Well it didn't start as one of the legends; it was all to mock me. By the way, I'm Jide Ekpo.
I loved browsing the internet, data cost made me delve into converting radio frequency into data connection so as long as there was a radio station, TV station or GPRS for tele-communication I could have access in my village home, with the tall trees serving as my mass.
My community owned the African Forest reserve and being a solitary person, after my Secondary School Certificate exams I got a Diploma in Agriculture but as a nerd, I was a computer geek having some certifications but nothing big. The true field for non-professional professionals.
I developed some amazing soft-wares sold them to my country's government and had more cash than most bank managers. Don't worry I won't tell how much. Coming from a middle-class family we maintained my newly gotten wealth, with my Dad and Mum having an investment that is now worth N25,000,000 while my other 3 elder married siblings have N10,000,000 each and mine is worth N85,000,000.
So when I asked my state governor to help me with land within the reserve he quickly obliged and it was right in the middle of the Akwa Forest in Nigeria.
Wonder why I would go so deep, I had this girl I was interested in, we dated for some months only for her to break up with me because she thought I was cheap only to see me taking up an Officer (Of The) Order (Of The) Niger, OON a year later. Mind you I was not depressed but over joyed to be liberated from the she-leech. I could not look mum in the face, she was right all along but she didn't rub it in.
I never enjoyed city life, the traffic noise or the frustration of rush hour on the faces of drivers could make one hate it. I always loved natural sites and since as at then I could only do mine by planting a tree, cross-breeding fruits or building programs was my closest to having a natural impact.
Because of politics, greed and international corporations, my non-fossil vehicle campaign was left in private hands but when I developed the solar tractor and harvesters big farm firms demand has increased in the past months. And all these things keep making me richer. Also putting me into the international market so I had over $100,000,000 and still growing.
I went for non-disclosure contracts so government agencies and companies knew me but to the public I was almost close to an environmental activist upcoming African business man.
I played a lot of RP Games, so to the game world I was hard core. Now this is where the problem began.
We had a child dedication, my elder brothers, so after the gathering we all went our independent ways; I made my parents very busy. Dad being an architect and mum an engineer completed my 1 plot customized duplex with a 2 plot garden around it, I invited them over and we celebrated Christmas. The reserves staff now had a lodge they could stay in which was just outside the garden which tourists could also reside in. Profit was split 50/50 within me and the Ministry of Tourism.
The garden was used for student excursions. I already had maintenance staff so no fear of weed encroachment. And because of the big trees we had wind breaks and all power supply was solar while water was tapped from a fresh water stream purified before storage in our tanks for distribution so no water problem and a lot of fresh fish. Solid waste was converted to manure and every other thing was of recyclable quality.
Fresh milk from the dairy was brought on demand and the poultry farm sent frozen chicken weekly. My contacts on human support made sure that no orphan went to bed without food and school was mandatory with free lunch breaks.
