The President, Fr. Cajetan Ojinika Other Executives, Frs Amobi, Njepu, Umeze and Mr Somtoo, Oforzoba and others, The 4 man committee, Frs Jonathan and Ihebighi and Mr. Nwankwo, Eloo Okeke The Former president, Fr ACO C and Mr. Okwuduba Fellow comrades here present. I, Mr Anthony Orjika, a proud member of AHOBA 2001 Set is standing before you today the 27th of April 2014. Let me confess that I am not seeing the faces of the gentlemen that I met at St. Paul’s Seminary Ukpor 19 years ago but I am seeing the faces of men that will shape and re-shape this nation within the next decade. Distinguished gentlemen, it is with warmest regards that I welcome you to this annual meeting at All Hallows Seminary Onitsha. It is a tradition we strive to maintain that typifies our attitude of gratitude, as our offering to our creator for his many mercies upon us. Our Theme today is: LOOKING BACKWARD AND MOVING FORWARD TOWARDS VISION 2016 AND BEYOUND. LOOKING BACKWARD: 19 years ago, we were together at St. Pauls Seminary Ukpor. We studied, eat, dance, joke together. We can’t throw away the past because without the past, there will not be tomorrow. Every day of our life, we are living in a harvest. Where we are right now, is a harvest of something that happened yesterday. By this time tomorrow, you will not call it tomorrow again, you will call it today. Yesterday is the pigeon hole of your history. I don’t bother about those that I know but those that think that they know me. Because those that think that they know me want to define me. On the process, they try to analyse me base on the information they have about me. And this information is located in my yesterday. When you compare yourself with your past, your yesterday, you think that you have arrived. Your past can only belong to your history, it can never define you. The people that abuse you for instance, did that in your past. They are not doing it now. So, if you still accept the abuse, then you are the one abusing yourself. You have to move into the future. However, as we talk about the past, we must not fail to appreciate the sacrifices of Frs. Jeremiah Nwosu, Clement Aghadinuno, Jude Orakwe and Late Ezike Iheoma and others. These great men contributed a lot in what we are today. Again, as we reflect on the past, it is important to remember that we shall not see Richard Ezeonyi and Paschal Belonwu again. But as long as AHOBA 2001 exist, their memories will never die. MOVING FORWARD: Today is a gift that is why it is called present. The inspiration of your today can only come from your yesterday or your tomorrow. If you consistently feed your today with the bad experiences of the past, you will kill the hope of tomorrow. So, you are either feeding your today from the past or from your future. Today, is your character that is who you are. But I have a good news for you, God does not deal with you base on your past nor on your today but on your future. Tomorrow is your destiny and that is where God relate to us. Every day, you look at your bank account, you see a reflection of your past. The money you earn yesterday, you are afraid of spending it today because you don’t have the guarantee about tomorrow. The resources you need to go through in life must be determined today. The type of sacrifices you made today depend on the vision you have for your future. However, the journey we are about to embark on will not be an easy journey. When I talk about the journey, I refer to the project will are about to kick start. Few months ago, I spoke with 30 gentlemen on phone on the need for us to come together and invest. I must confess here without hiding feelings that 99 percent of those that I had conversation with were ready to kick start the project. For us to move to our destination, I have marshalled out the following points to guide us: AHOBA 2001 SET MUST BE POSITIVE: Let’s think positive... We need a positive attitude. To effectively institute change and move forward in this association, it is essential to spend more time training the heart. This has to do with attitudes that drive performance. To train the brain is to expose the trainees to new and evolving knowledge about their functions and corporate operations. Such knowledge must now translate into skills that are brought to bear on the productivity process. The change pioneer must therefore concentrate adequate time and resources to attitudinal issues. Beyond that, he himself must be a rabid learner. According to Alvin Tuffler, “the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and 6 is not just a piece of eclectic homiletics. It is the manuscript of a training session that Jesus held for His disciples on attitudinal change and re-orientation of perception! The next critical factor is Innovation. It has been said that the moment any organisation begins to dance to the mantra of “We have never done it this way before and we should not start now”, it is already singing its swan-song. The swan is said to sing only once in its lifetime. And that is when it is about to die! A refusal to innovate is an invitation to corporate funeral. Every new idea appears ridiculous