Emmanuel Emmanuel

[Emmanuel Emmanuel @elzahavy]

@RMsquare01 @AskMichaelTaiwo @MtScholarships Congratulations brother

[Rabi'ata Muhammad @RMsquare01]

Alhamdulillah!

It takes more than just good CGPA to excel when you have only 0.75% chance of winning, especially as the pool is filled with people with the same grades as yours or even better. Grace propelled me this far.

Thank you so much Dr.@AskMichaelTaiwo
& @MtScholarships

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

It gives me great joy to announce the winners of the 2026 Michael Taiwo Scholarships.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 2026 MT Scholars.

These 69 were chosen out of 9,198 applicants.

Help me congratulate them.

[Rabi'ata Muhammad @RMsquare01]

Alhamdulillah, Wow! Our final CGPAs are the same.

CGPA evolution with years

100 level: 4.91 ✅️

200 level: 4.83 💔

300 level: 4.89 ✅️

400 level: 4.81 💔

500 level: 4.83 ✅️

300 lvl was 5.0 both semesters hence CGPA>

500 level; 5.0 2nd semester.

Institution's BGS

[Emmanuel Emmanuel @elzahavy]

@AskMichaelTaiwo Thank you Dr. T

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

It was when I was tasked to build the Hydrogen business for Shell in North America.

I worked, on average, 100hrs per week.

I would work Europe hours and then California hours.

But it wasn't even the time logged that was the issue for me...it was the executive responsibilities on my shoulders.

I was deciding how millions of dollars should be spent, lobbying members of Congress for favorable policy, advising national governments on Hydrogen strategy, writing industry standards, negotiating acquisitions and so on.

And then I still have to do the engineering, operations & maintenance, commissioning, etc.

I would get calls at 2am that a Hydrogen Station is down and start troubleshooting. Then by 5, take a Zoom call with folks in Europe before getting ready to meet a Senator at 10 to talk about the wonders of Hydrogen.

I loved it all. And obviously, I did it well.

But it also occurred to me that if I run my own business, and I treat it the same way, the payoff would be much more.

Also, by this time I had built the MT Scholarships as an organization with a reputable brand.

So, I had two data points:

1. I had built a thriving business inside a big company
2. I had built a successful non-profit from scratch

These two, in part, gave me the confidence that I can build businesses.

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

I earned $120K a year working for Shell in 2012.

Ten years and multiple promotions later, in 2022, that figure has doubled to $240K a year.

In 2023, I stumbled on an internal, confidential, document that showed the salaries of my superiors.

I saw that even if I were promoted multiple times again, the best I could hope for in another 10 years was another doubling to around $480K a year.

This may sound crazy saying it out loud but that wasn’t cutting it for me.

I simply didn’t want the next 10 years to be a repeat of the last 10.

I wanted geometric progression, not an arithmetic one.

On my 40th birthday, in 2023, I was asked to make a wish as a blew the candles on my birthday cake.

“Get the hell out of Shell,” I quietly whispered. Months later, I was out.

In 2024, my businesses grossed $500K; in 2025, they did $1M - geometric progression.

It required me to be delusional about my abilities, to bank on the faithfulness of God and to trust that inner voice that always nag at me that I could be more, I could do more and I could have more.

[FC Barcelona @FCBarcelona]

Magical photo by the @FundacioFCB 💙❤️

The story behind this photo 👉 https://t.co/Nzm1L6Ou3h

📸 Joan Monfort (Diari Sport)

[FC Barcelona @FCBarcelona]

The Barça Foundation 2008 solidarity calendar, in collaboration with @sport and @unicef, featuring Leo Messi, Lamine Yamal, and other Barça players.

A special campaign to raise funds for UNICEF and for Barça
Foundation childhood protection programs. 💙❤️

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@WallStreetMav Feminism and lack of children has killed the happiness of so many women

[Emmanuel Emmanuel @elzahavy]

@TheArchiveAz @FabrizioRomano 😂😂😂

[Abdul_Malik🏅 @OfficialProff]

2021 -Nigeria. Earning my daily 2k doing Solar Installations

2026- INRS, Canada. Earning my daily 2k developing the Materials.

2021. 2026.

