THE YEAR I
TURNED20
A Memoir of Suspension, Self-Discovery,
and the Accidental Birth of an Idea
"You are not behind. You are building."
THE PREMISE 📖
This is not a
success story.
This is the story of what happens when your timeline breaks — and you are forced to build a new one from scratch.
At nineteen, one moment of panic in a computer lab cascaded into a one-year suspension from Babcock University. That year, the system said you are behind. The system was wrong.
This memoir is honest. No cleaned-up LinkedIn version. No hindsight polish. All of it — exactly as it happened.
WHAT'S INSIDE
A disciplinary panel. One full year.
A Raspberry Pi. A lie. An institutional memory that never forgets. The verdict: suspension for one full academic year.
Building through the suspension year
An automation pipeline. A European contract. A birthday website that spread across campuses. Building in the dark while the system counted him out.
The French Village — 90 days
A lecturer who decided before class started. A director who nearly expelled him. One month of not apologising. The class that fractured.
The accidental birth of WishIT
From a birthday website built for the person he loved, to a platform active in 48+ countries. The idea that refused to leave him alone for two years.
THE JOURNEY 📅
2018 → now.
every real step
Not the cleaned-up version. The actual one.
T-shirt brand, zero budget
Started "In Bronx" in secondary school. Needed a website. Had no money to pay anyone. Decided to build it himself. That single decision changed everything.
The beginningNFORSHIFU234 Dev founded
September 2020 — founded the dev studio at sixteen. Published first PHP app, open-sourced it, launched it. The portfolio was real before the degree.
Building startsEnrolled at Babcock University
Started B.Sc. Computer Information Systems with two years of real coding already under the belt. The classroom was behind the portfolio.
300 Level beginsSuspended. One full academic year.
A disciplinary panel. A decision made at 18. An institutional memory that never forgets. Everything planned, removed from the timeline in one letter.
The fallVas2Nets Technologies
Built an automation pipeline that cut three hours of manual work every morning to seconds. Understood, for the first time, what software is actually for.
90% workflow reductionA birthday website changes everything
Built a personalised birthday website for the person he loved. It spread across Nigerian campuses. The idea refused to leave.
Seed of WishITBadagry. 90 days. One month refusing to apologise.
A lecturer who decided he was a problem before class started. A director who nearly expelled him. And the people who didn't move.
30 days without apologyShipped a live website. European contract followed.
Rebuilt the IDS Africa front-end from scratch. Deployed live. His HOD recommended him across an international border.
Live. Permanent. Real.WishIT goes live. 48+ countries.
From a birthday link built in a hostel room, to a platform for personalised digital tribute pages. 4.9/5 rating. 100+ users.
wish-it.appFROM THE PAGES ✍️
Lines that stayed.
"You make a choice. The choice makes a consequence. The consequence does not ask for your permission before it arrives."
"I was just trying to say I love you in the only language I had ever been fully fluent in. Code."
"I had tried to be professional with this man for weeks. The reward was being told to perform my own humiliation in front of my peers."
"I stopped thinking about code as a skill I had. I started thinking about it as a responsibility I carried."
"The space is not the punishment. The space is where you find out what you are made of when there is nothing else to lean on."
"Sometimes you cannot see the arc from inside it. Sometimes it is just dark, and you are just tired. The stubborn refusal to stop was enough."
SAMPLE CHAPTER 📄
Read the first pages.
Chapter 1 · 300 Level, First Semester
There is a version of this story where nothing goes wrong.
In that version, I go through 300 Level without any incident, complete my industrial training on schedule, return for final year with a clean record, and graduate on time with everyone else in my set. The school never knows about my name outside of an attendance register. I become a statistic — graduated, employed, moved on.
But that is not the story I am writing.
I started coding in September 2020. Not because someone gave me a TED Talk moment or I had a vision board. It was because I needed a website for a t-shirt brand I launched while in secondary school — a brand called In Bronx — and I had no money to pay anyone to build it. So I sat down, opened a browser, and started a journey that I didn't know was going to change me.
That is the origin story. Necessity wearing the costume of ambition.
23 chapters · 89 pages
EARLY READERS ⭐
What readers are saying.
From early access readers before the May 20 launch.
READ IT? TELL US ✍️
Leave a review.
honest feedback only.
If the memoir resonated — say how. If something didn't land, say that too. Every review gets read personally, and with your permission, published on this page.
A thank-you note goes out to everyone who leaves a review. No spam, ever.
"Honest feedback only. If it resonated, say how. If it didn't, say that too."
Takes about 3 minutes. Thank-you note sent automatically.
PRODUCT ORIGIN 🌱
How a birthday link
became a product.
During the suspension year, I built a birthday website for the person I loved. Ancient Roman aesthetic. Background music. Photos. A message written with so much emotion that I have never shown.
My teammate asked for the code. Then a friend saw it. For consecutive Valentines, the trend circulated across Nigerian campuses. The idea refused to leave.
Social media is built around you. WishIT is the structural opposite.
WishIT has been searched from 48 countries and appeared in results in 114 countries. Top market: United States.
WishIT
Emotional Tech for moments that matter
- ✓Birthdays, weddings, memorials, farewells
- ✓The person being celebrated is the whole page
- ✓No algorithm. No platform. Just love, built into a link.
LAUNCHING SAME DAY · ORIGINAL DOCU-SERIES 🎙️
An IAMNOTSHIFU Original Docu-Series
Keeping Up with IAMNOTSHIFUNotebookLM Edition
10-episode docu-series following the real story. From launching a fashion brand in Lagos at 18, to building full-stack platforms used across multiple countries.
No filter. No hype. Just the actual journey — narrated with AI-assisted audio and visuals. Mindset. Movement. Impact.
AVAILABLE ON
First episode drops May 20, 2026 alongside the memoir.
GET THE BOOK 📚
If this resonated,
read the rest.
The full memoir. All 23 chapters. Every moment, unfiltered.
Launched May 20, 2026 — IAMNOTSHIFU's birthday.
DIGITAL MEMOIR
Full 23-chapter memoir, PDF format. Yours permanently.
- ✓All 23 chapters across 4 parts — 89 pages, zero filler
- ✓The full suspension year, without the LinkedIn polish
- ✓The French Village — 90 days, one month without apologising
- ✓The WishIT origin story — from birthday website to 48+ countries
- ✓Chapter 21: The Lowest Moment — the one most people skip writing
- ✓PDF, instant access, yours permanently
FOUNDER'S EDITION
The memoir + behind-the-scenes context and shareable assets.
- ✓Everything in Digital Memoir
- ✓Founder's Notes PDF — why this book exists, three things I nearly cut, and a May 2026 update on where everything landed
- ✓6 shareable quote cards — the lines from the memoir built for circulation
- ✓4 chapter-part cards — one visual per arc of the story
- ✓Desktop + mobile wallpapers
- ✓Launch Banner — the original May 20 announcement asset
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