LUNCH WITH THE PRESIDENT

I recently attended an event that was tagged youths Lunch with GEJ,the initials representing the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria-Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,GCFR,initially when a text message came in on my phone, saying I had been nominated to attend a lunch with GEJ & purportedly signed by Oronto Douglas,the first thing that came to mind was, another 419 trick, so curiously I called a few friends who confirmed something of the sort was going to happen. I then made up my mind, to attend, firstly to see my elected president in close quarters & I was expecting to be mesmerized, secondly, I wanted to know first hand, what was going on and then find out, what the president had to say, if in anyway at least one would have a feel of the presidents agenda for the next 4 years.

The venue of the Lunch meeting was Eko hotel, Victoria Island,Lagos, my expectations were numerous, I was expecting a very well package,tightly put together and at most a very well coordinated and not too formal meeting,I had thought also that I would meet youths who would be burning with passion and a fervour to pass across a message, that the ones coming behind are a far better lot, than what was there right now, the first shock to my system was the chaotic situation I met on ground, at the very hot, rowdy and chaotic accreditation center inside the Eko hotel venue, it took close to 2 hours to sort out the accreditation mess, to say the least it was an extremely shoddy situation,once we were able to sort that out, it was now time to go up to the lunch venue itself.

YVONNE EKWERRE & GBEMI OLATERU OLAGBEGI

SUSAN PETERS

MAMUZEE TWINS

NSE IKPE ETIM & INI EDO

LINDA IKEJI

CHICO EJIRO

KINGSLEY MORDI & AZUKA OGUJUIBA

BUKOLA AKINLAGUN

STEPHANIE OKEREKE

FELA DUROTOYE

TIMI DAKOLO

TY BELLO & GBENGA SOKEFUN

TOKINI PETERSIDE

OMENA DANIEL & UCHE NNAJI

TIMI PERFORMING

TY BELLO,GENEVIEVE NNAJI & IBINABO FIBERISIMA

SCOTT IGBENE & GENEVIEVE NNAJI

GENNY

IBINABO

NOBLE IGWE

TY BELLO

STEPHANIE OKEREKE & DEBOLA WILLIAMS

LATASHA & AZUKA

MONALISA CHINDA

SUSAN PETERS & OHIMAI ATAFO

SUSAN PETERS

CHUDE JIDEONWO

UFORMA EJENABOR

NSE IKPE ETIM

ORONTO DOUGLAS

KINGSLEY MORDI & ORONTO DOUGLAS

KANAYO O. KANAYO

EX-MINISTER OF YOUTHS & NATIONAL ORIENTATION-SEN. OLASUNKANMI AKINLABI

EREFA FYNECOUNTRY

ALABO GRAHAM DOUGLAS

DIEZANI ALLISON MADUEKE

NAETO C & SASHA P

UGONMA ADEGOKE

RITA DOMINIC & KATE HENSHAW-NUTTAL

MONALISA CHINDA

OREKA

TOOLZ ONIRU

SUSAN,SAHEED BALOGUN & UFORMA

OMONI OBOLI

INI EDO

TOOLZ

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN

UGONMA ADEGOKE

SHADE LADIPO

DIMEJI ALARA

YINKA EPEGA

Guests in attendance-Nollywood was very well represented,Kanayo O. Kanayo was a part of the organising committee, so also was Ibinabo Fiberesima, other top acts of the industry in attendance were Genevieve Nnaji, Rita Dominic,Ini Edo,Omoni Oboli,Susan Peters,Stephanie Okereke,Uforma Ejenabor,Nse Ikpe Etim,Monalisa Chinda,Kate Henshaw-Nuttal & Saheed Balogun, curiously I didnt see many from the music industry apart from the  Mamuzee twins,Naeto C,Sasha P, Timi Dakolo who later performed, TY Bello the ace photographer cum musician also performed, I caught a glimpse of Lara George & Emem Ema, where was the friend of the president?-D banj, he was nowhere around the venue, Instead I saw Fela Durotoye,Ugonma Adegoke,Tokini Peterside,Toolz Oniru,Ohimai Atafo,Dimeji Alara,Uche Eze of Bellanaija,Noble Igwe,Debola Williams,Chude Jideonwo, Erefa Fynecountry,and a whole lot more people I don't know, I heard many were students and also many student leaders were in attendance.

The president came into the hall at a point, without much fanfare, maybe I had been expecting so much or too much, our president would have come in so quietly, if not because of the paraphernali of office and the attendant buzz of the security details, apart from that nothing more. Afterwards, speakers for the youth were called upon to talk, how the choice of those to speak were made I do not know, but apart from a few who seem to understand the importance of the occasion and had something meaningful to say, others were grandstanding and used the opportunity to canvass for positions, I had thought that seeing top public speaker like Fela Durotoye around, it was the glorious opportunity to pass across a strong message or 2 to the president.To say I was more than dissapointed, is like been very modest. The president later got up to make a speech and spoke about many things, in all he gave an assurance, that he would impact on the polity in every area as much as possible, we hope that would happen, everyone was later invited to have Lunch, while there were performances by Timi Dakolo & TY Bello, book gifts were passed around and the show ended.

What later happened after the whole event had ended, is a subject for another day, we later heard that certain amount of money was shared by some of those invited, with some people getting from between 50,000 to 150,000 each, while some even got more, what the money was supposed to be for, I do not know, why it was selectively disbursed, I also do not know.