and unthinkable at the onset. Yet therein lies its strength. The innovative spirit looks at present success as the greatest disservice to future attainment. So, innovators constantly shift boundaries in thinking and in possibilities. This is why professionalism is one of the greatest impediments to innovation. According to George Bernard Shaw, “All great truths begin as blasphemies”. When Jesus began to make postulations about the Kingdom of God and His relationship with the Father God, the Pharisees, the “professional” custodians of religion at that time, labelled Him a heretic and even went as far as branding Him demon-possessed! Innovators are, however, never afraid of being labelled or sanctioned. Steve Ross, late CEO of the entertainment giant, Warner Bros, told his staff, “In this company, you will be fired for not making mistakes!” The problem, however, according to Dee Hock, the creator of Visa, “is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind but how to get old ones out”! We must encourage everyone on this team to think on their feet. The change driver must also master the art of Networking. In building a virile network, the vision must always determine the quality and quantum of relationships. There are two pivotal questions in networking. The first is ‘Who needs us?’ The second is ‘Who do we need?’ Technology can never eliminate the need for people. Today, technology has enhanced the way we function and the tendency is to relate more with people through machines and gadgets (social networking). Good and convenient as these may seem, it must never become a substitute for flesh and blood relationships. Great business alliances are known to have been forged over a game of golf or a chance meeting at a business or club dinner. Multi-million dollar deals have been negotiated around a drink. Consequently, our network must be both intra-organisational and inter-organisational. Leaders of change learn to build strong alliances both at work and outside of work. Nothing in a network is sacrosanct or cast in iron. As the vision evolves, so must the network. If the current circle of relationship can no longer meet the demands of the future, we have no qualms in tinkering with it without damaging the goodwill built at the current level. AHOBA 2001 SET MUST STAY TOGETHER AND WORK TOGETHER Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” - Jane Howard People are an essential part of our journey through life. A man is not bankrupt until he has a relationship deficit. Connectors are the most successful people on earth. What many others spend a fortune trying to get, they get through their network. If you spend your life building only your net worth, your lack of a network will deplete your net worth. But if you diligently build your network alongside your net worth, you will discover that your network will enhance your net worth. This is the reason why successful people invest in developing quality relationships. Whatever it is you are looking for is already in the hands of someone you just need to appropriately connect with. Just as you have a lot to offer others, remember that others have a lot to offer you. To succeed you need people. To sustain success, you also need people. The need becomes even more pertinent considering the fact that we live in a gizmo world where people now relate more with and through machines and gadgets than people. Even when involved in serious conversations, people are busy working the phone! You must realise, however, that even if you are a Facebook, BB, Whatsapp, Badoo, LinkedIn or Tweeter expert (and these are all powerful tools for building a network), none of these is a substitute for real life, flesh and blood relationships. You can strike a friendship on any of these platforms but you cannot build trust on it. Everyone needs a network. Why? Your network helps you save time. Imagine that you need a new house or a car and you have no clue where or how to go about it. Instead of spending a long time online searching for information that may not be reliable, you only need to pick up your phone and call one or two people in your network and they can give you options. Networks provide us access to valuable resources. It has been said that you are probably just about five people away from anyone you desire to contact. It’s about someone in your network who knows someone in his network until it connects with the one you needed to reach. The necessity for change arose because the present capacity became insufficient in arriving at a projected destination. That destination is the most important thing in the mind of the driver of change. It is not about change for change’s sake. It is about change for a purpose. Imagine this. You had sent several proposals to a particular company and nothing positive had come out of any of your attempts. So you had given up. Then one day you got an invitation to a dinner event organized by AHOBA 2001 SET. Getting there, you find yourself seated at the same table with someone who had been your room mate in St. Paul Seminary Ukpor. As you exchanged banter, you also exchanged cards and