‘’People don’t believe me when I say am not an Akalite.” Chidi Clinton.
5 min read
Chidi Clinton is a guy you would like to meet. He is calm, respectful and above all, industrious. According to what he told Umuaka Times recently when he met a reporter from the newspaper by chance at his cyber cafe and computer training institute at Afor Umuaka, his formative years and branding started in Umuaka. Besides being a youth influencer and a motivational speaker, Mr Chidi Clinton is the brain behind the fast-rising tech hub Triple C Microsystems. The firm is focused on training young and vibrant youths in entrepreneurial and ICT skills, such as; desktop publishing, graphic designs and web development e.t.c.
Sometime ago, Clinton conveyed the Triple C Initiative, a subsidiary of his firm, which succeeded in reaching out to several schools with educational programs within Imo State. Because of his quest to establish an IT intervention program and business among the youths and other great achievements he has recorded, Microsoft recently certified him as a Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE).
Clinton told Umuaka Times how his journey and discovery of Umuaka started. It was his dad Mr Princewill Chidi Anorue who opened the way for him to understand and like Umuaka. Mr Princewill Chidi Anorue first started the New Arrival Motors Limited transport in Umuaka. The company which was a transport firm was plying from Umuaka to Lagos on daily basis. Because of the new assignment, his dad relocated his entire family from Lagos to Umuaka. In his words, “The plan was to stay with my dad but the next year, my dad was transferred back to Lagos by his company”. Clinton went back to Laos with his dad but later came back to Umuaka around 2005. Since that time, he has remained in Umuaka till date, spanning over 14 years.
The question now is, how come a Lagos boy who was born in Lagos was able to relocate and adapt successfully in a village like Umuaka?
His answer will amaze you. “Growing up in Umuaka, I fell in love with an organized setting. I grew up in an environment where everyone wishes to be successful, hence the hustling vibe in every Akah indigene. I grew up to an environment where there is love in families. I grew up seeing brothers helping brothers to be successful. I saw friends picking up their friends from nothing and making them great. I grew up in an environment where everyone had this burning desire to be successful. All of these attractions have kept me in Umuaka over the years.”
The Umuaka Times reporter was dazed by the response of this young guy who is perhaps another adopted son of the community. The reporter further asked him to explain further on how he built his love for the people of Umuaka. Again, Clinton had this to say. “I confirmed my love for Umuaka in 2018 during my 1 year Industrial Training in Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri. I sat for an exam in Chevron for IT students with the hope of spending that year in Lagos. I got to Lagos after the exam. I kept on waiting for the results for two months with no response. During this period, anytime I came out to Alaba International Market from where I used to live, the crowd I saw there and the way everybody was just walking made me feel they had nothing doing. Everybody was walking like everything was OK, the youths I saw in the environment I was, were just normal in my eyes. There was no push or burning desire in them at all.”
With all these observations, the desire to quit Lagos started to set in for Chidi Clinton. “In the second month of my stay in Lagos, I told my father I was no longer going to stay in Lagos. I needed to go back to Umuaka. I came back to Umuaka and I had peace of mind. The motivations came back; the hustling vibe came back too.”
Besides all these, Clinton confirmed to Umuaka Times that a lot of things has kept him in Umuaka. He went further to say that the level of love the people have so far shown him is highly embarrassing.
“Wow! I feel super loved by my people in my second home (Umuaka). From primary school, secondary school till date, the positions I have held in Umuaka are a clear indication of their acceptance and love for me. The acceptance and love I have enjoyed in Umuaka are so deep that most times people refuse to believe I am not an indigene of Umuaka. If I begin to tell you the positions I have held and still hold in Umuaka, you will be shocked at the level of acceptance; love and confidence the people of Umuaka have for me. They are “dangerous” positions that other towns would never allow a non-indigene occupy. But in Umuaka, the story is different. They believe in capacity and positive result oriented individuals.”
To institutionalize this love, Umuaka Times asked him thus: Will you marry from Umuaka? Hear him.
“Who wouldn’t want to get married from Umuaka? Umuaka is blessed with lots of educated, beautiful and industrious ladies. If it is the will of God that the mother of my kids would come from Umuaka, so be it.”?
How did Chidi Clinton, the former Computer Science student of Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri begin his quest to fall in love with what he is today? This is how the journey began. “As an original Umuaka brought up guy, I couldn’t rely on the stipends I got from home to sustain me in school. Hence, I started Triple C Microsystems firm. Then I had just one laptop and no printer. I would type people’s documents, charge them a fee, then go out to print the documents for them. My room was divided into two parts; one part was my office and the other was my resting place. That is how I started”.
On his final note, he used the opportunity to appealed to youths to create the jobs they seek themselves than to seek for jobs for ages and yet no good job is available for them.
