN straight out of secondary school, with prizes, a head-boy title and plenty of confidence behind me. I wanted independence and some room to figure life out for myself.
Boy, was I
wrong!!!
But this was also where I started taking design seriously. I taught myself how to design and earned my first money from a design job. Someone had paid me for something I’d made, and I was ridiculously proud.
2007
Beginning anew
Having to start again at Covenant was tough, but thankfully I had support from family who believed in me.
Covenant was also where I found my tribe. I met folks who were just as excited about technology as I was, with their own ideas about what they wanted to create. We shared what we were learning, encouraged each other and pushed one another to get better.
I’d already started learning more about design and tech, and having that kind of company made a difference. There were people I could talk to about the things I was figuring out, people whose enthusiasm fed my own.
We had plenty of ideas, and being around each other gave us more reasons to pursue them.
2015
Navigating life
Work was moving forward. I was building useful things, growing as a designer, and making lasting friendships. I assumed the rest of life would follow.
Over time, that assumption became harder to sustain.
A period of personal difficulty challenged my confidence and forced me to reconsider how I was approaching my relationships, responsibilities, and well-being.
Progress was uneven, but I gradually learned to be more honest with myself, seek support when I needed it, and rebuild a steadier foundation.
...and then i met her
2018
I met the woman who
would become my wife.
We talked. I travelled to see her. We clicked, and we kept talking. She’s smart, focused, caring, loyal... she ticked all the checkboxes
She asked me out, which is still one of my favorite parts of the story.
We did long distance: visits, travelling back and forth, making it work. Eventually, she asked the very reasonable question:
“Aren’t you going to marry me?”
Oh shit. Right. Yes.
I bought a ring and proposed over the phone. Yes, over the phone. We got married, spent a year in Nigeria, and then moved abroad.
2026
Forty. And grateful.
There’s still a lot I’m figuring out. But today, I want to take a moment to appreciate the life I have and the people I get to share it with.
That boy who stood in front of a school computer, imagining everything he could make, is still very much here. He’s just got a few more grey hairs now.
As I turn forty, I want to make more time for my people, keep trying things that excite me, and learn to be a little kinder to myself.
To my wife, my mum, my sisters, and the friends who’ve been part of these different chapters: thank you. For the love, the laughter, the support, and the ordinary moments that don’t always make it into a story like this, but mean so much.
And yes, I made an entire website for my birthday. Let me enjoy myself.