bingo!, he is the Managing Director and Executive Chairman of the company whose custom you had pursued in vain for so long! You mentioned your line of business and he told you he had actually been looking for someone he could trust to handle that aspect of his business. You scheduled an appointment for the following week. You kept the date and returned with a letter of award in your hand! That is the power of Networking. AHOBA 2001 Set can offer this. Some AHOBA 2001 Set members living abroad would not have been there if not for the assistance of other AHOBA members. There were AHOBA members that got admission in a University because one or two AHOBA members were there before him. That is the power of Networking. However, once you got your foot in that door, you have a responsibility to keep it open through performance. This is one area where many people get it wrong. They take advantage of the relationship! Some can go to the extent of making unnecessary phone calls or making up of stories or taking advantage of the network. However, what they fail to realize is that access to the man also potentially gave you access to his own network! Our needs in life can take many forms. They can be spiritual, professional, economic, or even social. Networks around our core areas of need or interest help us to live a well-rounded life. No matter the area of your weakness, there will be someone who is strong in that area. When you build a network that comprises people in the essential areas of life, it is your insurance against being stranded on life’s highway. Every profession has its platform for practitioners to relate and network. On such platforms, you meet new people and strike up new friendships. In many instances, such relationships have been known to lead to the altar. So, if you are in searching and available, network more. However, in any network you belong to, never be the weak link. Take on responsibilities. Make suggestions that contribute to the progress of the organization. One of the great advantages of networking is the privilege it affords you to meet people you may never otherwise meet. When you painstakingly build your network, it has the capacity to plunge you into the midst of abundance. Suddenly, you discover that you are surrounded by friends who are well-endowed in the areas where you are deficient. Wherever life takes you, make new friends. You never know when you may need them. Someone with a quality network is never derelict or in want. Whatever is available in your network is also available to you. Whatever you need, check through your network. Is there someone who can give you access even if he does not have it in person? What you need may just be a phone call away. When highly influential people have a social event that attracts the creme de la creme in the society, there is an ambiance of affluence that keeps you guessing about how extravagant and expensive the event must have been. In reality, many of the things you see in such parties are likely to have been bankrolled by someone in that man’s network! In many cases, the man ends up with more money in his pocket than he actually spent! How do you build beneficial networks? Everyone loves a problem-solver! No matter how influential the person you want to meet is, always be on the lookout for something you can offer help about. You can even take a gift no matter how small. Instead of spending the entire time thinking about what you want from them, listen and be on the lookout for areas of need where you can provide a solution. If it is within a group dynamics, volunteer to serve on committees, attend meetings as often as you can, make your voice heard as you make useful contributions and suggestions and pay your membership dues as soon as they are due! To significantly succeed in life, you would need networking at various levels. First, if you are a professional, you need to join a network relevant to your profession. Every lawyer needs the national Bar Association just like any medical doctor needs the medical association. Membership of a professional association gives you access to all strata of practitioners in the profession. It affords you access to free mentoring as it gives you an excellent platform to also reach out to others who may be your juniors for the purpose of making significant contributions to their upward movement.. Family networks are valuable because there is no substitute for family. Blood they say is thicker than water. Social networks are also effective platforms for mutually beneficial relationships. When we hear of social networking, our minds immediately go to online networking via Facebook, Linkedin, Youkos etc. However, as useful as these are, social networks are not only impersonal, they include membership of social clubs like golf, recreation, Rotary, Lions’ clubs, non-governmental organisations, community development groups - even at the level of residents’ associations. None of these groups is evil in itself. It is the individual’s motive for joining them that matters. My advice is that whatever association you decide to belong to, join it for the barter more