NIGERIA!!!!

My Last Blog entry was specific to our last SCHAP project in Kenya, in August 2009. Quick overview… The project was extremely successful and well received and we all had a wonderful experience. When we got home I was able to get set up in my dream home, with some awesome roommates and an outside office designed to be a major hub of productivity. I worked to build my alarm business, while functioning full time as the President of SCHAP. We prepared a major fundraising event that required huge amounts of energy, and produced little by way of $. There were two people there though, who will become critical players in the unfolding of this story… proving for me and schap that this night was very much worth it. Francine Busby is a wonderful woman from Cardiff who is running for the Congressional seat for the 50th District in Ca, representing the Democratic Party. She came by invite of Mickey Foster and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. As we talked, she mentioned that she had a son who would love to get involved with our group. One thing lead to another and he is sitting next to me in Lagos, Nigeria as I type this. The second is Adam Young. An Acquaintance/friend for years who I had been trying to get interested in SCHAP for most of the year. Due to the persuasion of a pretty face, he came to our Fundraising event and heard me speak about our organization and what we do. Several weeks later I received a phone call. This will prove to be perhaps the most important call that I have received to-date in my life. He told me I should come to his home in Valley Center to meet some guests of his Father. Governor Sylva, the Governor of Bayelsa State was long due for a retreat to clear his mind and plan his next twelve months in office. He, by recommendation of his close friend, Prince, came to an Alkalizing retreat at the Young’s Ranch where he was to determine his next steps in governance. A Year prior, Prince had sat him down in his bedroom and had made a case that in order to develop his state and in order to create a lasting legacy, he would have to focus on the Human Capital that was being utterly wasted. He had been thinking about a strategy and model that may be able to support such, “Human Infrastructure” projects. That Wednesday night it all came together.

After describing to the Gov and Prince my ideologies and methodologies attached to developing the human component, we all promptly recognized that I needed to get to Nigeria as quickly as possible.

They left the Ranch and I waited for weeks to get confirmation of a plane ticket and visa issued by the government. It never came. Not only did it not come, but communication with Prince and the Governors other top officials who committed to support our efforts was almost non-existent. I would wait for days for a response and it would be vague and utterly inconclusive. I was beginning to wonder if it was all too good to be true, and if I was better off just getting back to work selling alarms. One day I was sitting on the cliffs at Teramar, meditating on the issue and it hit me. If there was simply a 10% chance that I would be able to be involved with designing and implementing a state wide rural development plan with government funding, then I would be stupid not to risk everything in order to gamble that 10%. I pulled out my own payment method, which by no means was supported by a large number in my account, and bought all the equipment that I knew I would need, purchased a Nigerian Visa and a one-way ticket. If they were not going to facilitate the process then I would have to move a little closer in order to elicit my skills of persuasion. Michael was a brave soul who I asked to come along. Why?, cause I had a good feeling about it. Despite loads of uncertainty and risk, he put down his own money on this gamble as well and we were off to Nigeria.

Turns out that we made just the right move. We were received extremely warmly upon arrival. We were immediately invited to Lunch with the Governor, and from a banquet table that must have sat 30; I was given the seat next to governor Sylva, next to the head of the table. After lunch, we were given a direct audience with the Gov, which was a much larger deal than I had realized, and we were able to initiate our planning and prep. By This time, Prince has rendezvous with us and we have established a partnership that will work as a private company, in partnership with the state government, in order to push our efforts ferociously without hindrance from the swampy governmental bureaucracy.

Prince, Michael and I went to work; spending days in the guesthouse we had been given conceptualizing and reconceptualizing this project from A to Z. And it was massive. My mind has never worked so hard. For the first week, I literally had not had more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep. Our plans became more and more workable. It was a think-tank converging everything we had ever learned about economics, poverty, rural development, sustainability, business and just about everything else we had between our ears. As the days passed on we began attracting the most wonderful people who have joined our team. Day by day, our numbers grew and our ability to achieve grew as well.

With a Clear Project scope and implementation plan, we are able to dive into budget mode. We must put a monetary value to every aspect of this project, which is massive, and submit it for government approval. While in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, I received a call from Prince, who had flown to Lagos the day before to take care of some business that he had been able to arrange a meeting with a company that was interested in supporting our project. Who? Only a certain Google, the company that I would consider to be the most ubiquitous and influential company in the world. Michael and I, incurring major travel issues, made our way out to Lagos for the meeting. We arrived a day later than we had intended, but will be able to reschedule once the national rep for Nigeria is back in the country. So for now we are stationed in Lagos, working diligently to prepare both the budget as well as the presentation that will need to be given to the governor and all those who are involved with the ultimate budget allocations for his state.

I apologize for very trim overview, trust me, there are some incredible stories along the way, but I wanted to make sure that if you are interested in the meat and the potatoes you could know what has happened. It is looking that we will be able to have more reliable Internet connection, so I will do my best to bring some of the fun stories to the surface.

Suffice it to say that this has been the most incredible and exciting thing that I have been a part of. Despite our ability to implement, it has been extremely rewarding to spend 8 days doing nothing but wrapping our minds intensely around the issues that are being faced by the rural people and designing a sustainable mechanism capable of developing the human capital in a way that has never been implemented before. I am confident to say that this project will send shock waves through Bayelsa, Nigeria and all of Africa. The benefit to cost if unbelievable and would bring instant popularity to any political leader responsible for its implementation. We are presently working diligently to mobilize the people and resources that we need in order to fulfill the tall order that we have created for ourselves, as well as gear our self up for massive projects in the near future. We are creating a system that will be able to provide the human development support and micro-infrastructure required to empower rural communities with the resources to develop themselves. We see a day when every Bayelsan will be able to read proficiently, engage in meaningful work and have the means to be able to confidently provide for his family and develop his community. We are “Bridges to Goodness.”