Dr. Kelvin Alaneme… Japa meets music

Dr. Kelvin Alaneme is the CEO of CareerEdu, a Career guidance service based in the UK and Nigeria. He is also a versatile singer. With more than five extended projects released so far. In this interview with one of our correspondents, ‘Dr. Alams’ as he is fondly called by his fans in the music circle leads us into his world. This is his most personal interview in recent times.

Who is Kelvin Alaneme?
Kelvin Alaneme is a Nigerian medical doctor and tech entrepreneur based in the United Kingdom. I am the Founder/CEO of LocumDoc and the Chairman of CareerEdu, Nigeria’s largest opportunities platform.

Please tell us a bit about your early day?
I was born on the 20th of August, 1987 in Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria. I am the first of four children. My other siblings are Adaobi, Oluoma and Nzubechukwu. I was raised in Onitsha. Growing up in the commercial city was fun.

What is your educational background?
I attended All Saints Primary School, Onitsha. From where I proceeded to Federal Government College, Nise in 1998. I finished SSCE in 2004 and proceeded to University of Nigeria, Nsukka to study Medicine and Surgery in 2005. I graduated from UNN in 2011.

In 2019, I was awarded the Postgraduate Ambassador Scholarship by the Glasgow Caledonian University and completed a Masters of Public Health degree from the university in September, 2020.

Tell us a bit about your Medical career?
I worked as a House Officer at Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State between 2012 and 2013. Between 2013 and 2014, I was a Medical Officer at General Hospital, Otor-Udu as part of the NYSC. From 2014 to 2019, I was doing specialist training in Radiology and became a Member, West African College of Surgeons (Faculty of Radiology) in 2019.

I joined the NHS in 2020 as a junior doctor in Psychiatry. I currently work as a Specialist Doctor in Psychiatry with the NHS England.

You also sing. Tell us more about this talent.
I have been writing songs even before medical school. I released my first official single ‘Ala Africa’ in 2014. Began recording more songs in 2016 as an independent artiste. I released ‘Survivors’ and ‘Perfect Together’ same year with their official videos as the lead singles to my debut album ‘Live Forever’ which dropped on July 1, 2017.

I dropped another project – ‘Melody King’ EP in 2019. It contained singles like ‘Winner’, ‘Emotional’ and ‘My Dear’. I dropped a follow-up EP ‘Odogwu’ in January 2021 which contained singles like ‘Fire’ and ‘Alright’. Same year, I won the 2021 Magnusson Award from Glasgow Caledonian University for using music to pass health promotional messages. I released singles like ‘I Pray’ and ‘Money’ and ended 2021 with another EP – Nobody Better. In 2022, I took more of an executive role to midwife the projects of other artistes signed to Ala Africa Music – Valdozzy dropped his second project ‘Wild Dreams’ following the massive success of his 2021 debut EP – Magic. Deevy also dropped her EP – Young and Surviving. We also dropped a label album on October 20, 2022. It is a 13-track album titled ‘Hostile Takeover’. We also used it to introduce our latest signing – Zica Zoe.

Tell us more about CareerEdu?
CareerEdu started by accident on the eve of #Lekkimassacre on October 20, 2020. Following the shooting of #EndSARS protesters, I was dismayed at the high-handedness of the government and failure to address issues. I made a post asking persons who want to relocate to reach out as I was willing to provide information to then for FREE. Over 500 persons reached out. After responding to their messages, I had to create a WhatsApp group which filled up immediately before we migrated to Telegram.

In less than three years, CareerEdu has become on of Africa’s largest opportunities platforms providing career and educational guidance to young people. We have helped thousands of persons relocate abroad from inception and help companies abroad recruit international staff. We are in partnership with many Universities abroad, especially in the UK and have expanded our services into Canada, Australia, Romania and Oman.

Earlier this year, CareerEdu launched Tech Uni – an online digital learning platform to help young people upskill into Tech. CareerEdu has provided scholarships for 30 young persons to learn tech skills in Tech Uni – which has graduated 5 Cohorts so far.

As an Ed-Tech company, CareerEdu is currently working on several innovative solutions to help immigrant students and workers abroad.

What are your hobbies?
Watching movies and documentaries, running, traveling.

What’s your take on the current Japa wave in Nigeria?
The current Japa wave is necessary for the survival of young Nigerians. People are doing what they need to do to survive and that includes seeking greener pastures. It is inevitable in a country that has routinely underperformed. Many families today are kept alive by funds sent from their relatives in the diaspora. I believe that the young Nigerians leaving are in a better position to get global skills and financial independence that will be essential in nation-building in the coming years. We can save Nigeria from the outside.

What can you say about the Afrobeats movement?
Afrobeats has come a very long way – from being an outside sound to becoming mainstream globally – everything has come full circle. You go to clubs abroad and you hear Afrobeats nonstop. Our artistes are selling out arenas and getting their songs featured in blockbuster movies. It is a huge blessing. We need to own the sound and push its evolution to the next level. One of the key things we need to do to unlock prosperity for artistes based in Africa is to create platforms that can make earnings from music publishing easier. Promoting music is very costly these days. But, thanks to platforms like TikTok that are helping some unknown artistes ‘blow’, so to speak, especially if their songs are very good.