My SP Experience…
We arrived got to his house at about 9.30pm and waited additional 30 minutes before he walked into the room. There was this aura of calm around him, for someone who has been shaking up the political realms and we have been reading about his activities. I expected something else other than the cool, calm and feel at home aura around him.
Our team leader, Godbless Otubure introduced us and was about to rush quickly to allow the two people selected for speeches make their speech but the Senate President said “NO, even if its a minute each, I will love to hear from all of you and know what you do”. I know you think “Yeah that is the normal thing to do, what is the big deal there? The big deal is that, it was 10pm already, he was obviously tired, and there were a thousand and one cars outside, a lot of people were still waiting to see him, and he just gave 56 of us a minute each”. That is the big deal.
I remember the look on his face when he heard that ” the 56 people in the room with him were carefully selected by the American Embassy out of 11,000 people and as far as they are concerned we were Nigeria’s best brains for 2019″. I remember how he kept looking surprisingly at the achievements of the young people in the room with him, who has gotten that far without the help of the government. He
couldn’t hide his surprise and at the same time joy and you could tell that he was proud of our achievements.
None of us were clad in Gucci from head to toe, none of us had the most expensive perfumes on, None had make up on. Truth is we had a very tiring day and we all needed our sleep desperately. All we projected was our brains, all we had to offer was our minds. What we had inside made us very beautiful and attractive and rich.
When we “the selected two” finally spoke, you could tell he appreciated our brilliance, sincerity and directness and work so far. He listened with keen interest and his reaction speech made left us speechless. We saw our worth through his words, we realized our value through his body language. And we know and believe with every fibre of our being that if he could, in any way he could help advance our projects, he would really do everything in his power to assist and really support us.
I know you think ” he is a politician and politicians lie” before you open your mouth just remember that
* You were not in their with us
* We didn’t go on a political visit
* He had no reason to lie us
It is what it is… We were simply the best in all of our chosen fields.
God bless Nigeria
God bless America
God bless the Mandela Washington Fellows 2019!!!
N.B
Attached is his reaction to our speech and the complimentary seal he gave us.