SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI
In 1992, at a National Executive Council Meeting of PMAN while I was President, I announced that I had an idea of taking about 1000 of Nigeria’s best, on special chartered flights with live entertainment from Lagos to the new federal capital, Abuja, lodge each of them at the prestigious Hilton Hotel, feed them and every day, provide them with unforgettable entertainment and at the end, bring them back to Lagos safely.
I was asked how much each of these one thousand people would pay for the treat of a lifetime. Everybody stared at me as I answered, “nothing, not one naira!”. A number of my colleagues at the meeting sighed and I was told to my face that I was mad!
It is part of the unforgettable Nigerian entertainment history that in 1992, about 1000 of Nigeria’s best-known people, clutching a “treasure box”, were flown to Abuja on about sixteen chartered and specially decorated ADC flights, each dubbed the “Soul Flight” with live entertainment, champagne and paparazzi on board. Each of the 1000 people was lodged at what today is known as Transcorp Hilton and fed for three days with every meal accompanied by a beautiful live performance. The high point was the unforgettable 1992 Nigerian Music Awards. Everybody who was anybody in Nigeria was there. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was there with his wife. Every significant Minister and Ambassador was there.
One of the key persons on the “Soul Flight” to Abuja was a Lagos taxi driver, who found a huge sum of money left by a passenger in his cab, took the money to the police and the owner was found and the money returned to him. We sent him a “treasure box”, gave him and his wife a lifetime experience at the Hilton. We found out that the taxi he was driving was not his. A brand-new car was subsequently delivered to him to show that honesty pays.
At the end of the day, no one paid one naira to be on the “Soul Flight”, or to have the unforgettable fun at the Hilton.
In fifteen days, the master-blaster COSON Week 2025 will bast off. At 4.00pm on Sunday, May 25, COSON Week 2025 will begin, as Chapel of Christ the Light in Ikeja, becomes the epicenter of the country as the National Day of Prayer from which the songs and praise of Nigeria’s topmost gospel singers and ministers of the gospel, will be beamed to millions of citizens, in towns and villages across Nigeria and across the world. Nigerians will be linked by an unprecedented mix of simultaneous broadcast, streaming and videocasting, deploying various communication technologies, so that in one voice, the diverse people of Nigeria, wherever they are, can join in supplication, to seek the face of the Almighty, to give the Nigerian nation a new lease of life, and restore optimism to Nigeria’s children.
Other massive events of the COSON Week include “The 2025 COSON Lecture”, to take place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island on May 26 at which erudite lawyer and top political player, Babatunde Ogala SAN will address the critical subject, “The Political & Legal Environment Necessary for the Continued Growth of the Nigerian Creative Industry”. A special panel of knowledgeable legal minds, top policy makers and respected creative industry operatives will dissect and discuss the paper, to enrich policy making for the creative and related industries in the Nigerian nation.
Of course, “Children’s Day at COSON House” will be held at the magnificent COSON House on May 27.
The city of Lagos will for the first time, on Wednesday, May 28, experience an unprecedented 24 hours non-stop music concert, “The COSON Mega Jamz” at Freedom Park Lagos.
In cooperation with the top-notch Care Life Medical Centre, Lagos; doctors, nurses, medical lab experts and pharmacists, will on Thursday May 29, be on hand at COSON House, Ikeja, to examine sick and infirmed musicians, provide advice and medications to them at no cost, as the program called “the COSON Medical Outreach” takes place.
“COSON in the Mosque” will hold at Lagos Central Mosque, Carter Street, Ebute Metta on May 30.
In the evening of the same May 30, the super-exclusive “COSON Green Ball” will take place and 150 of Nigeria’s most influential persons and their spouses chosen by ordinary citizens via the Internet, will be given a treat of a life time, as Nigeria’s crème de la crème walk the green carpet at MUSON Centre, Lagos, get treated to the best cuisine money can buy and enjoy the best entertainment to be found anywhere.
Driving these seven massive events spread across seven different venues in seven days tests everything you have got as a person. Dealing with the logistics and the myriads of personalities can drive anyone nuts. There is no way I will not lose quite a bit of weight when it is all over. There are many times already when I have been on the verge of a serious break drown and have had to look up to the Almighty to provide me new strength to keep going.
It is a long time since I slept for more than two hours a night. There are people who once again think that I am crazy to subject myself to the unbelievable demands I am dealing with. Some think it is about money. No! There is not one event of the COSON Week at which any ticket is being sold. I will not make one penny from the COSON Week. Indeed, to drive the 2025 COSON Week, I will very likely spend every penny I own and borrow some.
So, why?
People across the world give their lives for love of country. I verily believe that the true worth of a man is not in what he takes but what he gives. Put simply, despite the many challenges of Nigeria, I love my country. Maybe, the people who say that I am mad are correct. Maybe they don’t understand it when I say that I drive on a full tank of faith.
Please, if you are coming to the COSON Green Ball on May 30, do not forget your special COSON Green Ball passport. Immigration at the venue will demand it. If you don’t get a visa on arrival and a boarding pass, you cannot board the flight. My phone is ringing off the hook as everyone in Nigeria seems to want those passports. Oh, please dress to finish for the cameras. I understand there will be many of them. I have also been reliably informed that the show will be out of this world.
Please pray for this guy who drives on a full tank of faith.
See you next week.
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