2020 - THE YEAR THAT TESTED OUR HUMAN RESILIENCE: COUNTING OUR GAINS AMIDST THE LOSSES WE ENDURED:The year 2020, the immediate past year, has been broadly described as "a year like no other in recent history". Most pundits have been quick to highlight the downward-defining qualities of the year on the lives of the people. But fewer of those public commentaries brought into sharp focus the upside attributes of the year. NOL, in this editorial, has chosen to do both.
As a community we were forced to watch helplessly as COVID-19 crept into the world from Wuhan city in the Communist Republic of China, at the beginning of the year. From the onset it brought along a trail of trepidation, surreptitiously followed by agonizing economic pains, ill health, and ultimately unimaginable death toll. There were many other less visible live pattern disruptions. Around the world nations raced to isolate themselves from each other in desperate efforts to curtail the spread of the virus responsible for COVID-19 Pandemic. In doing so, unintended real life consequences were also impacted upon the quality of lives of the people.
However, as most people were starting to lose hope in living their lives to the fullest, some surprisingly positive developments started to pop up & to augment, as it seemed, what was left of their quality of lives.
Video conferencing in various platforms became more readily available, bringing people in disparate locations around the world into astonishingly close virtual proximity. It became increasingly popular as a substitute for in- person group, or one-on-one physical meetings, which by the way were impracticable to hold due to the pandemic.
The trend created opportunities to re-imagine the concept of meetings, conferences, professional seminars and even classroom learning experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic gave us a brand new virtual world of seemingly infinite possibilities on what we could do on-line, & in real time.
With the Nenwe Online platforms (NOl) already in place and thriving as the pandemic struck, our people, with her wide pool of talented human resources, tapped into the community organizing skills of NOL to launch new initiatives, create awareness or to broaden the appeals of existing endeavors. Just to illustrate with only a few examples:
1) NDA: While much of the world was under quarantine and in mutual isolation, the NENWE DIASPORA ASSOCIATION, NDA, was founded; & started meeting periodically on Zoom under the leadership of Elder Linus Mbah, its Chairman. By pulling together our sons and daughters residing at different locations across the world, the NDA has been able to coalesce their interests into focusing on creating additional layer of security for our Nenwe community. At the twilight of 2020, the NDA made its first public outing in grand style: it procured four automobile two-wheelers for the Nenwe Central Vigilante outfit operating in the four autonomous communities. The NOL was at hand for the recruitment of new members, and fundraising logistics.
2) NIF: A Community -oriented charitable foundation made up of Nenwe people, with Abuja as its base, & Dr. Cyril Oleh as the President, continued to leverage the platforms of NOL in creating awareness of its development programs in the past year, during this pandemic. The last public function in 2020 by the Nenwe Integrity Foundation, NIF, was the handingover ceremony of a set of 25 classroom desks to two of the four Autonomous Communities for distribution to primary schools in their respective areas. In an updated statement, the NIF, promised to complete the run by the end of this month, January 2021, with supplying similar desk donations to the other two Autonomous Communities left out in the first round.
3) Mrs. ALINTAH-ORIAKU'S NENWE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: The generosity and resourcefulness of our people were made even more abundant by the string of long running, grassroots development efforts of the aforementioned daughter of Nenwe . The NOL stable has all along, been a willing partner in creating wider awareness of those laudable initiatives in the community, and raising supportive partners. The ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the completion of various projects under her auspices attracted the attention and presence of some political headliners in our immediate constituency. That in itself has some potential political upsides for the community.
4) THE CIVIC RECEPTION AT AGBADA COMMUNITY. NOL noted with pride the recently organized civic reception in honor of one of the political representatives from the constituency. The event, reportedly, attracted a number of political leaders from the state, and hopefully getting them to take renewed interests in the development of Nenwe. The NOL stable served as willing partner in the dissemination of the news; and as a platform for the mobilization. NOL further noted with joy that Dr. Nicholas Udeh, one of NOL's innovative members served as one of the arrowheads of the event.
NOL will gladly continue to support more of such political activities by more group members in all the four Autonomous Communities of Nenwe.
5) NENWE YOUTHS ORGANIZATION "MARATHON" - another NOL -inspired grassroots organizing team mounted a very successful public campaign aimed at rooting out some manifestations of social ills in Nenwe Community predominantly perpetrated by some youths and with the youths of the community as majority victims. Again, NOL stable, and its spinoffs were the ready-made central mobilizer for this lofty objective both in terms of participation in the "Marathon", and for the fundraiser. NOL hopes to continue, into the foreseeable future, partnering with any number of groups of volunteers working for the advancement of the public interests of our collective native community, Nenwe.
6) "OKA OKORO" FILM PROJECT: This modest cost, highly popular documentary film of the early history of Nenwe people and her culture produced by our people with Mazi Silas Nwaenye and Mrs. Uzoigwe as the lead anchors, arguably, reawakened the intrinsic resilience of our people in serving our community. The interests generated by this film reverberated into 2020 - "the year like no other". NOL, with all its platforms, was there to lend supportive hands in the promotion and various logistical assistance for the successful launch and distribution.
7) Mrs. KANDE DANIEL'S "POWER WOMAN" ONLINE TV TALK SHOW: This virtual TV talk show, was born out of the durable professional experiences of Mrs. Daniel. Mrs.. Daniel is one of the trailblazers among Nenwe daughters. As an active participant and one of the lead discussants on NOL, she took the initiative and plunged her enviable experiences in public broadcasting, into bringing about discussion topics, on weekly basis, as varied as her ever increasing diverse audience.
8) "WINGS OF DISTINCTION: MEMOIRS OF A FIGHTER PILOT" The year like no other also brought to Nenwe Community, another gain, and another reason to smile. One of our eminent sons, AVM Chris Chukwu, by dint of hardwork, joined the exclusive club of best-selling authors with the launch of his book entitled as noted above. In keeping with the time, the author has now shelfved this book in Amazon virtual book store. What this means is that this highly sought-after book is just a click away, regardless of your location in the world. The author has also embarked on the book tour to promote, and distribute his work. Please tack onto the NOL platforms for the author's most updated itinerary. NOL will continue to provide stable platforms on which to stand for higher personal and group reaches.
9) THE BIRTH OF A UNIVERSITY - Nenwe Online University ( NOLU) also came on board in the course of the year in review. The idea to establish a uniquely suited University to serve the interest of our culture, and people came as the natural next step, given the abundance of talents, skills and the enthusiastic readership desiring to redefine the present frontiers of knowledge in many different knowledge areas. As expected the membership and interests have continued to expand astronomically. The increase in the number of participants in the University and the diversity of interests that came with it will be matched by the corresponding contents in the discussion topics, as we continue to roll into & through the New Year.
With the resolve for enhanced vigor in community mobilization, NOL welcomes everyone of us into the New Year, 2021.
From;
The Managment
NOL
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