The Nigerian female mechanic inspiring other women to join the field
Her childhood dreams of becoming a lab technician were not realized because of financial limitations but that did not dissuade her from exploring other ventures.
Olawumi Ganiu, a female mechanic in Ibadan defied all the odds to become an expert in vehicle repairs.
Speaking to Nigeria’s The Punch, Ganiu explained that although she gained admission to her dream school, Polytechnic Ibadan, to pursue higher education in 2014, the lack of resources made it difficult to go through with it.
She resorted to doing menial jobs to get some money to pay her fees. Eventually, she had to change her course, Science Laboratory Technology, for which she gained admission, and pursue Mechanical Engineering, a part-time course, to be able to do both side by side.
“I attached myself to mechanical work in order not to be jobless. When I started, my bosses were like, am I sure I want to do this? Before I started this, I used to help my mother to hawk but I said I don’t want to do that again,” she said in the interview.
With determination, Ganiu has completed her course and now has a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mechanical Engineering.
Narrating some of the challenges she has faced in her profession, the female mechanic said she got victimized because she refused to agree to sexual advances from a lecturer.
She also noted that her male coursemates also made discouraging comments about her participation in the course but she ignored them.
“One lecturer tried to ask me out and because I said no, I failed in statistics. Some of my mates said I couldn’t use my skills to work in the real world but that only pushed me to press on,” she said.
In extreme cases, some of her customers complained about her when she worked on their vehicles, many of whom made stereotypical statements.
Ganiu said she hopes to own her garage soon and is working on a project to encourage other women to embark on this same path.
"I think I’m destined to become a doctor, and I’m doing it in a different way. I am not embarrassed doing this work. I see myself having my own garage, encouraging other ladies to join this work because as it is I run a home garage. I already have a project I am working on, it will be like a reality show for ladies,” she mentioned in the interview with The Punch.
