I want to use the medium and opportunity to say a big thank you and congratulations to all those how have been a part of making the New Nigeria Club a Success in the last one year. It all started as a dream in the mind of one, then a few, then a crowd. January 1, 2008, over 1000 Nigerians gathered together to witness the birth of history, we had dignitories, the media was present, and the Ballmoral hall was filled to capacity. It was the beginning of a long walk, a long walk that will ultimately lead to freedom! A long walk that will lead us to a nation that is the most desireable country to live in on earth. A walk that will deliver the future!
It’s been one full year, in that one year, we have dared mighty things, we have braved odds, and Nigeria has felt our presence. It however is only just the beginning. We have done things that have made many wonder how all that was possible in just one year. Our name went far ahead of us into places where we were not even known, even into places where we may never be known. The New Nigeria Club, formerly registered as the New Naija Club, has been an inspiration to many Nigerians, a thing of pride to many others and a God given idea to most. As I reminisce over the past one year, I am full of gratitude to God, and I am grateful to you as well, that you did not stand by the sidelines but participated in delivering the future.
In this last one year, we have achieved many milestones. It’s been so difficult to adequately document, by the time our first one year documentary came out, we had done almost equivalent to what we had done when we started the work. We have been poised to deliver, and deliver we shall.
In the last one year, we have Sponsored a number of initiatives in a number of orphanages – appart from give gifts of freezers, fridges and water dispensers, we have helped in some building and infrastructure projects. We have rescued stranded patients from hospitals, we have given some deserving students scholarships, we have done re-orientation seminars in over 12 Higher institutions, addressed over 40,000 people in more than 60 different events, we have run several fully sponsored empowerment events, sponsored a top Nigerian athlete outside Nigeria to represent Nigeria in an international competition, sponsored and co-sponsored over 10 different events. We have distributed books for free to thousands of young people, we have helped our members to group together and take opportunities in a number of big and small deals. We have consistently run a daily radio progam to showcase the PATRIOTIC values we promote as New Nigeria Club for over 3 months now. We have partnered with a number of companies to get good discount for our membes, and have also rewarded a good number of our early members with handsome bonuses for helping to spread the word and invite others to join the New Nigeria Club. Together we have bought acres of land, we have insured the health of some and we have supported the businesses of others. The New Nigeria Club has won recommendations for a lot of high profiled Nigerians, Corporate professionals and even nationals of other countries. For a back end system that is completely locally, it’s been ranked as the first of it’s kind in Nigeria, and ranked as the best system of it’s kind globally. The New Nigeria Club has as it’s Advisory Board – Professor Pat Utomi, Oby Ezekwesili and Rev Sam Adeyemi. It has as strategic partners the heads of other organizations that believe and promote the emergence of a New Nigeria: Fela Durotoye, Gbenga Sesan, Niyi Adesanya, Modupe Oyekunle, Praise Fowowe, Femi Onagoruwa, Debo Adejana and many others. We have on ground a passionate team of trustees and daily champions of people who ensure that the promises we make get delivered – we all thought this would be win-win for us financially, but we have all ended up spending millions of our own into making things work, and consider it a seed well worth it.
Amidst different strategic changes that we have made to finetune the club and it’s membership model over time, the club membership continues to rise on a daily bases. We have a mixture of paid and unpaid members, the paid members are those who have paid their membership and are card carriers, the unpaid members are those who are registered and are very interested in the Club but have not been able to redeem their cost of membership.
2009 is a year of progress, growth and expansion for the New Nigeria Club. I expect that we will forge more alliances, we will cover new territory, we will dare bigger things.
I want to say a big thank you to you for believing and joining us in this history making journey. In the New Year, the stage is being set for our first of it’s kind reality show. We are forging forces together with other agents of change to kickstart a critical mass of Nigerians in a mass movement towards change. I urge you not to be left out. When history is told, we will all be on one of 3 sides of it. Those who make it happen, those who watched it happen, and those that had no clue.
To all the New Nigeria Club members out there… I love you, I trust you, I believe in you, and I say Thank you!
