Arthur Eze’s Philanthropic Ministry

Nigerian oil tycoon, Prince Arthur Eze who embodies so many qualities of what a Prince represents – he is strapping, independent, father, politician, philanthropist, dynamic and Chairman of Atlas Oranto Petroleum – was recently spotted at a wedding ceremony stoning a couple with bunches of money; showing what he knows how best to do – giving. There is a saying that philanthropy is a ministry and not a geographical term. Philanthropy flows from Prince Eze's loving heart, not actually from his rich bank accounts and business empires. His gesture has since gone corkscrew on the internet, with bloggers making a gallery of pictures taken at the event, perhaps, to attract traffic to their blogs.

Prince Eze’s act is in appraisal with a statement by Mahatma Gandhi, suggesting that the simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. Nevertheless, Prince Eze is not your everyday noisemaker, but he says his mind where necessary without fear or favour and donates unpredictably to both the rich and indigent without singing his praise, without deafening anybody’s ear for cheap publicity. In the words of sages: A charitable man is like an apple tree – he gives his fruit and is silent; the philanthropist is like the hen. This epitomizes the attributes of Prince Arthur Eze.

It was revealed that the word philanthropy is in connection with the Greek Language meaning 'love for mankind.' Prince Eze is one man who has decided to walk in the light of love, for mankind, for many to see him in the court of openness, than in the court of destructive selfishness. Many financially opulent Nigerians are found in the later; they are squirrels, magpies, stashers. They hardly give out! But Prince Eze has been carving his name on hearts, while others do on tombstones.

Prince Eze is living a legacy into the minds of many and the stories they share about him are immeasurable. The billionaire businessman that owns several producing and non-producing oil and gas assets across Nigeria, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea and the Gambia, is known for giving, for easing another’s heartache. In the recent past, a rating by Forbes suggested that Prince Eze donated $6.3 million (N1 billion) to flood relief efforts in Nigeria, apart from the donations he made to universities. The world believes that the most valued and consecrated moments of Prince Eze’s lives are those filled with the spirit of giving. One Joseph B. Wirthlin as if talking to Prince Eze, said that the greater the measure of our love, the greater is our joy. In the end, the development of such love is the true measure of success in life.

Just in June this year, Prince Eze put a smile on the lips of members of the Association of People Living with Sickle Cell Dis­order (APLSCD), by donating the sum of N5 million lifeline for a Sickle cell stan­dard clinic at Ukpo, Dunukofia Council Area of Anambra State, with expectation that the clinic would be commis­sioned on the World Sickle Cell Day by June 18, 2016. Prine Eze had also donated 1.8 billion naira ($12 million) to a Nigerian Church charity, St. Stephen’s Anglican Deanery and Youth Development Centre, for youth development. The dude made the donation in Lagos at the church’s fund raising chaired by the then President Goodluck Jonathan, whose hometown church was the recipient of the funds.

Prince Eze has a heart reaching down and lifting people up. In July 2014, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State, accompanied by his deputy, Dr. Nkem Okeke and the then National Chairman of APGA, Sir Victor Umeh, paid Prince Eze a courtesy call at his splendid home of Ukpo in Dunukofia Kingdom of Anambra State.

In that courtesy call, Prince Eze donated the sum of $1m for the programme in the state to crackdown on criminals. He also assured the sum of one billion naira to sustain the governor’s agricultural programme. Hence, it can be regarded as mumbo-jumbo for some leaders of Abagana community under the aegis of Abagana Welfare Union (AWU) to petition the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, on August 9, 2016 and signed by Mr. Emma Ifeadike, accusing Prince Eze of engaging in acts of terrorism and asked the police boss to arraign him. This is said because a man like Prince Eze with such a heart of giving may not engage in petty and unscrupulous activity as terrorism.

Making the donation in his palatial home of Ukpo in Dunukofia Kingdom of Anambra State, when the governor, accompanied by his deputy, Dr. Nkem Okeke and the National Chairman of APGA, Sir Victor Umeh, paid him a courtesy call, Prince Eze who is a famous philanthropist and a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, explained that the gesture was intended to encourage Governor Obiano’s efforts to make Anambra State a livable and business-friendly environment for all.

Apart from making donations in monetary aspect, Prince Eze donates his time for peace against party line. He’s of the belief that nothing can bring a division between him and his home state, not even politics. The philanthropist Prince Eze who is a stakeholder in the Peoples Democratic Party while Obiano is of the APGA sees nothing wrong in working in synergy to support the government by any positive means necessary, thereby shaving the animosity that is always in party line. He was of the gesture that Governor Obiano has shown gargantuan wisdom in bringing the issue of security first in his menu.

Following the statement by one G.K. Chesterton, saying that “the whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives; the business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes; the business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected”, it is not easy to say where Prince Eze belongs in the two. This is why he is simply referred to as a philanthropist; because he loathes any authority that makes colossal mistake or that prevents the correction of mistakes. To buttress this point, he cried out in July 2015, that one year after, Nigerian billionaires and government were yet to redeem to victims of Boko Haram bomb attacks vows, one year after the lavish fundraiser in Abuja.

Checks revealed that the government fundraiser which held on July 31, scraped in N54.7 billion in pledged donations from the federal and state governments, and the private sector. While the government was said to have donated N20 billion, key oil and gas operators gave N17 billion, banking sector offered N15 billion; investor Tony Elumelu gave N2.5 billion; and former defence minister, T.Y. Danjuma promised N1.6billion; the 36 states and the FCT gave N3.7billion; Arthur Eze and Mohammed Indimi gave N800million each; Folorunsho Alakija, Dahiru Mangal, Abdul Samad Rabiu, N500million each; Aliko Dangote, Zenith bank chief, Jim Ovia, Wale Tinubu, Mike Adenuga, donated N1billion each; making the donated sum exceed the government’s target by N8 billion.

However, Prince Arthur Eze was in June 2015 deemed the eighth richest person in Africa with a net worth of more than $5.8 billion. With a traditional title as Ozo Igbo Ndu (saviour of Ndigbo), Prince Arthur Eze is from a royal family with his older brother as the traditional ruler of Ukpo village in the Dunukofia Local Government Area. A chemical engineer by training, Prince Eze has been a major donor to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). From his days at St. Augustine Secondary School in Nkwere in 1970 to California State University at Long Beach from 1974 to 1978, where he studied mechanical and chemical engineering, Prince Eze has not stopped to help people even as he founded Atlas Oranto Petroleum for oil exploration activities in West Africa in 1991.

In some quarters, there were expressions and speculations that he also lavishes money on himself, having had five different models of Rolls Royce in his garage, and a Bombadier worth more than $25 million, as his private jet. He believes that his God made him rich to help people. Talking on his donation to the church in the Jonathan’s Village, Prince Eze said that his God gave him the money to contribute to the church; the money was not meant for Jonathan to put in his pocket; he thought of God and thanked Him for what He has done for Otuoke (Jonathan’s village) through Jonathan.

Odimegwu Onwumere is an award-winning journalist based in Rivers State. Tel: +2348057778358. Email: [email protected]