Olaolu Oladipo 
Praise Fowowe is a pioneer at the crossroads of innovation and family life, consistently reshaping the landscape of family dynamics. His unconventional thought leadership and distinctive approach have firmly established him as a trailblazer, introducing transformative solutions within the realm of family life.As the driving force behind Praise Fowowe Research LLC, headquartered in Irving, Texas, he is shaping a cutting-edge innovation hub focused on family life. His unwavering commitment to research and development has garnered international recognition, positioning him as a renowned Family Life Strategist with a remarkable two-decade track record of transformative impact. He shares his journey in this interview with OLADIPUPO AWOJOBI.
Can you share more about your journey into the field of family life innovation and how you’ve been redefining paradigms in this space?
Family life innovation began for me during my sophomore year at university. Amidst a flurry of romantic interests—ladies searching for the right guys and guys seeking the ideal ladies—I emerged as the go-to advisor for both groups. Though I was studying accounting, it became abundantly clear that my calling lay in enhancing people’s relationships and facilitating impactful collaborations.
After graduation, I sought postgraduate programs to bolster my expertise in family science. Unfortunately, no such courses existed in Africa, leaving me with the option to study in the United States—an option beyond my financial reach. Forced to improvise, I identified three professionals in Nigeria engaged in similar work: the late Pastor Bimbo Odukoya, known for ‘Singles and Married’; Olumide Emmanuel, the mind behind ‘Wisdom for Singles’; and Jerome Onipede, a TV personality.
I swiftly positioned myself to serve under these experts, aiming to understand the intricacies of their work. Emerging from these apprenticeships, it became evident that Africa need- ed a professional family life practice. With no available certification on the continent, I pivoted toward research, focusing on solving pressing family life challenges unique to Africa. My initial endeavour was to fill the gaping void in age-appropriate sexuality education.
The result was a comprehensive kit, catering to children from 18 months to 18 years, that empowered parents to guard against sexual predators. The kit gained international acclaim, extending its reach beyond Africa. Next, I developed a framework for building effective marriages, complete with psychometric tests offering a staggering 96% accuracy in family life diagnoses.
This achievement led to the creation of a certification program, now heralded as the only curriculum combining therapy, coaching, strategy, and systems intelligence into a single comprehensive course. My mission is straightforward: to help families across diverse cultures establish templates that foster wholesome relationships and societal harmony.
I’m proud to say that my work caught the attention of several government agencies, starting with the Lagos State Government in Nigeria. Together, we have implemented numerous interventions that continue to shape families and communities today.
Can you elaborate on the Family Systems Engineering approach and how it contributes to creating functional and sustainable societies?
The Family Systems Engineering approach is an innovative framework designed to build functional societies through the foundational unit of the family. While it’s commonly acknowledged that the family serves as the bedrock of society, less attention is given to the specific systems that operate within these families—systems that ultimately produce the citizens who make up our communities and lead our nations.
Take Africa, for instance, there’s a prevcontinent’s challenges without delving into the family structures that produced these individuals. Our leaders emerge from our communities, and a closer examination would often reveal layers of trauma in their upbringing, environmental influences, and emotional experiences that have shaped their adult lives.
Our approach aims to address this gap by providing couples with the tools to establish a nurturing and effective family environment. This isn’t just about immediate familial harmony; it’s about laying the groundwork for a community that serves the collective good. The framework views the family as nothing less than the most crucial nation on Earth, a production factory for society at large.
It aims to understand the systems that shaped family members before they formed their own families, with particular attention to resolving traumas that could hinder their functionality within the family unit. Ultimately, the Family Systems Engineering approach offers a comprehensive model that any family can follow.
It’s a roadmap to creating sustainably wholesome outcomes that will ripple out to benefit society as a whole. By enhancing the quality of the foundational unit of society, we elevate the quality of the society itself. Your Family Systems Engineering Certification Program has gained significant recognition.
What motivated you to develop this comprehensive guide, and what impact has it had so far?
After completing my apprenticeship with the three most prominent relationship experts in Nigeria at that time, I noticed that all of them, except for Jerome, approached their practice from a faith-based perspective. Jerome was the first to introduce me to the power of psychometric assessments for analyzing couples.
As I surveyed the African landscape, I realized that there were no professional, data-driven programs to assist family life experts on the continent. With international travel beyond my budget, I decided the best way for- ward was to research and develop a homegrown solution.
Over the next 11 years, we engaged in an in-depth study of 25 couples who had been married for more than 40 years, aiming to understand the secrets behind their enduring partnerships. Our initial conversations revealed that many credited their success to intangibles like ‘the grace of God,’ but we wanted to go beyond the clichés. With their permission, we observed these couples and posed critical questions that would help us develop a more concrete framework.