than the banter. You must be willing to bring value to the table. Your membership must be vision-driven. Most importantly, you need a spiritual network. People who share your core values and deep-seated belief system provide a support system at critical junctures in life. The Bible teaches that woe is he who is alone when he falls! People who share your values are more likely to reach out to you than those who do not. Those who refuse to change will be changed; I mean replaced! Let’s commit to AHOBA 2001 SET Commitment has been described as “dedication, steadfastness, allegiance, faithfulness, loyalty”. It’s about giving oneself to a cause with success as the only option. Commitment binds you irrevocably to a cause you believe in until success comes. It’s not the same as involvement. The world is full of involved people. Anybody can be involved. Being involved in an activity that involves other people does not make you part of a team. As a matter of fact, it only takes a number of people involved in working together to have a group. A group is not a team. The difference? In a group, people are involved in activity. In a team, people are committed to a process and a goal. The difference between commitment and involvement is known by the difference in the omelet and corned beef. In the omelet, the chicken is involved. In corned beef, the cow is committed! Commitment is the secret of the success of the postage stamp. To get the letter to its destination, the stamp first commits to the envelope. After that, the rest is a matter of time. A train gets to its destination because it commits to the rails. There can be no commitment without conviction. People cannot commit to what they have not taken some emotional decisions about. True commitment begins when an individual can find a ‘WHY’ for his actions. Without a compelling reason that appears bigger than the individual’s natural capacity, there can be no true commitment. Commitment is the difference between wishful thinking and dogged pursuit, commitment is the trigger of passion. No matter what you are passionate about, if you do not first commit to the course or process, your passion can only end up as a mirage. Commitment operates principally at six levels. 1. Commit to God: Those who have discovered themselves in God have no problems committing to Him. Those who keep side-tracking God in the success venture will find out soon enough that it is the pathway to frustration and an insignificant demise. Success without godliness is nothing but emptiness. In one of his Psalms, David describes the man who says there is no God as a fool! 2. Commit to a cause: You were never created to solely pursue wealth and all the trappings of worldly success. After all your bills are paid and you have a spill-over, what next? Highly successful people first find a higher cause for which they are willing to lay down their lives if need be, then they throw themselves wholly into it. The principle is that if death does not scare you, the possibility of failure cannot. As the Bible has rightly said, those who keep their lives lose it and those who lose theirs find it! The other name for it is significance. Make money in order to enhance your platform for significance. In recent times, Bill Gates has committed time and resources to finding a solution to the scourge of HIV/AIDS and poverty eradication, especially in the 3rd World. What he did caught the attention of Warren Buffet, the world’s second richest man, (who is not reputable for charity) who gave $37b USD to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. When asked why, he answered, “Because they know how to give it away better and faster than I can” 3. Commit to a process: Everything in life evolves. The only tree that grew to full stature in one day died the same day. If you cannot commit to process, you will forfeit the promise. To master any skill, there is a process of apprenticeship. Permit yourself to fail. The Olympic medallist who won a 100-metre dash in less than 10 seconds was only being celebrated for what he had invested years of consistency and hours of practice into. Tiger Woods had played golf as a child and he had always nurtured a vision to win every championship in golf. So he started to work towards that early. The father (himself a good lawn tennis player) of Serena and Vanessa Williams, world lawn tennis champions, had coached them to aspire to win since they were young. What the world celebrates today in these people is actually the process they had committed to long before they started winning laurels. 4. Commit to people: There is no self-made man. No man is an island. Your highest aspiration is someone’s current reality. Deliberately seek and cultivate the company of people who are more successful than you. It may not be easy but it is the fastest way to grow! Commit to mentors. Commit to protégés if you are a mentor. Commit to your spouse. Although there are other channels of transmission, HIV/AIDS is primarily a disease of involvement without commitment! Commit to your children. Commit to your employer. Commit to purpose-oriented relationships. Life is structured in a way that there is no self-made man. To significantly make a difference in life, you need people. When God wants to lift anyone up, He sends people. Conversely, when the devil wants to bring a man down, he uses people. 