Episode 4 of 5
CEM SPECIAL, TELECOM | Companies have come and gone. Others have existed beyond a century. Nonetheless, both can only be judged based on the impact and value they have created, or the legacy they have left for humanity. Actually, no one company can achieve all the needs of humanity, but surely, every company has a role to play in furtherance of humanity’s existence or advancement.
It is documented in history that while some have focused on the pursuance of the benefit for a few, regardless of how the entire humanity is negatively affected, others are truly committed to the good of humanity in their overall mandate. Clearly, Globacom has firmly established itself in the later, as it is deeply manifested in its business strategy and operation.
‘Giving back to the society’ is a common phrase in corporate promotions. But it must be said that giving ‘big’ to the society is synonymous with Globacom. And while all promos by Globacom are big, I specifically anchor this statement on the last Festival of Joy Promo. In clearer terms, giving out a house in a promo has featured fairly in promos by companies in Nigeria, but giving out 20 houses -in a single promo- is phenomenal! It can ONLY happen in GLO-NORMOUS PROMOS.
The value of a house in human existence is rightly captured in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where shelter is categorized as primary and a major need of a human. In this regard, it falls in the category of food and clothing that directly support the survival of man. The vivification of this is the fact that almost every adult in today’s society, especially in the urban area, either struggle to continually pay for house rent or work hard to raise enough money to own a house.
Consider the fact that an average adult in the urban area especially in cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt and others, is forced to surrender as much as 60% of their annual income to Landlords/Landladies as house rents. Hence, it is adequate to term it an esteemed and a monumental act of humanitarian gesture to offer a house to someone in a promo.
It is therefore not a surprise that some of the winners of the houses found it difficult to believe that they had won, because owning a house was far from their immediate thought or expectation. For example, it took hours of voice and video calls to convince the 19-year-old undergraduate of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Ibrahim Akindele, that he has won a house and his status had changed. He was in total disbelief. Firstly because he was careful of scammers, and majorly because he didn’t think what he saw on television would actually be a reality for him. “I was in disbelief, I thought it was just someone making fun of me. It took me some time to get over that feeling,” he said.
A similar drama played out in the case of another winner, Ajamu Bello, who later showed up after the intervention of officials of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC). The 28-year-old Mathematics graduate of Ekiti State University doubted every other call that he had indeed won a house in the Globacom promo. His expression was that of apology and overwhelming excitement when he finally arrived at Globacom’s Aminu Kano Crescent office after over three hours of calls. “Please forgive me. At first it was difficult to believe. You know how these days we have a lot of people claiming to be what they are not; all kinds of scam calls. But when I started getting calls from different people from Glo and then the NCC and NLRC people also speaking and asking me to come to Glo office, I now thought that this could actually be my lucky day. I thank Glo for this opportunity. It’s beyond what I can express”, Ajamu disclosed.
For Woke, the house could not have come at a better time, as he was beginning to get worried about how to raise money enough to pay for an apartment to move his wife and 11-month-old baby into. He had just dropped off his recuperating father in the hospital for a physiotherapy session shortly before his phone rang, only to be told that he had won a three-bedroom apartment. Globacom came to the rescue of the Ikwerre, Rivers State-born legal practitioner by making him a landlord. “I literally abandoned my dad and ran to the Glo office on Aba Road just to be sure I heard well,” he said, adding that it sounded too good to be true for someone staying in his father’s Boys Quarters to be called and told he had just won a house.
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Chukwu Reuben Okorie kept begging Glo staff at the presentation of the keys to a house to him, “please wake me up from this dream. This is too good to be true. This is too much for me to contain. From one bedroom in the interior part of the city, Glo has made me a landlord of a whole three-bedroom apartment with a two-room bungalow in the Federal City Territory. It is only possible with Glo”, he gushed with joy. The excitement and joy over the sudden change in status of this 48-year-old businessman, who hails from Bende Local Government area of Abia State, is practically the same thing all the winners of the houses expressed in their way and language.
Ola Owonifari Joseph, an indigene of Ekiti State, simply called his fortune a ‘miracle’, which it truly is. Recounting his journey to winning a house in the Globacom Festival of Joy Promo, he said, “It’s a miracle, I still can’t believe it. Glo is our family network; we communicate all the time and even with our family friends on Glo lines. I remember loading credit and data recently when the last subscription expired and after that I joined the promo. I was not expecting anything soon but yesterday morning I got a call from a Glo officer, who after series of questions told me that I won a house. I was too shocked.” He explained further, “I was just planning on how to develop my land gradually and lo and behold, Glo showed up and made me a house owner. This prize is for me and my family and we are moving in immediately. God bless the owner, the management and staff of Globacom. They will continue to grow from strength to strength, I am overwhelmed with joy”.
It is easy to connect with the shock, skepticism and excitement that characterized the reactions by all the 20 house winners in the Globacom Festival of Joy Promo. The prevailing economic condition in the country which continues to shrink prospects of owning a house, coupled with the annual nightmare of gathering the exorbitant house rent; especially in the urban cities, wholly validate the shock, skepticism and excitement over the call to come take possession of a 3-bedroom bungalow.
Add to these that the estimated cost of erecting a 3-bedroom bungalow in the cities where Glo built them is between N9m and N15m, excluding the cost of acquiring the land which ranges between N10m and 25m in the suburbs. Giving out 20 units of those houses and the land on which they are built has only happened in a Glo-normous Promo; a munificence of the leadership of Globacom headed by Otunba Mike Adenuga.
To be continued
