MY NAME IS TONY OKOROJI, AND BOY, I LIKE IT!

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" once in Saturday Breakfast that my phone crashed one 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 that same week, I called many members of COSON in several hamlets in the country who have had issues 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. To give to others is what makes my life worthwhile.

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 each time I am in trouble, he rescues me. 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 and that if I lose at the first sitting, the processes are strong enough to reverse the judgment on appeal. The reality is that in the few cases I have lost in the court of first instance, I have always 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 and why they deserve it. 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.

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 begun to believe their lies. They have shot at me with every weapon they can find. 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. 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 I lead believing that such would grind us to a halt. When all their gambit failed, they composed a new 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 four weeks, I have battled with my health. During the period, I saw love in every form. I also saw that God is not done with me. Not yet. 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. My name is Tony Okoroji, and boy, I like it!

 

See you next week.

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LOVE IN EVERY COLOUR

May the Almighty be praised. I am an unbelievably lucky guy and I thank the Almighty for the incredible protection He has given me in many trying circumstances and under conditions that would have broken many men. I have just been through such a situation. The fact that I am serving Saturday Breakfast this morning means that the Almighty has done it again!

Two and half weeks ago, the unexpected happened. In an instant, my engine knocked and my system collapsed and the end looked very-very close. The son of man was in that state between life and death.  For a guy who does not go to church as often as he should, that I am alive is in every way a miracle!

Believe me, I have repeatedly seen the treachery and betrayal of men and how people rationalize their duplicity and all the nonsense they do. But in the last two weeks, I saw love in every colour and sweetness in the heart of men. I had no idea I had such goodwill.

From everywhere across the world, my family fought for me. They did not want me to die, not now. In an instant, telephone calls were flying across the world and every possible medical arrangement was being made.

I did not get to use many of the arrangements made because God made his own arrangements. Many thanks to my beautiful niece, Dr. Adanna Akujuo who from Pennsylvania called every doctor she knows in Nigeria to provide immediate and first-rate medical care to stabilize her uncle. Babe, my love for you will never-never die. From Dallas, my boy, TJ, and his sweetheart, Andrea, a sharp medical expert herself, were on the phone making various arrangements for immediate evacuation to an excellent hospital in the US.

How do I thank my big sister whom I fondly call 'Miss'? By the way, 'Miss' is the mother of Dr. Adanna Akujuo and the undisputed rock of my family. She took charge from Queens New York. My brother Iyke who I do not joke with was making things happen from Baltimore and so was my sister Nkechi in Westchester, New York. One afternoon with my brother, Victor changed my perspective. From giving up on life, I wanted to live again and I saw many reasons why I should not die. I saw the many people who depend on me one way or another and I begged God to let me live. My job is not quite done.

Believe me, I saw love in every colour. From Bernice Eriemeghe, Vincent Adawaisi and each member of the great team at COSON, I saw love from my team at TOPS particularly from the 'Benin Girl' I call Deebee who wants to single handedly fight whatever is ailing me. Ijay has been my special masseur, My guy, Abey has been everywhere making sure there is no vacuum of any type. Thank you, King James, thank you Peedee.

Most times, it takes a tremor to reveal the true beauty in the world. In the last two weeks, the true beauty of my daughters, Alex and Booboo have been revealed to me. They have done everything any father can ever expect of his children. They have abandoned everything to keep me alive. Motivated and supported by her mum who is away, Booboo has made every delicacy imaginable to keep me titillated. At home, my nephew that I call 'Mr. Cash" who by the way has no money but has a lot of muscles has stood by the door constantly daring the strange ailment to come in.

It is not yet completely over. I am learning to stand straight again and walk like a gentleman without a walking stick. I am learning to speak coherently again and with intelligence. I am even learning to write again and use the laptop properly. Baby steps… gently… one at a time.

I have seen love in every colour. I have seen love from Nurse Peace who got married while I was down and l could not attend her wedding to her love, Johnbosco. In the hospital, I saw love from Okpokpo, the matron and from Anu, the nurse who always hung by my bedside. I saw love from Fatima and Beauty, the beautiful nurses.

The good Lord makes things possible. He is the one who brings love. He brought love to me through a gentleman, Dr. Moses Jatto who with his wife, Josephine have cared for me and mended me like a baby. Thank you, doctor.

Truly, I have seen love in every colour and I wish that as you go through life, you experience love like I have experienced.

See you next week.

BYE-BYE DONALD TRUMP

I did not think that a man with the obvious character flaws of Donald Trump would ever be elected President of the United States of America. I thought that Americans are too smart to fall into such a hole.  I was wrong.

Let me confess that the election of Donald Trump left me devastated. It made nonsense of everything I believed in. I was terribly confused. For weeks, after that crazy Tuesday in November 2016, I refused to watch any TV news channel and weaned my addiction to my once favourite website, politico.com. The idea of seeing Donald Trump addressed as President elect of the United States was too much for me to bear.

I am an event organizer and love big theatre. Which theatre in the world is bigger than the inauguration of the President of the United States of America? Which show has ever attracted a live audience that big? Which big sporting event attracts a worldwide TV viewership that massive? I did not watch the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. For the first time, I was not interested in big theatre.

You are damn right if you say that I was acting like a jilted lover. True, Americans jilted me. I was going through that kind of pain and emptiness you feel when the one you love deeply suddenly walks out on you. I love America. I am inspired by their ability to manage their diversity and use their coat of many colours to produce the most beautiful garment the world has ever known. I love the boldness of America that screams at you, "nothing is impossible!". I am awed by the intricacy of the New York Subway, the audacity of the Lincoln Tunnel, the sheer dizziness of the Manhattan skyline.  

I have been to Hollywood and marvelled at the depth of thought that conceived the gargantuan Universal Studios and the almost indescribable Disneyland.

Today, I spend practically all my time promoting the Nigerian creative industry and daring it to be bold. That surprises a lot of my family and friends who know that I am a science guy with an 'A' in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics. They do not understand how I ended up making music for a living. You think I understand it?

The truth is that despite all the metamorphosis in my life, I remain a great believer in empiricism. I am a plus this minus this equals this kind of guy. If you cannot explain it to me, I do not believe you. That is why I am convinced that 'juju', 'jazz', 'ogun', 'otumokpo' and all their brothers are all a big scam, a scam that has warped the thinking of Africans and left us bewildered as the rest of the world is splitting atoms, querying genes and probing Mars. In Africa, we still want to eat omelettes without breaking eggs.

You may then understand why I am shocked that people as smart as Americans could not see through Donald Trump and understand that this guy is the king of 419. If thousands of miles away, I could see that this guy lies and lies, practically every time he speaks, why did Americans think that he would tell them the truth? If I could see that there had to be a sinister reason why this guy would not present his tax returns to his people, how come the brilliant Americans could not see it? If from Lagos Nigeria, I could see that this man-child who cannot keep his fingers off his smart phone, is a danger to everyone, how did the Americans come to the conclusion that they could trust him with their nuclear codes?

As Donald Trump turned the once proud White House into the set of a permanent reality show, even the Russians, the mortal enemies of America were openly laughing and openly mocking America. Vladimir Putin must have had a time of his life as he played Donald Trump like an acoustic guitar.  Donald Trump has fought everybody around him, firing everyone who did not agree with him. This apprentice in the Whitehouse without the intellect to understand diplomacy, thought he was on TV.

I hope the world has learnt a critical lesson. The skills required to build a skyscraper are different from the skills required to lead a free people in a democracy. The profit motive is driven by extreme self-centeredness, the kind that the Donald has in abundance. To lead a free people, you need to have extreme selflessness, the kind that Nelson Mandela had in abundance and which Donald Trump cannot understand.

This week, Americans woke up from their four-year old nightmare. They fired Donald J. Trump. Tired of the commotion and endless tweets and the thousands of Americans dying from the coronavirus, Americans have voted for a different way of doing things.

Donald Trump in typical fashion is unlikely to walk away from the Whitehouse like a gentleman. He will throw tantrums. He will curse everyone. He will kick. He will manufacture every conspiracy theory imaginable. Oh! the election has been stolen from him even though he is President and controls all the levers of powers! In every direction, he will cause trouble and destroy the institutions even though his opponent received about four million more popular votes across the country and won far more electoral votes than him. But Americans will prevail.

I know many Nigerian Christians who think Donald Trump is one of them and think they have to support him. No!            

The Donald Trump problem is not just an American problem. It is a challenge to the entire humanity. How did this guy with absurd ego and obvious lack of self-control come to be in control of the world's biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons? If it does not bother you, it bothers me.

The world is a better place without a Donald Trump at the Whitehouse. There is a lot of a work to do to bring humanity together and all hands need to be on deck. The first part of the job has been done by Americans who have looked at the Donald in the face and said to him, "you are fired!"

See you next week.