Orafiri Ibisiki: Multi-talented kid motivational speaker

My name is Orafiri Ibisiki. I am 11 years old and just finishing Year 6. I am a twin. My twin brother, Oribi, is the most amazing and super talented boy I have ever met. He is a multitalented instrumentalist, known for his drumming skill, songwriting, singer and a motivational speaker.

I am also multi-instrumentalist. I play the violin on Grade 3 level and the piano on Grade 4 level, of the Associated Board of Royal School of Music, United Kingdom. I am the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Writers Excel, a company I started to promote reading and provide books for children in rural communities. I am a speed-reader, spoken work artiste, star tennis player and swimmer. However, I am mainly a writer. I sing in the Children Church choir and I am part of Zidata – @zidataworld, a children musical talent group.

I started playing piano before I was two years and picked up the violin when I was three, because I loved the sound and technique of playing violin. I enjoyed writing short stories and my passion for writing was fully explored at the age of four, after I was enrolled in a writing camp, where I became fond of poetry and other genres of writing. Most of my published poems were written between the age of six and 10. The path to success is not always easy and that also applies to me.

In my journey as a writer and student, there have always been those times, when schoolwork takes up most of my time and I am not able to write or do anything else (tests, assessments, assignments, private lessons, among others). To avoid this, my mum and I created a schedule, which helps me achieve my daily tasks with ease. With various activities outside school, it can be very difficult to concentrate in actual schoolwork, especially when there are recitations and interviews to attend to.

So, I ensure that I never get ahead of myself. While in school, I concentrate fully on my studies and when school is done, I can think about everything else. I spend most of my time off school, honing my talents and dealing with home chores. Chores became a critical part of my schedule after I turned 10. It was like a really big deal initially, but now, I am used to getting my chores done and I have accepted it.

I get inspiration from the most unimaginable places; but my inspiration comes from life events; things happening in my life and around me. Most of my poems in my debut book, Golden Poems for Children, were born out of my experiences and things around me. For example, the poem, Inner Beauty was inspired from my experience with the fashion show that held in my school. Also, the poem, Mum, was written when I was six. It is a description of what I felt about my mum at that age.

My ultimate goal is to motivate more children to read. To help me achieve my goal, I made an elevator pitch to raise funds for the publication of my first book of poems, and with my parents’ help, it was circulated on social media. I was very fortunate with the responses, and I was able to publish and launch my book Golden Poems for Children in March 2019. The book is targeted at young children, as the words are basic, the colour scheme is pastel and the poems illustrate basic concepts like counting, animals and weather conditions.

The money from the sales would be used to purchase books for my library project in a rural area. I am privileged to have received acceptance to furnish a local library in my hometown, Okrika, River State.

Chimamanda Adichie inspired me. I enjoyed reading the series of Enid Blyton. Lately, I have been engulfed in reading the Theodore Boone series of John Grisham books. The feats achieved by Serena Williams in tennis, Tatjana Schoenmaker in swimming and Chiamaka Nnadozie in soccer, motivate me to take sports seriously, believing that I can reach great heights, if I keep on practising my swimming and lawn tennis.

My advice to young talented children is never to stop believing in themselves. Keep working hard to achieve your dreams and you will get there by God’s help. I also encourage every young person to embrace reading as a culture and not just as a means to pass examinations.