“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are
and change the ending – C.S LEWIS”
Five and half years ago, in my hotel room in Enugu, precisely Neo-Court Hotel, a hotel owned by a dear friend of mine, Architect Ogbo Oradubanya. I started what I would today call Soul Searching.
My mind went back to my days at the Nigerian Law School remembering our then wonderful DIRECTOR GENERAL, late Chief Babatunde Abiodun Ibironke, who would always remind us that every Lawyer is a Social Engineer and Change Agent!
As I lay on my bed thinking of how best I could use my legal knowledge and experience to improve my society, I recalled a story I was told by my late uncle and music ICON Nze Dan Orji of the Peacocks international fame and acclaimed composer of “EDDIE QUANSA”– the very melodic and popular theme music for “MASQUERADE”– one of NTA’S most successful drama series.
According to my uncle, some preachers came to preach to a man in my community in the presence of his household. In the course of the preaching, mention was made about mansions in heaven which the man literarily understood to mean that there was a physical house for him in heaven. When the leader and his team were set to depart, the man glowing with joy and speaking sonorously in impeccable owerri dialect inquired innocently if there will be a possibility of putting tenants in his own mansion and remitting the rent for the economic survival of him and his household right here on earth, that whenever he gets to heaven he will give quit notice to the tenants.
The baffled preacher realizing that he didn’t do a good job, had to spend additional time in breaking down the message with full deployment of owerri dialect to the eventual understanding of the man”.
This story which became to me some kind of metaphor for the realities of life and living for most Africans, fired up something in me that night, thus the commencement of the articulation of my thoughts which engendered the beginning of a journey clearly inspired by God.
I have always believed that there is a reason and purpose God Almighty brought us here – if he wanted us first in heaven he would have sent us there directly. Making us in his own Image and Likeness, presupposes that we should be able to recreate things around us for the betterment of the society.
These and other factors made me more determined to attempt the creation of a solution that cleverly seek to touch the significant facets of our well-being as a continent.
After five and half years of brainstorming, thinking of ideas that are innovative, toiling, trials, failures, frustrations and breakthroughs; with approximately 9800 hectares of land ready for cultivation, 6 robust software applications fully ready for deployment, 36 prototype fit for purpose agreements, a 68 page green book containing programme guidelines and policies, financial commitment of 42 discerning investors and an overwhelming endorsement of CBN and other development institutions, I am proud to say a big welcome to THE ULTIMATE GAME CHANGER… THE DISRUPTIVE BIG IDEAS PROGRAMME – HECTARE BY HECTARE… THE TIME IS NOW.
ORJI .H. CHIJIOKE, IS AN ABUJA BASED LEGAL PRACTITIONER, NOTARY PUBLIC AND SOCIAL ENGINEER
