Okpalanedu Udoka Constantine, a Political Scientist turned Techpreneur, is the Managing Director of Gadget Hub Limited, one of the strong emerging tech companies with strong strength in sales of technology products and solutions. He is the current President of Orient Progressive Social Forum, a pan-eastern social forum for upward mobile young professionals in different spaces of the Nigeria economy Below are excerpts from a media chat with him when he hosted Orient Progressive Social Forum’s bi-annual event — A night with the President.

How long has Orient Progressive Social Forum been in existence?

The vision of Orient Progressive Social Forum was birthed in 2008 as a college of young professionals hanging out to socialize and strategise on the buoyancy of their future. It was subsequently registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in October 24 2010, as a non-profit organization with the objective of promoting and enhancing the economic and social culture of the Ibo-speaking region in Nigeria. So, the forum has been in existence for 14 years now.

What are your vision and mission?

Our vision is to be a catalyst of development across the South-Eastern states and to foster unity in Nigeria and our mission is to harness the potentials of young professionals and entrepreneurs from the South-Eastern states in fostering unity and development within the society. Beyond our starting vision and mission, we have evolved and expanded largely towards some other spheres of life. Basically the club is tilting towards human empowerment vis-à-vis, skills acquisition. A new scholarship scheme will be unveiled that day, alongside a tech hub for basic IT acquisition skill for secondary school students.

Because of our membership composition, we have a lot of professionals in different spaces; we try to help students in the rural areas to catch up with current tech- trends; for instance most exams are tilting towards computer based and if you can’t use the computer very well you will always be a recurring failure. These are part of our new vision, also giving scholarships to undergraduates in financial difficulties.

What is your membership composition, requirements and benefits and do you have diaspora members?

The forum’s membership is open to any progressive Igbo-speaking Christian men from the South-East of Nigeria, resident in Nigeria or in the diaspora who share similar aspirations with the forum. To become a member, you must be of high moral standing and with good integrity, have a visible and viable means of livelihood and must not be less than 35 years of age.

Does Orient Progressive Social forum have a national outlook?

We are first Nigerians before we became Orients. We are structured to grow our programmes in a progressive manner, we have not covered the whole of South east, the club is gradually spreading its programmes and humanitarian outreaches to some members communities.

Having said that we are working towards spreading our reach to other parts of the country. For instance the Yoruba, Hausa, Ijaw, and Akwa Ibom people live in our different south east communities. Our outreaches benefit all and sundry within the location. The forum is established to be a helping hand to fellow Nigerians who are in dire need of help. But for now we are trying to stabilize our activities in the South-East before launching out to other zones in Nigeria.

Tell us about your upcoming event, “A night with the president.”

The touchstone of the event among other itinerary for the day is the investiture of some distinguished and accomplished individuals as either our grand patron, patrons or as members of the advisory board of the forum. For instance we have on the list as our grand patron His Royal Majesty Igwe Livinus Obinna Ezenwa (Igwe Nkataukwu Ohazurume Of Umuomaku, as our grand patron, Chief Dr. Onuora Ezeokafor (Onowu) and Chief Dr. Sir Chika Alexander Okafor (OFR) the Chairman of Chicason group as patrons.

The advisory board members includes Prince Engr Sir Ejike Mgbemena, Chief Dr Sir Okwuchukwu Maduekwe, Chief Sir Osita Ezechukwu (Orikaeze 1 Of Nanka) Professor Paul Ananaba, SAN and HRH Igwe Onyeka Ofordile- Akuewebe 1 And Dimeze IV elect Of Akama Oghe. There will be a lecture series. Our keynote speaker is Vincent Nwani, Ph.D, a former director of research and strategy at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Indusries. He will be speaking on “From vision to legacy: Strategies for successful business succession and critical steps for a seamless leadership transition and maintaining the founders vision for future generations.”

What are the milestones of your tenure?

The milestones of my tenure is first the composition of the forum’s Advisory Board with renowned personalities and secondly, the inaugural impact program initiative wherein we provided substantial food support to the under-privileged in umuomaku town, Anambra State as a way to launch the Orient Community Impact Program which comprises of three vital components which are: The mentorship scheme project , ORTP-Operation reach the poor and the Entrepreneur Development Scheme.

What are your low and high moments as President?

My Low moments as president are when the forum has paucity of funds to carry out her projects, secondly is when a member is troubled or burdened.

My high moment as president is when I led Orients delegates to Chief Dr Sir Alexander Chika Okafor (OFR) head office in Ikoyi, Lagos and he accepted the forum’s request to become our patron.