‘We never knew he’s a genius’ — mother of 9-year-old calendar prodigy admits spanking him

Siju Olawepo, a 9-year-old Nigerian boy, has been wowing many with his ability to tell what day of the week a date is, whether decades into the past or centuries into the future.

Given 60th century dates, the young calendar prodigy has been acclaimed to be capable of telling if it’s a Saturday or Monday, impressing many by telling them what day of the week they’re born.

According to TVC, David Ogiomo, his ICT instructor at Lagos’ Carol School, noticed his ability after severally spotting Olawepo talking about wanting to create a calendar for 2045 and beyond.

He said Olawepo always requested plain sheets to design future calendars without the aid of existing ones — as  the young boy deemed his ability an instinctive one that comes naturally.

“I’m happy I paid a little attention to what he was doing. He’ll say he wants to write a calendar for 2045. You know, it sounds funny hearing that from a kid and we laugh over it,” Ogiomo explained.

“One afternoon, I saw him doing that same calendar. I thought to compare what he was doing with the e-calendar on my smartphone, to find out if he really knew what he was doing. It was correct.”

It takes professors a considerable amount of time to study and design calendars but when asked to make one, Olawepo is said to have an innate ability to supply the required details in seconds.

When asked how he does it — giving dates that run into centuries he’ll not live to see — the primary school student replied: “I just know it. They’re in my head.”

Godwin Ikechukwu, Olawepo’s class teacher, also described him as being academically okay when he’s guided but like many other brilliant kids, could veer off track when not given the needed guidance.

According to Bola Adeaga, the school’s headteacher, there are ongoing efforts to understudy his talents and craft a unique curriculum tailored towards nurturing his unusual skills.

“We’ve tried to develop his own curriculum because I must be frank, he’s much faster in learning than we are. We’re trying to develop a curriculum tailored towards that gift that he has,” she said.

“As much as possible, we’re trying to get some teachers to take him on a one-on-one because he’s definitely not of this world.”

With painting and drawing skills at his disposal, the calendar prodigy was quick to register that he’ll love to become a doctor when he’s older.

But interesting is that Olawepo’s parents admitted knowing nothing about the young boy’s skills. His mum said she regretted spanking him for obsessing over what they thought was a mere distraction.

“We knew nothing about it, only that he loved to write and design calendars. We even dubbed him the calendar boy. We still don’t know the extent of this skill,” said Funke Olawepo.

“The day the headteacher called, asking if I was aware my son is a genius, I honestly felt so bad. All this time, I had spanked him and paid little attention to the things he was trying to make me see.”

Speaking on Olawepo’s gift, his father urged the federal government to help gifted children like him develop their talents locally rather than leave them to go outside in pursuit of the same goal.

“How long are we going to keep selling out our goodies? I wish the government will get its act together and be able to exploit the skills that his likes bring into society and to humanity,” he said.