Ruminations: Start With What Is In Your Hand II.

29th January, 2019.

There is no formula to determine how many or if anyone came to terms with yesterday's ruminations.


But there was some feedback that is also becoming the "feedfront". They want more. I am inspired to write more. Because there is never a lack of any resources, including small business ideas. There is only a lack of will, as I have consistently maintained.


Those who have decided that whether there was capital or not, whether there was someone to help or not, took up the gauntlet and dived into the deep and the universe responded, causing the winds to blow in their direction and their stories stand to bolster our confidence that we can also break our own ribbons.


Today I will tell you the story of another strong man who towed that path. He is not my friend. He is my senior brother, Godwin Agba's friend. I know him very well. So many people that grew up in Kurmi Mashi, Kaduna know him. He is an educationist.


His name is Mr. Stephen but most people simply call him Mr. Steve. (I will still withold his 2nd name but you will sure get his telephone number as we progress).


Mr. Steve is from Benue state in North Central Nigeria. He is proudly Idoma but he spent most of his life in Kurmi Mashi and Sabon Layi in Kaduna state. He is now a Knight of Saint Mulumba KSM, at the St. Theresa Catholic Parish in Kurmi Mashi.


Like most of us reading this, Mr. Steve was battered sorely by poverty and was forced into carpentry; a trade he never learnt. He will construct what we used to call "cut-and-join" benches and hawk by himself to raise cash and keep things going.


It was a Herculean task raising 10k at the time.


So time passed and Mr. Steve decided to switch to home tutoring because that didnt really require any real capital to start.


His friend, says he only needed a few properly washed, well ironed shirts and trousers, with a good hair cut, so he will look nice while trekking from home to home to deliver his value to the kids.


He was disciplined not to take advantage of the kids he was supposed to be teaching. Their parents saw results. They started referring him to other homes. He couldn't cope alone again with the demand, he had to get a few friends to join him.


That was how Mr. Steve began from teaching kids at home until he raised money and rented a space around "up-Mashi", on your way from Sarki Avenue going to 44 Military hospital in Kaduna, to start his BrainTrust Tutorial center.


In less than two years, BrainTrust became something else. It became an approved WAEC and JAMB center. The crowds were bulging.


Mr. Steve later transformed from a tutorial center to a primary and secondary school. He bought over the uncompleted one storey building he rented and adjoining blocks, completed them and turned them to the school campus.


The crowd still overwhelmed the campus and he had to expand and open a second campus in Goni-Gora in Kaduna South.


Several of my brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews including Doris Ominu,  graduated from BrainTrust Tutorial and BrainTrust Comprehensive Secondary School.


Today Mr. Steve, who couldn't raise 10k, is not only a millionaire educationist, he is also giving so much back to the society and also getting his due recognition.


The school has trained people I know who are now Lieutenant Colonels in the Army, Navy Commander, Engineers etc.


He has also extended his fortune in scholarship to several students and the Catholic church has rightly recognized him with a befitting honor as a Knight of the Order of Saint Mulumba.


Mr. Steve is not elusive. He is alive and available to be reached. If you want for your wards, a school that wasn't built on capital but on value, a school with a legacy of resilience and doggedness, call BrainTrust Comprehensive School on: 08033582227 and do send your children there.


Finally, when I talk about starting with what you have in your hands, I am not asking you to do what others have not done before.


I am simply saying you should look around and ask yourself if you can be of any use to your immediate environment.


Identify that use. Turn it to value. Market the value. Someone who needs it will ask for it, pay for it and you will have some money.


This morning, you have another day and another chance to try your wits. Combine it with faith in God and count your blessings when you try.


Thank you again for your time.


Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.