insisted
on following his annual tradition of sharing merriment and meal with
the underprivileged in commemoration of his birthday. Others might not
count age 43 to be a particularly celebratory age, but the guests at the
laid out birthday tables of Sholaye Jeremi, orphans and old people,
will not be forgetting this one.
At
43, Sholaye Jeremi already boasts the grateful heart of an elderly
grandpa while retaining the innocent intuition of a simple child,
willing to yield his possessions and playground to others.
Except
for his nearly boundless funds and influence among the Nigerian upper
class, the simple man could be mistaken for one who runs charity
organisations all over the place: orphanages and elderly homes in the
morning, small and medium enterprise operators in the afternoon, schools
in the evening, and corporate science societies at nighttime. Here is
an accomplished businessman, a corporate Don on all accounts, who urges
others to remain hopeful, diligent, and endeavour to surpass all those
that came before, including himself.
It
is difficult to imagine that this is a man with profitable business
interests in some of the economy’s most lucrative sectors, from oil and
gas to shipping, to Real Estate, and telecommunications. This is the man
who hosts orphans, the elderly and other underprivileged Nigerians and
treats them to the best of delicacies, often figuratively, but sometimes
literally.
Surely, these are the markings of a true Delta, a truer Nigerian, the truest evidence of humanity?
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