Two of my most precious professional awards are getting NFT versions. Yes, my alma mater – Federal University of Technology Owerri Nigeria (FUTO) – and Africa’s uncontested finest technical university (lol) honoured an Ovim village boy in the most amazing ways. They gave me the Ikenga for delivering the 15th University Public Lecture, hitting a record as the first FUTOITE to mount that podium.
And later asked the same boy to deliver the Commencement / Convocation Lecture where in the most magical way, my adored professors who taught me walked me into the academic temple. When you are honoured at home, count your blessings because you are blessed!
I knew the day I left the village for a journey into engineering, and I knew how I felt, when all was done in FUTO. I carried my small bag from the hostel on a Friday, to resume as a Systems Engineer in Bourdex Telecoms, on a Monday (furnished 3 bedroom, driver with assigned Mercedes Benz, etc). My Head of Department, Prof SOE Ogbogu, had told Bourdex, “Ekekwe is not available for an interview; you either hire him or not, because out of respect to this department, you do not have to interview our best”. They gave me a job without an interview or even any application!
The same Prof called me months later for another opening in Schlumberger Dowell. I told him that I was not interested. Then he sent an instruction and it was clear: “Ekekwe, even if you do not want this job, go and decline it’. I entered the plane the first time just to decline a job, to save the reputation of my alma mater. Nigeria and FUTO offered anything a young man would have asked for.
I have a tough love for Nigeria because it worked for me. And daily, I am doing my best for it to work for ALL. With the NFT evolution, the FUTO Mach-o-Man, the symbol of academic strength, professional excellence and global citizenship, will now live not just in the physical world but in the digital sphere.
Great FUTOITEs, my unalloyed respect to all. To our elders in the alumni, my unbounded respect, Sirs and Madams. Thank you!
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