That effort led to the creation of Family Systems Engineering, a groundbreaking framework that has utterly transformed how family life professionals interact with couples. Gone are the days of simply listening to both parties; now, professionals can administer a four-way assessment test that provides a comprehensive diagnosis of the marriage’s health.
This information serves as the basis for an actionable intervention roadmap that helps couples build stronger, more wholesome families. We’ve branded this assessment ‘Oyela,’ which means ‘illumination’ in Yoruba, as a nod to its African roots and the light it sheds on complex relationship dynamics.To- day, over a thousand family life professionals across 15 countries utilize this framework, and the results have been nothing short of revolutionary.
Various faith-based organizations and governmental bodies have even adapted the framework for resolving family disputes and community conflicts.We can now confidently say that the most influential family life professionals use the Family Systems Engineering model.
“Out of the Box Parenting” sounds intriguing, how does this approach equip parents with the tools and strategies needed for their child’s success trajectory?
In our quest to make parenting both more effective and its outcomes more predictable, we studied various successful models, including those from Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, and Emirati cultures. What stood out was that these systems were rooted in ‘systems intelligence,’ enabling the consistent outcomes they produce.
Recognizing the importance of retaining our unique African heritage, we tailored our findings into what we now refer to as the ‘Four Quadrants of Parenting.’ This framework employs an agricultural metaphor, which resonates deeply with our cultural narratives:The Seed Owner: This quadrant is influenced by the African belief that children are divine gifts from God.
The Seed Handler: This focuses on parents as custodians of the child’s destiny. It emphasizes the unique qualities of each child, and how a parent can either nurture or hinder the child’s potential. The Seed: This is the child. We advocate for a deep understanding of each child’s unique signals and needs to create a nurturing framework tailored to them.
The Seed Culture: Here, we explore how the child’s environment can either nurture or stifle their potential.African society has been heavily influenced by a version of spirituality over the past 30 years that unfortunately has suppressed our unique identity and heritage.
Our model invites parents to reconnect with their roots, analyzing and building upon the strengths of their heritage. Based on this framework, we’ve established communities that guide African parents through the model, providing them with tools to implement effective parenting systems throughout the year.
This initiative has led to the creation of new ‘African villages,’ both within and beyond the African continent, helping countless parents in diverse locations. The testimonials we’ve received have been nothing short of transformative.
Can you explain the concept of “Human Engineering Programming” and how it combines cognitive and behavioural techniques for personal optimization?
We’re born into a world chosen for us—parents we didn’t pick, names assigned without our consent, and environments that shape our earliest friendships. Religions are designated, schools are selected, and we find ourselves navigating an educational landscape that often stifles rather than celebrates our authenticity.
Judged by criteria and expectations we had no say in, many of us transition into adulthood with a sense of dissatisfaction. Despite outward appearances of contentment, deep down we know we’re not in control of the lives we genuinely desire.
That’s where Human Engineering Programming steps in—to help people reconstruct their lives on their terms and make choices that promote their well-being. Remarkably, this model has had far-reaching impacts beyond what we initially envisioned. It’s been a transformative force, helping individuals break free from depression, overcome addictions, and discard self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviours.
This program is a catalyst for liberation, empowering people to burst the cocoons that have restricted them and pursue the lives they truly want to lead.
Your strategic leadership systems for junior church environments seem unique. How do they contribute to fostering spiritual growth among young individuals?
Your original narrative is quite insightful, speaking to a significant issue in contemporary religious communities. Below is a revised version that polish- es the grammar and aims to make the content compelling for your audience: Many people aren’t aware that I’m the son of an Anglican priest, which gives me a unique vantage point on church systems.
Over the years, I’ve observed a worrying trend: young people are increasingly disengaging from the church. Having witnessed the shift from orthodoxy to Pentecostalism and now an exodus from Pentecostalism, I felt compelled to investigate.
What were these young people gravitating towards, and why? My research revealed a growing dissatisfaction with existing religious models—promises made but not kept, a disconnect between tradition and contemporary realities. Identifying the top 11 reasons behind this religious attrition, I crafted a framework to revitalize youth engagement in churches.
We piloted this approach with a Nigerian church and, astonishingly, began to see young people who had left the church return. The framework is designed to assist pastors and church leaders in adapting their practices to resonate with a new generation that finds little relevance in traditional models of worship.
While the mission should remain constant, our methods must evolve.Interestingly, while the model met limited success in Africa, it became our best-selling solution in North America with an extraordinary success rate. I firmly believe that if a child spends 12 years in a well-structured church system, certain struggles should become non-issues.
What we do is troubleshoot existing structures, offering churches the tools to construct effective systems that realize their vision and instill desired values in their youth.