5. Commit to yourself: Budget for self-development. Your greatest investment is the one you make on your personal development. 6. Commit to AHOBA 2001: When Mr. Celestine Ukoh told me that he will kick start the organisation of AHOBA 2001 SET Lagos Branch, I encouraged him to bring it to fulfilment. Alumni associations are very good platforms for networking. Even if the alumni association of your alma mater does not exist in your locality, find a means of connecting with other alumni to inaugurate one. It is a great platform to relate especially in view of the fact that many of your alumni would be occupying sensitive and important positions that you may eventually benefit from. Conversely, such associations help you to define what ways you can actually add value to others. I have noticed that more often than not, alumni of the same institution bond very easily for obvious nostalgic reasons and so are willing to help one another for old time’s sake. LET’S INVEST TOGETHER We have debated at length on the project to embark on, this is time for action. Whether we are embarking on school project, hostel, event centre, the time to act is now. I understand that all hands are not equal but I have no doubt that the sacrifices of today will yield much for a better tomorrow. I have chosen to speak about it because while I agree that there is widespread poverty, I think that there is a lot of waste; it is waste of such gravity that on its own, deepens poverty and makes us think that we can not do it. It is waste of a degree that, if we curtailed it, will provide enough in savings to start and complete on a chosen project in a record time. I cannot categorize all of it, but we live through it every day and I will only refer to some examples to illustrate what I mean. How many cloths do you buy in a year? How much do you use to sew them? How many bottles of beer do you drink a week? If your school fees is delayed or unpaid, have you asked yourself whether if what you have bought one shoe less, whether you would have saved enough to pay the school fees? Are you aware that each text message you send costs N5 on average? How many text messages do you send to wish people a happy new year, happy new day, happy new week, happy new Friday, happy new Sunday and happy new month? How many people did you send them to and how many days a week do you send them? Please do the arithmetic and see how much it comes to in a year. Bring the savings and lets invest it in a project that you will benefit from. Do you have a car? You can take a public bus for one month and bring the savings from the petrol lets invest together. If you have a girlfriend, do not give her money for two months, tell her that you want to save up the money and that you want to invest in AHOBA project. She will understand. Can we change our choices and our values? Nigeria is waiting upon all of us to fulfil her promise. Are we ready to make the sacrifice? Are we ready to build a lasting legacy? Can we BELIEVE AGAIN? And if we do, are we ready to do the hard work and make the right choices?” The time to start the project is now. AHOBA 2001 SET IS MY FAMILY Few months ago, I was making phone calls to every member of AHOBA asking them to support this project that we are about to embark on. I spoke with 30 gentlemen but I was touched by the words of Donatus Udeagbala and Somtoo Udigwe. They described AHOBA 2001 SET as their family. I plead with the executives and the 4 man committee to ensure that they lead this family to an unending success. “As a set, we are on a mission. Every one of us is on a mission. Even AHOBA 2001 Set is on a mission to an appointed destination in Nigeria and Africa. God cannot make a mistake of creating a large number of people and place them in a place called AHOBA 2001 SET without a purpose. There is a purpose for AHOBA 2001 SET. And one of the purpose is to build the institution and hand it over to the Church after our existence in appreciation for the foundation they laid in our individual lives. However, to succeed in this journey that we decided to embark on, we need patience and perseverance. “Perseverance is another quality. Rev Fr Cajetan, the President, and Eloo Okeke, the Chairman of the 4 man committee, when it becomes tough, keep going. You should persevere, please don’t give up. You must get this set to the top. You must ensure that you lead the people to the destination God has planned for them. And I pray that someday, we will get to our destination. One day, our dreams will turn to reality. I will end this presentation in the words of Mr. Izeji Emmanual and Oforzoaba Callistus, during our conversation, they note, “Starting and completion of this project is possible”. LET US GET TO WORK Mr. Anthony Orjika Dublin, Ireland.
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 12:52:07 +0000
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