An Urgent Warning to Parents: The Neolife Business and Our Students in Nigeria' by Timothy Odedina

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Timothy Odedina, a Youth Leader here in Odeda Local Government. I am writing this today with a heavy heart and a deep sense of responsibility. I have witnessed something deeply troubling, and as a leader and a parent-figure in a community that hosts great institutions like FUNAAB and the Federal College of Education, Osiele, I cannot keep silent.

I want to share my personal experience to buttress the recent video by Arojile and to sound an alarm for all parents, especially those with children in our higher institutions across Ogun State.

Around August, 2025, I received a call from some young, polite students from FUNAAB, looking for a place to stay. My heart went out to them. As a property manager and a youth leader, I wanted to support their education. I gave them one of my 3-bedroom flats at a reduced rate, waived the caution fee, and softened the tenancy agreement—all because they were students.

The agreement was for a maximum of 5 people.

But within a week, I noticed something was wrong. The number had swelled to 12. Then 16. They were noisy, disturbing other tenants. Within a month, there were 18 young people living in a 3-bedroom flat. It was unimaginable.

When I confronted them, I asked what they were doing to sustain this. They told me it was “Neolife business.” I was surprised. When I asked for the products they sold, the answer was vague: “online products.” To my greater dismay, I discovered that many of them had completely abandoned their studies. Their education, the very reason they were in Abeokuta, had been thrown aside.

I acted quickly. I refunded their money and gave them a month’s notice to leave. They refused. I had to involve the police to legally get them off my property. Their pattern was clear: they worked from night till the next day, a chaotic schedule incompatible with academic life.

The most painful part? Many of their parents have no idea. These children still go home, collect foodstuffs and money, while their education has been replaced by this “business.” They have been brainwashed to believe that “school is a scam.”

The story got more personal. After they had moved out, I saw the son of an elderly friend of mine with them. This boy, about 16 and waiting for admission, was also deep into this. When I tried to alert his guardian, the boy slyly took the old man’s phone and forwarded my voice note to a Neolife coordinator, bypassing his guardian entirely.

The situation turned threatening when, two days later, three of these so-called Neolife coordinators began trailing me after a business meeting. I had to drive straight to a police station for safety, where they were arrested.

As a Youth Leader, I have done my part to raise the alarm locally. But I see that this is not just an Odeda problem. These young chaps are from different backgrounds, and their brains have been, for lack of a better word, whitewashed.

So, my message to every parent is this: Please, check on your children in Ogun State universities. Ask probing questions. Are they actually attending classes? What are they doing with their time? Who are they living with? The allure of quick money is powerful, but the cost of a discarded education is permanent.

Do not let your child become another statistic in this dangerous trend. Let’s protect our children’s future together.

Timothy Odedina
Youth Leader, Odeda Local Government.
14/11/2025