Odoh Diego Okenyodo @50: A mentor worthy of honour
By Paul Liam
WHEN I set out to leave Minna in search of better economic opportunities as Minna wasn’t offering me much despite my potential and due to lack of adequate opportunities in terms of employment, I had Abuja in mind. However, I never wanted to relocate to any city without a concrete job to fend for myself. I needed a job as a basis for my relocation. But I wasn’t even sure how I was going to get a job in Abuja with almost zero knowledge of the city and with barely any chance of getting a place to stay, but Abuja was on my mind. This was in 2020. So, it happened that I wasn’t the only one concerned about my joblessness; Saddiq M Dzukogi and many others were worried too that I was wasting away in Minna. So, in one of my conversations with Saddiq, it was he who advised me to reach out to Uncle Diego, his long term mentor; that he could be of help. At the time, I had known Uncle Diego but hadn’t really established a personal connection with him yet. He used to come to Minna to see our grandmentor and father, BM Dzukogi, I knew him quite alright but not on a personal level.
Saddiq’s push encouraged me to reach out to Uncle Diego. I did via WhatsApp and he responded at once, requesting me to send my CV. They were recruiting for the Head of Operations position and had even shortlisted potential candidates for interview. He said he would talk to the team to review my application. That was how I was shortlisted for the interview. I knew his influence was behind my being shortlisted for the interview. I attended the interview and luck was in my favour; only two of us or so attended the interview. The other shortlisted candidates who probably had better experiences than me didn’t show up as I later learnt. I did my interview and went back to Minna not sure how I had performed. So imagine my surprise when I received a mail informing me that I had been offered employment as the Head of Operations of Isu Media Ltd. Of course, my joy was endless. I accepted and was soon in Abuja to resume as the Head of Operations. That was how my relocation to Abuja happened.
Mr. Okenyodo became my boss. I enjoyed unadulterated mentorship, training and trust from him. He taught me everything I know about development communication and media practice; he never held back any knowledge from me. It was later I realised that Isu Media was desighed deliberately to train and mentor young people to gain professional experiences that will advance systems and organisations and the larger soceity. So, his training me was not by accident; it was a part of the regeneration agenda that ANA Niger propagated through its Teen Authorship Programme, which I also benefited from as a student of Government Day Secondary School, Bosso Road, Minna, as well as from BM Dzukogi through the Hill-Top Creative Art Foundation, Minna where for several years I served as a mentor and held other key roles under BM Dzukogi’s mentorship.
At Isu Media, I was involved in significant projects that exposed me to the workings of the development sector and media practice. Uncle Diego dropped me off from work every single day. I was then living at Mabushi and our office was at First Avenue, Gwarinpa. He became my personal driver every single day until I understood my route and started finding my feet. Becuase I was having accommodation challenge, he and his amiable wife, Aunty Kemi offered me USD$500 to get myself a place before I stabilised. It was a soft loan to be paid back anytime I was able to pay. I haven’t yet paid back the loan o. All of these, he did to make me settle down in a new city to develop my life. He sacrificed for me without looking back. I forgot the monies he would give regularly me to augment my transportation. We discussed like brothers; he was available and accessible to me 100%. I soon realised that he had mentored a lot of other young people. Sodiq Alabi later told me that he learnt a lot under Uncle Diego when he started out, too. He assured me that I would learn a lot and I did in the almost three years I worked as the Head of Operations of the firm. Luckily for me, I was able to deliver to great admiration before I left.
These and many countless reasons are testimonies to the altruistic and selfless nature of Uncle Diego. It is for his contributions to the development of the professional capacity of young people in Nigeria that I and Salamatu Sule have decided to celebrate him on this auspicious occasion of his 50th birthday anniversary come December 4, 2024. It is our little way of appreciating him for all his love and sacrifices. What better way is there to celebrate a writer than to gather in his honour to read and laugh and have a hearty conversation with him? Above all, Uncle Diego is a born artist and writer.
Please join us, support us in honouring a well deserved mentor and boss whose impact in my professional life cannot be quantified.
Happy 50th birthday in advance, Uncle Diego! We love and appreciate all that you do and continue to do for humanity!!
Odoh Diego Okenyodo
