‘Workshop Mom’ at the wheel of big change for women in Nigeria

A caller’s Toyota had “developed a rattle, but only when it idles”. He could not explain it any better than that. He did not have to, however. On the other end of the line during the Auto Medics segment on Lagos Traffic Radio 96.1FM, Tokunbo Adegoju was already asking the questions that mattered.

“Does it happen on a cold start, or after you’ve been driving a while? Does it change when you rev the engine?” Adegoju asked.

Within minutes, she had narrowed the problem to a likely cause, advised the caller on what to check when he got home, and moved on to the next call. It was just another weekday radio show, another problem to successfully diagnose.

An automotive technician by day at Auto Medics in Lagos, Adegoju has established herself as one of Nigeria’s few female senior automotive technicians. Through her radio programmes on Eko FM and Lagos Traffic Radio, she also helps motorists to understand vehicle faults before they take their vehicles to a workshop.

None of this was in her original plan. When she was growing up, Adegoju believed she would become a doctor, mainly because it was the future her grandfather had imagined for her.

Long before she considered repairing cars, Adegoju had developed a habit of fixing things around the house. Looking back, she believes her father recognised this curiosity before she did. Whenever the family’s generator broke down or something needed repairing, he would call her to work alongside her brothers.

“I just saw it as working with my brothers,” she recalled. “But I think my father had seen something in me, and that’s why he kept encouraging it.”

At boarding school, she repaired wall sockets, switches and light bulbs, simply because she enjoyed understanding how they worked. Cars were never part of the picture. The closest she came to automotive repairs was helping her father change a flat tyre alongside her younger brother.

Medicine remained her focus until a road accident changed those plans. She was involved in a crash that forced her to reconsider the career she had been preparing for.

“The sight of blood … I was shivering, and I was like, oh, I don’t think it’s for me. But I got to realise that if I’m not a doctor of humans, I can be a doctor for other things.”

Years later, Adegoju’s husband encouraged her to consider automotive repair as a profession. “He heard somebody talking on the radio – the radio programme I run now – and he was like, ‘Oh, this thing, this person is doing it, but you can do it better. I believe you can do it better. Why don’t you go for the training?’”

That decision led her to Auto Medics.

Cultural barriers

Engineer Kunle Shonaike, who founded Auto Medics, has spent years teaching mechanics and is an advocate of more women entering the field. He says the barriers women confront frequently extend beyond the workshop.

“Cultural … barriers have a lot to do with [why] women [are] not well represented in the automotive field, but I believe it’s changing,” he said.

Shonaike believes that improving vocational skills is critical to boosting Nigeria’s workforce. He says skilled artisans are crucial to the country’s economy, as they supply the practical competence required to develop, maintain and repair critical infrastructure and equipment.

Training at Auto Medics introduced Adegoju to a different kind of test. Before she was trusted to diagnose faults, she was expected to prove she could handle the physical demands of the job. She ­carried heavy tyres and learned to use hydraulic jacks after years of working only with screw jacks.

Today, she is one of the senior technicians at Auto Medics and is helping to train the next generation of mechanics, including young women entering a field where female mentors remain uncommon.

Adegoju’s work comes as Nigeria expands technical and vocational education to provide employment options for young people, women and people with disabilities.

According to the International Labour Organization, the country’s skills reforms seek to enhance access to technical training that can lead to decent employment, particularly in fields where women are underrepresented.

Adegoju’s training of young mechanics is part of a larger push to boost female participation in technical careers. Johnny Onyeka Justin, one of her trainees, calls her “Workshop Mom”.

“She’s the first ­woman I’ve seen in this field who moves like that with real action,” he said. “You’re scared of her at first. Then you realise underneath it she just wants the best for you.”

Senior technician Ibrahim Ogundele said Adegoju’s presence in the workshop has helped to change how some women view automotive repair. “There are women who never imagined another woman could repair a car. Seeing her do it becomes the motivation.”

Today, Adegoju divides her time between the workshop and the radio studio. On air, callers describe unfamiliar sounds, warning lights and engines that refuse to start. She listens, asks a series of questions and helps them to understand what may be wrong before they visit a mechanic.

For Adegoju, it’s another way of doing what she set out to do years ago: solving problems, one diagnosis at a time. – Bird Story Agency/DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.