PROLOGUE
I met Joseph Uzoma for the first time on my first day in the university. As a new student, I did not know my left from my right and I did not know anyone on campus. I was able to ask for directions to the Student Affairs Building, where I was to do all my registrations. Just in front of the building was the most handsome young man that I had ever seen. He gave me a smile that melted my heart and he approached me. Oh I felt like I was in a dream world.
“Are students here this handsome?” I thought.
“Virtue, you are here to face your academics and not look for handsome young men,” I cautioned myself.
Anyway, he came to me and said, “Good morning. My name is Joseph. You are new here, right? I can walk you through your registrations.”
“Okay. What is the catch? Why help someone that you just met?”
“It’s because I know the protocols are stressful if you are not conversant with the processes and because I was helped during my time. Besides, look around; the students you see are doing the same outreach as me. Several church fellowships and school associations are here too for this.”
With his explanation, I was relaxed as I followed him. He took me through everything and we exchanged contacts in case I needed another help. Because of him, I joined his church fellowship, Radiant Christian Students Fellowship (RCSF) and I also vowed to help other first year students when the time came.
Joseph was in his final year, studying Agricultural Engineering while I studied Home Economics. He was also the technical director of RCSF. I was tempted to join the technical unit because of him but I was not so technically inclined. So, I joined the welfare unit which granted me so much opportunity to help others.
Joseph turned out to be the greatest and most patient gentleman that I had ever met. He was my first point of call when I needed something. Many times, my demands were not convenient for him but he always found a way to help me out. At a point, I began to wonder if other students that he helped gave him as much trouble as I did. He never complained until one day…
That fateful day, I met him after the fellowship meeting and requested, “I was asked to write a term paper on home appliances. I do not know how to go about it. Can you help me?”
“Every time you call me or come to me, I am always sure that you want something from me. Can’t you prove me wrong one day?” he snapped.
I had it coming. In fact, I wondered how Joseph was yet to complain about my constant requests. I was ready to apologise and leave but he beat me to it.
“I am sorry I spoke to you that way. I did not mean it, I promise,” he said.
At first, I felt that he apologised because he was a good Christian and people like him hate to be caught being disrespectful. However, I saw such sincerity in his eyes that I immediately knew that he really did not mean to speak that way to me. That could only mean that he was bothered about something else and transferred the aggression to me.
“What is the matter? Let me help you for a change,” I said calmly.
“It is nothing. I will handle it,” he replied.
“You certainly do not know how persistent I can be.”
“My project. My project supervisor refused to check my work for long. So, I went on to do what I could. I have gone far in my practicals and have begun to collect results. Then, out of the blue, he called me today and went through my work. Then, he changed my topic. Everything that I typed and the things that I bought for the work are all in vain. I have no money to continue. I am in debts. What can I do?”
“It is okay. I understand why you are so angry. What your supervisor did to you is not fair. Allow me to help you for a change. I will give you some money to continue your work,” I said.
“I cannot collect anything from you,” he replied.
Somehow, I was proud of him. It was rare to see such men that would turn down such an offer.
“Alright. I will lend you the money but I will not put pressure on you to pay me back,” I replied.
“I’ll pay you back, I promise. So, what happens to my previous project? I spent a lot of time building it.”
“If you truly trust your work, you can make money from it,” I said.
From that day, our relationship was no more about him being my ever-present human helper that God had sent my way. We became more open to each other. I gave him financial advice and helped him to start up a business which would help him when he graduated.
The day that he finished his final paper, he called me for a cerebration dinner. Honestly, I had started to fall for him and I silently hoped that he wanted to pop up the very important question: Will you marry me? Instead, he began to talk to me about his life’s aspiration.
“The problem we have in this country is our lack of mechanisation of agriculture. There are so many issues surrounding that like the machines are mostly foreign and are not compatible to the environment and local farmers are too poor to afford the machines and constructions.”
He communicated his plans to me and oh, he was so detailed. I listened very attentively. When I got home, I brought an unused long note and wrote down everything that he said. At that time, I knew very little about Business plans and proposals but I used the little I knew from writing term papers (which Joseph taught me) to pen everything down. I included suggestions about how to go about it and I wrote a cheque for the capital and hid it inside the book when I gave it to him as a parting gift.
Joseph told me of his close friends willing to partner in his dream. I also knew of some other people and I linked him up to the connections. At the end, the partners were ten and they named their company; ‘Dynamic Agricultural Specialists – DAS.’ Joseph was the Chief Executive Officer and engineering specialist. Princewill, an agricultural economist, was the next in command and was tasked with creating viable agribusiness models. The others included a crop scientist, soil scientist, animal scientist, agricultural extension agent, veterinary doctor, agricultural marketer, agricultural processing specialist, and food scientist. The company majored in consulting. Their clients included big and medium-sized agribusinesses. They also helped small-scale farmers who could not afford their services to form cooperatives in order to join resources to improve their farming processes.
Their first year was a total failure. They made such losses that the firm was in great debts. Joseph called me on phone to tell me his problems.
“You are all young and fresh out of school. While your business idea is terrific, it is only viable for experienced people in the field. As such, you cannot go far without experienced mentors,” I said.
“You are right. We call ourselves specialists but we hardly know anything. What we need to do now is to clear our debts. We will pause our services and perhaps look for jobs so that we can get good experience and if our bosses are good people, I am sure that they will agree to be our mentors,” he replied.
I also gave him some contacts to help him out. One of the contacts that I gave to Joseph was Mr Paul, a prominent business man and a family friend. After two years, Mr Paul hooked Joseph up with a million-naira contract and that contract kick-started DAS Company once again. And as he completed that contract, I completed my studies.
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