Guo storms Asaba

“Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and makes some virtues impracticable and others extremely difficult.”

– Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) Letter to James Boswell, 7 Dec, 1782.

Lexicographer, Essayist, Critic, Encyclopediastic, Samuel Johnson who was blind in one eye was born in abject poverty. A man of straw, his poverty prevented him from graduating from Oxford. In 1735, at the age of 25, he saved himself from further excoriating poverty by getting married to the 46 years old Elizabeth Porter to stabilize his finances. From his new top status Johnson would not stand by and graze in common with the sons and daughters of the carpenters.

In my eventful sojourn on this planet my burden most of those times I have been dragged into Gethsemane, has been as a result of my own misadventures or the making of my own self inflicted injuries.

As a young man, my obsession was to conquer the world. In my daily tangle and tango to touch the skies, I was not sure I was moved by the world of the rich. At  the same time, those friends and relations from the hood, in coming forward to touch my hands bandied together with the former without the straying classes ever stopping  to define the true meaning of “Success” Riches”, or “Poverty”

In my own world, it is easier for my school to savor the evergreen standing of the author of the first ‘modern novel’ Miguel de Cervantes  Saavedra. Cervantes wrote the classic, Don  Quixote and in Chapter 20, he saved us from further delirium when he simplified it all in these famous lines. “ There are only two families in the world, my old grandmother used to say, The Haves and the Have-nots.”  Instead of the Rich and the Poverty-Stricken! For the rich may be walking around with very poor souls. Before he departed office as the Executive  Governor of Delta, my good tennis, playing friend Emmanuel Uduaghan, sold the Asabtex mills and continued to hold government  shares in the Ughelli Glass Industry. Nigerians were scared away when the Asabatex selling price soared  over N10 billions! Just as everybody was thinking the Chinese were coming in again, a very good man emerged and bought over the company. From his Octopus transporting business which cuts across West African, the GUO presently holds the commanding shares at the Eastern Nigeria’s No. 1 Industrial site at  Emene. Chief Onwa Godwin Ubaka Okeke, GUO had told the Nigerian Press that ANNAMCO since he came in with sons would upgrade the ANNAMCO production, in the next few years its technical products would help in the establishing the new middle level  manpower that is needed for Nigeria to compete with China, Korea ,Singapore, India in the new world technology rivalries.

Today this man that has made his mark in Nigeria storms Asaba. At the Anglican Bishop Court were teeming football fans, the Asaba Royalty, the Press and the Anglican church would be waiting; Onwa is coming to watch the kick off  of his new experiment. The GUO Soccer Academy pivoted from a new model of training under 17 aged boys; expected to come from their homes. According to the Philanthropist, these boys must first of all go to school, supervised by their parents and my soccer coaches and administrators.

After one year in the Academy, the boys are expected to grow and play in the F.A organized matches and depending on the results, we plan to market the best of the boys outside the country, to make room for the other younger ones coming after them, and for the company to recoup their investments”. “This is my happiness, especially when we use Sports  to uplift the lives of the poor families,” he explained.

Asaba is already aglow with the news. The reclusive Onwa is storming town and the Bishop Mogekwu, Anglican Communion Bishop Court and  the whole of the Osadebay Road is jammed.

To understand further, the philosophy  of Onwa GUO, whose house is like a daily Ministry,  I end with the famous French Philosopher’s, quote, Pirerre Choderlos de Laclos… “A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives”