Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii: Expanding The Fundamentals And Frontiers Of Giving
The stories of Moses and other Bible characters show that at every point in time, God has always called people He used to achieve or fulfill His purposes for mankind at different times and societies. At this end-time when the love of many has waxed cold and men have not only become insensitive to the plight of their neighbours but also predators to their fellow men, God has raised a young man from the pastoral community of Isu Achara in Ebonyi State to lighten the yoke of hardship on fellow human-beings and lift people from the pits of needs and poverty to plateaux of opportunities. In this desert of human insensitivity which our micro and macro societies have become, God has raised Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii, also known as Anyi Chuks, not to preach charity, but to act charity and to become an oasis of succour and compassion for the needy and distraught. True to his call, Anyi Chuks has continued to unconditionally offered his broad shoulders to the weak, the downtrodden and the poor to either lean on or ride to their destinies.
Born into the humble family of Chukwuma Odii on 17th April, 1977 in Isuachara, Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii was called early in life like Jeremiah, not into the prophetic ministry, but into the ministry of giving. To equip himself for the enthralling career in giving which lay ahead of him, Odii began to hone his entrepreneurial talents in his primary school days when he sold confectionery to his school mates at recreation time; and in his secondary school days when he sold food stuff (Ebonyi rice) at distant markets during holidays. This discerning step into entrepreneurship was taken by young but visionary Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii for two reasons: his desire for self-reliance and his conviction that except one had, one could not give. Through dint of hard work laced with consistency and humility, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii grew his mustard enterprise into a medium enterprise and set it on trajectories of stability, exponential growth and expansion.
A man of Spartan will whose courage and love for excellence were fired by an unflinching faith in God, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii launched into further positive entrepreneurial explorations, investing in fresh vistas of business opportunities. God rewarded Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii's efforts with phenomenal successes. Today, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii's entrepreneurial journey which began with selling confectioneries to peers in Isu Achara Primary School, has blossomed into a conglomerate of blue-chip companies with insurable global interests in oil and gas, agriculture, hospitality, financial services, ICT and more all under the flagships of Orient Global Companies and Ultimus Holdings.
Burning with inflammable desire not just to put temporal smiles but to permanently be the smiles on people's faces, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii did not channel the enthralling yields of his entrepreneurial breakthroughs to the acquisition of exotic tastes and vainglorious titles. Humble and humane Odii chose to invest his blessings into charity. He established Ebele and Anyichuks Foundation as a vehicle for his outreach to the needy. A personification of gratitude, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii alongside his wife, Ebele, has through this foundation shown gratitude to his home community of Isu; his local government area of origin, Onicha; his federal constituency, Ohanivo; senatorial district, Ebonyi South; and his home state, Ebonyi State. Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii has equally sown significant seeds of charity in his geopolitical zone which is the Southeast; his State of residence, Lagos and his country, Nigeria: Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii has donated a two-storey well-equiped modern classroom block to his alma mater, Isu Achara Primary School. He equipped women and youths of his community with simple machines, devices and start-up capitals to enable them ply their various trades and attain economic independence. The foundation waged a great war against mental poverty in Ebonyi State by distributing books and instructional aids to secondary schools in Ebonyi State; and thereby contributed to the improved performances of Ebonyi students in WAEC and NECO to the point that Ebonyi State ranked 10th in the federation. Periodically, Ebele and Anyichuks foundation provides free medical services for the aged, the young and children in rural communities in Ebonyi State. During the Covid-19 lockdown which destroyed many families' means of livelihood and inflicted hunger on the people across the country, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii and his wife, Ebele, invoked their bottomless reservoir of compassion and donated a whopping N150 Million to Ebele and Anyichuks Foundation for intervention in the plights of Nigerian families. From the fund, the foundation donated the sum of N20 Million to the Federal Government; N20 Million to Lagos State Government; and N10 Million to Ebonyi State Government. The sum of N100 Million was used to procure bags of rice and sundry relief materials for 33,000 indigent and zero-income families in Lagos and Ebonyi States. Ebele and Anyichuks Foundation equally invested resources into Covid-19 protocol awareness campaigns.
The unique thing about Ebele and Anyichuks Foundation is that through it, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii and his wife give not just to solve the immediate need or want of their prospective beneficiaries. Ebele and Anyichuks Foundation is known for organic and fundamental charity! They give in order to change the status of their beneficiaries and transform their beneficiaries into givers. Hence, the popular aphorism that, "No one meets Anyichuks and remains the same". Through their foundation, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii and wife, Ebele, have built over one hundred modern bungalows for the indigent comprising widows, rural men, women and youths and is still counting. Attempts to count Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii's car donations have all been as successful as efforts to count sands at the sea shore. Ebele and Anyichuks scholarship programme has given high-profile educational opportunities to thousands of gifted but indigent students; and his N20,000.00 unconditional cash transfer programme for students of Ebonyi State University which came at the end of Covid-19 lockdown has helped to save the educational careers of the 1000 beneficiaries. Over the years, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii has continued to serve as ladder through which budding entrepreneurs climb to their destinies through periodic calls for business proposals and unconditional sponsorship of selected ones. At the height of political and economic victimization in his home state of Ebonyi State, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii has successfully doused the tension that could have arisen from the youths who form the bulk of the victims by rehabilitating and gainfully reintegrating them into the economic system through organic donations.
Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii who sits at the 12th Governing Council of Lagos State University holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the National Open University; and an honorary doctorate degree in Strategic Business Management and Corporate Governance from the European American University. He is married to his rib, Deborah Ebele Odii; and their union is blessed with vibrant children. For reticent Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii's inspiring and creative call to charity through which he has successfully expanded the meaning, dimension and frontiers of giving, he has diverse and innumerable laurels on charity and has transformed himself into a formidable goodwill ambassador and human phenomenon of sorts. I join my faith with the faith of the large army of beneficiaries of Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii's large heart to pray God to continue to enlarge the coasts of this reticent giant of charity and Fellow of Humanitarian Leadership whom the Nigerian society is yet to sing.