Some weeks ago, I
called Mr. Fela Durotoye to ask if he could accommodate us in his schedule while
he was in the FCT that weekend and we set up to meet by 8pm after
his speaking engagement.
By 7.30pm on the
agreed day, we were seated and ready waiting for our meeting at the agreed
location. At around 7.40pm, I tried to reach him so he would know we were was
already 'here' but his phone just rang without pickup. Little did I know at the
time how events would unravel over the rest of the evening, as I just reasoned
that he was on his way back from the speaking engagement and didn’t hear his
phone ring.
I kept my calm
till 8pm and called his line again but the feedback was no different from the previous
attempt. Calling again by 8.15pm and afterwards every twenty minutes till it
was 9.30pm, his phone only rang with no pickup. At this time, I along with my
partner sadly stood up, walked to the car and drove home. I was preparing
to go and sleep when my phone rang at about 10.30pm and I was doubly sure of
the identity of the caller. Fela Durotoye is known for his rare humility and
benign disposition and when he spoke on the phone, his words did not fall short
of the reputation preceding him. Gladly, we were able to re-schedule our
meeting for 10am the next day.
The next day, at
about thirty minutes to the scheduled appointment while on our way to the
meeting, I got a call from him apologising he would not be able to honour our
appointment again as he just got a call from Lagos that he needed to attend an
event at his son’s school later that afternoon.
He suggested that we hold a phone meeting
later in the day by 8pm.
Along came the
hour (8 O'clock) with its 60 minutes passing by and for a myriad of reasons,
our meeting with Mr. Fela was yet unable to hold. Interestingly, I was undeterred
looking forward to talking to him on phone the following morning.
Thus, while bidding
my time to call Mr. Fela at an appropriate time that morning, I got a call from
him at about 10am and we were finally able to discuss via the phone for a while.
I told him about our organisation, Social Responsibility Managers (SRM) and the
Tobacco Control project we’re currently involved with. I mentioned to him that as
part of our project implementation strategy for this project, we were engaging
and synergising with needed known faces to help communicate the issue of
Tobacco Control (TC) & campaign widely for enactment of TC laws. Based on
his personality and work with Nigerian youths, we made the request to Mr. Fela
that we would like him to become one of our Celebrity Cause Champions. To my
delight, he readily accepted & signed up!
Let me use this
opportunity to present to you one of Nigeria’s finest and our latest Tobacco
Control Celebrity Cause Champion:
Join Fela
Durotoye and Stella Damasus to share information on Tobacco Control and also
ensure a comprehensive Tobacco Control law is passed and signed into law by
signing up to become a Cause Champion. Lets protect Nigerian's present &
future generations from preventable deaths NOW!
Simply sign up
to be a Tobacco Control Cause Champion by sending your 1) Name 2) Email 3)
Telephone No and 4) Location to info (at) socialresponsibilitymanagers.org
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