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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Former hip hop artiste, Osinachi Amako, who once formed the defunct Freewindz band with his brothers, Kingsley and Chike, has transformed into a prominent politician in Imo State. Many may have wondered about the whereabouts of the singers, but the brothers have grown into men pursuing different professional paths.
Osinachi, currently Vice Chairman of Owerri-West Local Government Area in Imo State and a successful businessman, is now popularly known as “No Vex” – a name associated with his conglomerate of companies. He is a Master Super agent of bet9ja, and he’s also into waste recycling and water production.
His philanthropic gestures have boosted his fame under this new pseudonym. His constituency is praising his genuine empowerment programmes benefiting ten wards in his council area. As a young politician, he has already broken records set by predecessors in empowerment initiatives.
Moved by the level of hardship in the country, and later inspired by bet9ja empowerment programmes in 2023 he kicked off his his own which over five hundred people have benefited and since then he has never looked back. Most astonishing aspect of his kind gesture is using his hard earned money. So far he has injected over 120 million naira into this humanitarian service. His selfless service is not limited to sponsorship of football competitions and creating avenues for skills acquisition.
Explaining where he got his inspirations and funds from, he said: “I borrowed a leaf from bet9ja. They’re always telling us anything you do, try and touch a life and see what that life will do to others. So I started with my first empowerment sharing N200,000 to 20 people and most of the beneficiaries entered business and their lives changed, so after seeing it work, 20 per cent of my daily income was set aside for empowerment. If I save for like four months, I would do one empowerment after that. I now started No Vex free medical outreach. I did it in the 10 wards of Owerri-West Local Government. When I did it, I saw people that couldn’t buy Panadol of N5000 let alone malaria medicine of N5000.
“Mine is a full blown hospital. When I do it, I bring doctors, laboratory scientists. We even run tests. I consulted a hospital when doing that. I saw joy in people’s faces when I did it. So I said, no, I will continue this. From there, I stepped up and I did free computer training for 50 people with 50 laptops. I did No Vex Football Tournament. The prizes were mind-blowing. There is no team that didn’t get up to N800,000 and winners got almost N2 million,” Amako said.
He continued: “I did not stop after that. I bought 50 grinding machines and 50 welding machines and shared it to the ten wards of Owerri-West. Three weeks after, I did another 50.
“I’m doing this because I don’t want to become a politician that empowers people during elections. I want to be remembered as a politician that has a soul because people feel politicians don’t have souls. But we, the younger ones, we want to change the dynamics of politics. We don’t want to see politics as a means of personal aggrandisement.
“God has blessed me. With government or no government, I’m made. I don’t need much from the government; I don’t. What I just want now is how to touch lives and empower people. I want to take a lot of people out of poverty as much as I can.
Sharing his emotional experience in one of his numerous outreaches, Amako said: “I can’t forget this scenario where a widow – her name is Mrs Sabi Duru from Umuoyo, Irete, who couldn’t come to receive her empowerment benefit. I had to go to her and give it to her personally with my crew. After the empowerment programme, they said she couldn’t come, that she’s an old widow. So we went to her house around 9pm and saw her in one uncompleted building. When she saw me, she started crying and rolling on the ground, saying that so in this life somebody can remember her. We gave her grinding machine and from that moment, I was inspired to do more.”
Despite what he has been doing, he felt he has not done enough and wishes he could do more. “I envy one Senator in the South-West. When I get that kind of money or fund from the government, I would do a huge empowerment like buying 100 tricycles, 100 mini buses, 100 grinding machines, 100 welding machines, 100 hairdressing equipment for male and female 100 each, and drop all in a field, about 800 items, then you’ve changed people’s lives.
“But most especially, my inspiration is from Governor Hope Uzodimma. He does excellent things. He does not believe in doing 500 things that would not be of standard, but he would pick 50 and the work done on them is excellent and solid. That’s why my empowerment items, when I buy few they will last for a long time.”
Most of the beneficiaries of his benevolence have not stopped showering praises on him. Eze Basil, a trader from Umuoma, Irete, who is a beneficiary of one of the grinding machines, said he can now comfortably feed his family from the proceeds of the item.
He said: “I’m short of words. If we have two or three people like him in Owerri West then people would be taken out of poverty. There’s nothing like teaching people how to fish. We pray for him to get more money so that he can help others.”
Mrs Duru, a farmer, thanked Amako for his kindness. She showered praises on him and wished him well in life.
“Who am I to be remembered by this great man? What he has done to me today he will get the reward tomorrow. The world will stand up for him. Whoever thinks a poor widow like me will have a source of income again?”
Also, Mr Emeka Anayo from Okolochi, who has lost all hope to live after losing his job and could barely feed, jumped for joy when he received his welding machine. “Today is a great day in my life. I have been praying and saving money to buy my own welding machine, but the economy has always set me back. With this machine today, I can say my life has turned around.”
His case is similar to that of Ndubuisi Bright Chidubem, an orphan from Umuelem, Ihiagwa in Owerri West Local Government area. But unlike Anayo, the orphan actually learnt the trade of welding from his master but money prevented him from buying his own machine, so he had no choice but to continue working with his master until the opportunity from No Vex empowerment initiatives found him.
“God will bless him for me. Who would have thought that an orphan like me would own his own machine today. I subjected myself to fate when I realised nobody could help me, but somebody really helped me and that was No Vex. Today, I’m the happiest person on earth and I pray God to continue to bless him,” Chidubem prayed.
The Chief Adviser to Amako, Ekene Umunakwe told our correspondent that the empowerment initiatives were born out of the zeal of No Vex to reduce poverty in his constituency.
“The idea is to raise people out of poverty and we have sustained the initiative since we started. We choose 100 people across the ten wards of Owerri-West when we wanted to embark on the programme. So far, a lot of people have benefited from it and they can testify to that. We wish we have more people like him with a human heart to reach out to the less privileged in our society,” Umunakwe said.
