It was a vacation visit to Nigeria in 1997 with my family when l visited the library at The University of Ibadan. The campus and the books in the library were in a deplorable state. The sample picture below shows the dusty condition that best describes the situation. I felt that l should do something to improve and change the pathetic service to the students.

Upon returning to the United States, I made a few phone calls to my friends. Also, I reached out to educational institutions in the State of Florida. At that time, I was still living in a rented property, l had no storage space, and did not have money to mail a box of books to Nigeria. Shipping an ocean freight container to Nigeria was required. There were many hurdles and mountains to climb. As a child of God, I knew I could do allthings through christ who strengthens me. Another problem, was about the storage. How will l store the books, where will l get the strong men to move the books, how will l find the thousands of dollars for the shipment, were the questions that I needed to answer? My wife had just recently finished her Ph.D. without a job. Was l losing your mind to embark on a project

of this magnitude? My family and I wanted to provide amenities for thousands of Secondary Schools and a host of higher institutions, but l did not even have a book shelve in my house. Who did l think was? By this time, I was just 4 years in a professional engineering program with the Florida Department of Transportation.

But Jesus Christ fed 5000 men with the boy’s lunch that came to His meeting. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever more. I knew with God, nothing is impossible. Initially, I contacted Mrs. Lynda Knight, an associate who introduced me to and linked me with the Alachua School Board in Gainesville.

Before long, I found myself standing in front of Alachua County/District School Board of Directors on a Wednesday Monthly Meeting to make a citizen request. From the meeting, the School Board authorized 50 Computers, and numerous books were allocated to Education Opportunities for Nigeria. By prayers, the Holy Spirit led me to call Nigeria Consulate in New York, and I narrated my story to the office. As God will have it on that single call, Mr. Joseph Idashaba, Education attaché to the United States of America, carefully listened to case and then promised to come to Florida. He came to verify my story like Queen Sheba of Ethiopia when she heard about the fame of King Solomon. Please, remember that I did not have the financial capacity to pay for the Storage Trailer and temporarily keep the donations. Ms. Lynda Knight, the late Mr. Bill Alexander, and Mrs. Jamie Delong paid for the monthly rental fees. At that time, our family friend Mrs. Jamie Delong needed to hire a laborer to weed her garden for about $20.00. I volunteered myself and put the money aside for the organization. Nigeria, you are worthy of my widow’s mite which was the sling of Shepherd David. That was all I could contribute initially

The day came, and Mr. Joseph Idashabba he spent three days with few of my friends and contacts. During his stay, we held meetings with the Alachua School’s Superintendent and Ms. Nancy, who was one of the Board members of Alachua School Board Director. The Medical Librarians of the University of Florida was another supportive team. Resources were provided about improving libraries and getting support from United States. With these promises and validating everything I told him on the phone, he consequently promised to pay for two containers and air lifted 50 computers from Gainesville to New York before shipping them to Nigeria. All the shipments were received by Nigerian University Commission in Lagos. That was our first set of shipment to Nigeria way back in 1994. My personal cost was just $20.00.

That was the beginning of the book campaign for Nigeria. With each container, the Consulate office donated $500.00 for our effort. Then together with my friends we had enough money to register the organization with the Florida Department of Corporations as a Non-Profit organization.
Now the news concerning the shortage of educational materials in Nigeria began to spread in Florida. It was no longer Gainesville team campaigning for Books, but various set of people reaching out and speaking on behave of Concern Citizens for Nigeria. This name sounded political, so the name was changed to Education Opportunities for Nigeria Inc. (EON Inc.) It’s now our team’s efforts and not Christopher's. That was when I felt the power of God moving.