NDUKWE Sam Obu sat, his legs folded across each other in the sofa. He was spotting a designer T-shirt over a pair of smart shorts. He looked everything but a successful lawyer that Sunday morning as he told the story of his life and his efforts geared towards “building up a vision and mission that reflects the need to improve on the socio economic status quo; to adopt an expanded service delivery with programs for interventions; and above all, to target the specific groups of young men and women.” He was actually talking about his support initiative popularly referred to as Non Governmental Organisations, NGO, Next 2 None.
Obu is a legal practitioner, founder and chairman, Board of Trustees of Next 2 None. He is also a social activist affiliated to many international organisations that dwell on humanity and “I intend to use my wealth of experience to transform our society through youth empowerment and support for good governance,” he said, his gaze fixed permanently on the TV set but not actually watching the action movie going on.
His soft side was revealed when he started talking about his family. “I am married to a lovely and beautiful wife, Mary, with two lovely kids, Diamond and Soncharles.” Incidentally, his wife and kids are in with him in his fight against Human Right Abuse and Human Trafficking being championed by Next 2 None. “We are all jointly fighting these causes from our Abuja base. Diamond at six years and my dear wife are models, presently modeling for Human Right Commission, while Soncharles is an artiste at 8, he would feature in the upcoming movie by Next 2 None in collaboration with Nollywood, Human Right Commission and Ministry of Information.” Obu said.
His childhood story is interesting. “I am one of the numerous children of late chief Sam Obu, Akajiaku of Ania, Ohafia in Abia State; a successful merchant married to my mother, Mrs. Ojeka Sam Obu. My mother deemed it necessary to send me to my late grandmother who was a renowned teacher and disciplinarian, for tutelage at Queen Eliza Hospital, Umuahia, and wonderful environment to rare children in all ramifications. Therefore I did my kiddies, primary and secondary school education in Umuahia.
Kind of Parents
Permit me to say I am a product of many parents; Chief and Mrs. Sam Obu, successful business people, my grandmother, an academician, farmer and disciplinarian; Chief Awa U. Kalu, a renowned lawyer under whose auspices I studied law (my first five years of practice was in his chambers in Aba).
“The orientation I got from all these personalities, gave birth to who I am today; a lawyer, humanitarian activist, businessman and love for handicraft.”
Obu debunked the claim he had dropped his wig for his humanitarian cause. “Point of correction, I never and would never drop my wig and gown as I remain a lawyer and would always be. Kindly note, Law is my primary constituency. However, it is axiomatic to state categorically that in every society, lawyers have been catalyst and the pivot upon which the society revolves. Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi were all lawyers. Coming home, the likes of Femi Falana are lawyers. These are people who made and are still making contributions of immense proportion to vigorously transforming their societies. So, I am greatly, enshrined with the historical perspective of these great people therefore influenced by them.
His pursuit for a better society may be taking a toll on his family life. “I must be frank with you, it (NGO) has to a large extent given me a fulfilling, challenging, exciting and momentous life as at today in spite of overwhelming difficulties but not impossibilities. For example, I miss my lovely family a lot because I am always junketing around in order to prosecute this cause. My appointments, engagements, activities that surround the initiative have sky- rocketed. I attend an average of three seminars a week, it is no mean feat but; to be frank with you, I enjoy what I am doing because it has created an avenue for me to chat this cause with powerful people in Nigeria and across the globe. We are working hard to spread our tentacles the world over.
“It has also given me a privilege to study what it takes to be a peasant and to live in abject poverty, the abused, the tortured, incarcerated, the dehumanised, psychologically traumatised, suppressed, the enclave youths, children and women and to appreciate what extra judicial killing is all about in true sense of it. Hence, I stand in a better position to comparatively analyse these two extremes, the reason for which this initiative was set up. We are established to give a helping hand through advocacy, mobilization, storytelling, apprenticeship and a lot more in order to create an enabling environment so as to transform our society.”
He talks about funding for Next 2 None. “Kindly note sir, that Next 2 None was founded with three major development plans; the short, medium and long term. The first five years is the short development plan, time within which to establish it (foundation stage) where only the board of trustees and Governing Council will take up the financial responsibilities without external influence so as to build confidence, integrity and sense of responsibility for the initiative. The trustees and the heavyweights from the Governing Council have been of tremendous assistance to see this dream come true.
“Now, we are in the medium term development phase which has been encouraging as we now have ECOWAS Commission, Nollywood, Federal Government Agencies and Commissions such as the Human Rights Commission, NAPTIP, Ministry of Information, private and corporate bodies among others working hard to take the initiative to the next level while we wait for the last phase which is internationalizing the initiative by having romance with other countries, nation- state and the world over.”
Part of the plans this year; include the shooting of a movie to further educate the general public on the evils of unprecedented Human Right Abuse and the latest trend of Human Trafficking. (Human Organ Harvest) “Having carried out a scientific research through a committee of Professors drawn from different universities in the country, Next 2 None is now set to be more pragmatic by way of shooting the most revealing, thought provoking, epoch and captivating movie of our time that will span from Nigeria, South Africa, U.K and America in order to expose the most heinous crime, inhumanity to man, deceit and ungodly actions and inactions, perpetrated by the high and the low rank of monstrous people in human disguise.
“We are also embarking on a street celebrity campaign across the 6 geo political zones to showcase our sincerity of purpose. We have already achieved Abuja representing the Federal Capital Territory where the Information Minister Labaran Maku, NAPTIP representatives, Nollywood community and N2N as a body jointly participated.”
Obu’s dream for his support initiative is for it to metamorphosis to a formidable platform for justifiable society. Adopt a saner approach to actualising a saner society that would within the set time frame wipe away the sordid tears of the encapsulated youths.
“We hope to become a household name the world over as a frontier for achieving a better society. This is our prayer. You can reach us on our web site www.next2none.org.
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