Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings…. (Prov. 22:29)
If versatility and genius are near kinsmen, then their next-of-kin would undoubtedly be “Kings.” Even if success does come on a platter, there are those who will deem it rather demanding to stretch their hands to receive. In the strictest sense, rising above the murky waters of mediocrity will require sticking out one’s neck in spite of nagging odds. The words of Henry W. Longfellow couldn’t be any truer:
The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight; but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.
Once in a while we run into folks who are both literate and numerate. Usually, literacy and numeracy are strange bedfellows. But, trapped within the humanity of the protagonist of this piece, are safely intertwined the lion of logic and the lamb of linguistics (evidenced by his bestselling blockbuster, Blind Faculty.
For a man whose interests are engineering, entertainment and empowerment (especially of youngsters), it needs no telling that he is clearly an enigma.
Intriguingly, an array of appellations will be an unequivocal testament to his unflinching sense of purpose. A Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE), his engineering prowess, having studied competitively in the Philippines and the US for his Bachelor’s and double Masters’ degrees respectively, is legendary. His mathematical genius affords him Fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), Nigerian Institution of Procurement Engineers (FNIProcE) among several other numerous membership for his industry and ingenuity.
By no stretch of the imagination would we attempt to comprehend the Chief Executive Officer of iJK- an engineering firm with an unrivalled sense of delivery along the lines of finance and training. Having garnered decades of experience as a project manager, he oversees other offshoots of his brainwave: AfriSQuare Entertainment, (AfriSQuare) Penculture and Infinite Respite Foundation, a haven for the bruised, battered and downtrodden. Inner city kids and inmates get a new lease of life as a result of the indefatigable philanthropic gesture of this unassuming warlord.
He is a repository of knowledge and a crusader, often in the vanguard of anti-Caucasian supremacy. If Africa has a survivor to look neocolonialism in the eye and chase it down the road, it is the amiable engineer of exemplar. He apparently leads the parade against white dominance, as it were.
A stickler for excellence, his demeanour and disposition will belie his personality. No comparison of this nature of his I find more fitting than with Sonny Bono’s:
You looked at him and thought to yourself: “This can’t be a famous person.” He smiled, he said something, then you thought to yourself: “This can’t be a serious person.” Four jokes and two stories and later you were pouring out your heart out to him, he was helping you solve a problem and you began to realize this is a very hard-working, very thoughtful man who covered a great deal of his abilities with his wonderful sense of humour….
As I draw the curtain on this, I remember a line from Robin Hood: “Continue to rise and rise until lambs become lions.” As he ascends, he rises with a host of dreamers and “Kingslets” (younger Kingsleys) who, eyeing his tenacity of purpose and hardline consistency, are themselves determined to clinch the title of a fulfilled life.
On this note, Odogwu, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies!
