I have said before that I do not want to be Dangote or Otedola or Ronaldo or Donald Trump. I do not need to be a governor or a minister. I am Tony Okoroji and boy, I like it.
I do not say it with arrogance, conceit or egotism. I say it with humility and with thanks to the Almighty for what he has done and continues to do with me.
I wrote in "Half Bread is Better than None" my last piece in Saturday Breakfast that my phone crashed last week from the never ending calls from members of COSON across the country offering prayers to the COSON Board in every language spoken in Nigeria. I don't know about you, but their prayers are worth more to me than all the money in the world.
During the week, I called many members of COSON in several hamlets in the country who have had issues with receiving their Coronavirus relief from COSON. The joy in the voices on the other end that the Chairman personally called them is immeasurable. In almost every occasion, the problem was resolved.
Once again, I thank the wonderful COSON Board members and the management team of Vincent Adawaisi, Isa Haruna and Tony Imusen for not seeing the limitations but the possibilities. May God bless my great team for understanding that your life means nothing if you do not use it to lift others. I thank the members of COSON for appreciating our efforts.
I have said it before that I have little material wealth, no big estate, no zillions anywhere, no money in any foreign account, no oil well and no godfather but OMG, I have God the father and I drive on a full tank of faith and I am H-A-P-P-Y! I appreciate the grace that the Almighty has given me to work hard, focus on my challenges and achieve results that please Him. I walk with my head held high and love the gifts He has given me.
I have heard some people say that I am arrogant… me arrogant? No way! What they might see as arrogance is actually confidence. If you believe in God, you glow in His glory. I am not so stupid that I do not understand that whatever wisdom and strength any of us may deploy does not belong to us but to the Almighty. If you think that I am arrogant, please bury the thought. I simply glow in the glory of God the father who makes everything possible.
Those who know me and those who have worked with me will testify that I prepare, practice and practice for everything. I never want to go to a meeting without studying[to1] the issues and fully understanding what I want to come out with. I do not embark on an event without checking every box over and over again and being sure that there is a Plan 'B', if Plan 'A' fails. I never take a case to court without being certain that my processes are very well done and that the facts and the law are on my side. The reality is that in the few cases I have lost in the court of first instance, I have won on appeal.
Almost every day, I am confronted by people who have come to meet with me with no prior preparation whatsoever. They want something from me and cannot explain what it is they want. They have failed to plan and naturally have planned to fail. The big problem is that when the failure stares them in the face, they take no responsibility. It is either the witch in their village or the fact that they come from a different tribe. They look for excuses everywhere when the real excuse is within them.
Across our land, there are many who go to 'work' every day without doing any work. They believe that they are entitled to be paid for going to work and not for the work they do. Many show up in the office just to deploy the company's WIFI to do Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Thereafter, they gossip and gossip and gossip. At closing time, they are the first to step out of the gate. Unfortunately, it is this group that shouts the loudest when salaries are one day late.
Every day, people gather in persons or on the phone to hatch one conspiracy against me or another. They have lied and lied about me and began to believe their lies. They have shot at me with every weapon they can find. 1n 2017, a coup was hatched against and executed in broad daylight. Twelve days later, the coup failed in broad daylight. I was reported to the EFCC for something that has nothing to do with me and after a few months the matter died like Dodo. Men of SARS were organized to take over my office. In less than an hour, the good Lord dispersed them. The Police CID in Abuja was programmed to arrest me and parade me as a common criminal for stealing N60 Million! The senior police officer who called to summon me to Abuja later called to apologize to me and reported that he was being used. They conspired and filed criminal charges against me to send me to jail and a good judge saw through the gambit and I never was docked.
They have hired people who do nothing else but publish inciting and defamatory matters against me every day from dawn to dusk. The guy who leads this onslaught purports to sit on a pedestal which I worked hard to make famous. Practically every power of a government agency which I helped to found has been thrown at me as they misinterpret laws which I helped to write.
They connived to shut down the bank accounts of the organization that I lead believing that such would grind us to a halt. For where? When all their gambit failed, they composed a new drab song called "Forensic Audit"
Each time they get one small ruling from a court, they celebrate like they have found the cure to the coronavirus.
Lo and behold, nothing has happened to me. The energy they have deployed in doing bad is energy that they could have used to do good and be blessed by the Almighty. I am sure they keep wondering how I continue to stand and COSON continues to thrive. People like them would believe in juju and not realize that one with God is always majority.
In the last two weeks, members of COSON across Nigeria have publicly showed again that they cherish honest and purposeful service and that they see through all the conspiracy. I thank God for his protection. I thank Him for who he has made me. I do not want to be anyone else, no matter how rich or famous.
Thank you, members of my COSON family for your trust.
See you next week.
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