He is tall, dark complexioned and a profound stature. Within his generously built frame lie great dreams for bountiful achievements. He has indeed realized some of these dreams with absolute successes. It all started unplanned. Senator Annie Okonkwo ventured into business unintentionally in a rather pitiable circumstance.

At a very tender age he was forced to abandon his education in the United States of America to take over the running of his father’s flourishing trading business at his sudden demise. With a barren mind devoid of the necessary experience, he took up the challenge with great strides and in no time became the pillar of hope for his siblings, widowed mother, and much late, Anambrarians and Nigeria in general.

From his father’s modest trading business he built a vast conglomerate that spans into telecommunications, oil and gas, manufacturing, banking, export, import and real estate. Most pronounced of his businesses is ZoomMobile that was initially known as Reltel Wireless. Reltel’s launch into the market was an indeed exciting experience and will for a long time be remembered for its kind gestures. It did the unthinkable by crashing the prices of telephones and broking the age long monopoly of only the rich having access to phones. Majority of Nigerians who never dreamt of ever owing phones in their lifetime suddenly saw themselves turning proud owners of functional phone set.

How did he achieve these feats? He accords his success to abiding faith in God. What else? He lists, “ Consistent hard work, tenacity of purpose and sheer entrepreneurial ingenuity”. But Senator Okonkwo insists that most important of all is unrelenting prayers. Today Senator Okonkwo’s businesses and investments have more than 5,000 staff in its employment.

At a very young age he had become fabulously wealthy but still craved for more education. He proceeded to the University of Lagos where he obtained a Diploma in Marketing and an Advanced Diploma in Commercial Law and Practice. He didn’t stop there. He travelled to the United States of America for a professional course in Business Management in the prestigious Harvard Business School. Senator Okonkwo graduated in 1997 and belongs to the AMP 152.

Right from birth he appears to have been ordained a leader and one destined to provide succor and respite for those around him. Apart from being the first child who transformed a modest family business into a conglomerate, his kinsmen fondly call him Agunechemba, (the Lion that protects the community). A title they conferred on him in recognition of his contribution to the development of their community and more importantly, his concern for the plight of the common people. This was why in the last election they turned out massively to vote him into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So far he has not disappointed them.

The welfare of people is uppermost in his heart. His quest for the ordinary man’s happiness urged him to initiate a bill titled ‘The National Essential Commodities Commission bill’ to enable most Nigerians meet the basic needs of life in the face of rising cost of goods and services. The revolutionary bill seeks to compel the Federal Government to establish an agency to periodically intervene in making available and at affordable prices all categories of goods classified as Essential Commodities, such as Rice, Cement, Iron (Metal), Sugar, Salt, Kerosene, Cooking gas, Food items, Pharmaceuticals and a host of other products. The bill has passed its first reading in the Senate.

The Senator has since his election into the Senate become the rally point and one of the strongest vocal voices against the marginalization of the South-East geo-political zone. He wastes no time in telling you how over several years, generations of children and adults in the South-East have been untimely exterminated by avoidable incidents of gully erosion. He narrates, “Homes, farmlands, roads, churches, schools, markets and shrines were not spared either. The list of disasters are too numerous to be fully catalogued. Surviving relatives of the victims still recall these calamities of several years back as if it just happened yesterday.

Till date, people are compulsively evicted from their ancestral homes. There is so much fear of uncertainty as residents of threatened communities wait on the edge for their ultimate fate, the day or night another part of their homesteads or farmlands would eventually cave in. They spend sleepless nights worrying over what direction it may occur next, knowing fully well that an imminent landslide could occur within a matter of time”. He says further, “I’m very bothered, if certain urgent measures are not taken there would be no Anambra State in the nearest future”. Senator Annie Okonkwo has strived to tackle the gully erosion crisis from various angles.

His concern for the ecological problems of his home state has prompted him to personally begin to seek ways and means of combating erosion through private sector collaboration in order to check the debilitating natural disaster threatening to extinct many Anambra communities. A few months ago he partnered with The Sun Publishing Limited in the formation of Ecological Disaster Foundation to help combat the erosion disaster and other ecological problems in other parts of the country.
He initiated the motion on the menace of erosion in the South East geo-political zone, co-sponsored with distinguished Senator Chris Anyanwu. The motion debated on the floor of the Senate highlighted the need for Federal Government to carry out urgent intervention measures to arrest the escalating problem of erosion and landslides in the South –East geo-political zone.

As the Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, he has diligently worked with the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Grace Bent on National Climate Change Commission and National Ecological Agency Bills which are at different stages waiting for passage at the Senate. He also ensured that the committee undertook a one-day oversight visit to Anambra State during which committee asked the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on Anambra erosion sites.
He has often called on the Federal Government to Anambra State at critical times and they responded. His timely intervention spurred the Federal Government to reconstruct the Obosi-Nkpor By-pass road that was cut by erosion sometime in 2007. His efforts also led to the inclusion in the 2009 budget by the Federal Government of some erosion sites in Anambra State such as, Nnobi, Umuoji, and Iruebenebe-Ojoto erosion sites. The Federal Ministry of Environment has since commenced work to tackle the gully erosion disaster in some of these communities.

Over the years Senator Annie Okonkwo has assisted thousands of indigent children and young people to fulfill their educational desires. What motivated this philanthropic drive? Is it because he has so much money in his pocket? “ I am not the richest man in this part of the world but I will never close my eyes to the cries of the down-trodden nor refuse to open when they knock”, he explains. Many times, he has taken the burden of hospital bills off the down trodden in the society. The climax of his humanitarian disposition was the setting up of Agunaechemba Foundation in 2007 to comprehensively cater for the welfare of the needy and the less privileged in the society.The Foundation had within the first one year of its existence granted scholarship to over 100 students of higher institutions and universities in from Anambra State and beyond.

In December 2008, the foundation launched a Micro-Credit Scheme and loan-revolving scheme which hundreds of beneficiaries especially widows, rural women and co-operative societies received several amounts of money for empowerment and sustenance.
It’s no longer rumour that Senator Annie Okonkwo is gunning for the gubernatorial seat of Anambra State. What more does he wants to do for his people? What is his mission for Anambrarians? Keep a date with me next week.