[Brighton & Hove Albion @BHAFC]

New kid on the block. 💫

[Bruno Fernandes @B_Fernandes8]

how can I assist you? ☕

[Israel Abiodun Olayiwola @Izzyabbey2]

@AskMichaelTaiwo @MtScholarships My name is Olayiwola Israel Jesugbogo, a First class graduate of Laboratory Technology from Modibbo Adama University, Yola. I graduated in the top 5% of my class. During my undergraduate program, I won the coveted vice chancellor award for best student in Laboratory Technology,

[Casemiro @Casemiro]

🔴

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

I'll also say this as someone who grew up on the nice side of the barbed wire fences and high gates in the very nice part of town where the Nigerian 0.1% live - learn to touch grass and worry about yourself because rich people really do not care about you. Like, at all.

The Nigerian rich don't even like each other. They barely tolerate one another and make practical alliances to preserve wealth and influence. And now that the economy is too small to support all the children of the Nigerian 0.1%, nearly everyone I grew up with in the nice, leafy part of town now lives in Toronto or London or wherever. You, Mr N250k/month Union Bank contract staff are not part of rich people's thinking at all.

At. All.

The rich have no plans for you. They have no plans to create opportunities for you. They have no plans to fix the things they broke on their way to building that N1bn townhouse in Parkview Estate. They have no plans to contribute towards making society better. If Satan came from Hell with a tail and horns growing out of his head and he ran for political office, the rich would all go make deals with him - because in the world of the rich, the only thing that matters is their own interests, and making sure that they never, EVER have to live like you or next to you.

So all this simping and vicarious fawning over wealth and fame that you people do everyday is the most redundant thing in the world - the rich have no intention of expanding their circle to let you in, and they have no intention of enabling the conditions for you to create your own independent circle of wealth. The only thing the rich need from you is to be poor and obedient, so that your labour can be cheap, plentiful and replaceable.

Statistically as a Nigerian, you will NEVER be rich or close to it. You will NEVER live in Maitama. 99.99% of Nigerians who have existed since 1960 have prayed and fantasised about becoming rich, and 99.99% of those prayers and fantasies never came true. That's just math. You will never be a rich and famous celebrity. You will never be a successful content creator. You will never make millions shilling crypto, trading Forex, sports betting, or whatever the fuck is the latest quick wealth fantasy in town. It's just not going to happen.

That being the case, a much more constructive use of your time would be to fight for the material elevation of what you actually have, where you actually have it. Instead of daydreaming about the N300m house in Lekki that 3 generations of your family cannot buy, get involved in a local effort to give your own immediate neighbourhood a facelift, or a political campaign to pressure the state to build high quality social housing.

If you hate being harassed without consequence online, instead of vicariously enjoying how a celebrity has used their wealth and influence to jail someone for making a horrid tweet, fight for a judiciary and legal system that is transparent and accessible to all, so that a singer living in the UK on a global talent visa doesn't get to have more access to your Nigerian justice system than you who lives in Nigeria 24/7.

Instead of building your mental architecture around the false idea of being a "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" who will someday take your rightful place on Banana Island, touch grass tonight and accept that it will never happen, and what you need to do instead is fight for where you are to become a better, more liveable place that you no longer wish to escape from. Stop cosplaying as rich folk. Stop cooing and fawning over rich folk. Stop daydreaming about someday "blowing up" and buying a house next to Burna Boy. Rich people have no intention of sharing their world with you. Free yourself from the tyranny of living vicariously through people who don't care that you exist.

Them no really send any part of your papa at all.

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

The first project I managed in Shell was a $750K that I got because no one in the room wanted it - it was too small for them.

We were upgrading the Firewater System in an old oil producing platform seating in 3,000 feet of ocean water.

By the time we were done, the project ran into over $1M and it was such a success that it put me on the radar.

If you are trying to break into a new role, sniff around for the job no one wants and take it.

Like a deadly striker all you need is a half-chance to score.

Take those half-chances.

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

@Demo4show The three tactics work, especially in combination.

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

This is me during my Shell Recruitment Day in November 2011.

1hr after the whole day group interview, I got the phone call I can never forget, “Congratulations, they all loved you. When can you start?”

If you have an upcoming group interview where they put a bunch of you together in a room and give you a task to work on together, then sit up.

I will tell you my secrets.

I don’t need them anymore and it can help you land your dream job.

They are what I used during my SRD.

I have given the same playbook to many mentees who used them to land their dream jobs in various companies.

So, trust me, this works.

A 🧵