We are privileged once again to be around to wish ourselves a happy new year. This should never be taken for granted because as long as we are alive, we have hope of a better future.
As we stand at the start of a new year, I find myself reflecting on the challenges we faced in the last year and the strength that we discovered from within. During my sessions with staff late last year, someone asked if I felt 2023 was a year of fulfilment as I tagged it at the beginning of the year. They asked because they did not think it was, given the raft of challenges the BOG faced (and still faces). Another person had told me that 2023 was the worst year in the 12 years or so that they have been in BOG.
Although I struggled initially to wrap my head around that statement, I quickly realised as a life-long student of Physics, that this was very much like the theory of special relativity that aided our understanding of nature where events that are simultaneous to one observer are not so to another observer in a different reference frame that is moving with respect to the observer in the first reference frame. In other words, every observer views the world relative to their own surroundings. As such, our definition of ‘the worst” may vary as it is relative to our respective views and the perspectives of the person who made the statement. Either way, it means the year 2023 was a tough one. But weird as it might seem, the year 2023 ended up being a year of fulfilment in a strange, but perhaps not obvious way. To illustrate, permit me to cite an extract from a famous book:
“The year that Okonkwo took eight hundred seeds of yam from Nwakibie was the worst year in living memory. Nothing happened at its proper time; it was either too early or too late. It seemed as if the world had gone mad. The first rains were late and when they came, lasted only a brief moment.”
“The drought continued for eight market weeks and the yams were killed. The year had gone mad. When the rains finally returned, they fell as it had never fallen before. Trees were uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere. That year, the harvest was sad, like a funeral and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself.”
“Okonkwo remembered that tragic year with a cold shiver throughout the rest of his life. It always surprised him when he thought about it later that he did not sink under the load of despair. He knew he was a fierce fighter, but that year had been enough to break the heart of a lion.”
Since I survived that year,” he always said, “I shall survive anything.”
The above is an extract from Chapter 3: “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe.
2023 may have felt like the year described by Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, and it may indeed have been a year that was enough to break a lion’s heart. But we are here. Since we survived 2023 by nothing but the Grace of God, we shall survive anything and even go on to thrive. The year did not go without some notable accomplishments, which included improved business generation against all odds, a major new Composite Pipe partnership, NLNG Train 7 project, continued strides on Project Evolution, securing our first Valve service contract from an IOC, and recognitions and awards from clients to name a few.
This year, we will confront our realities and maintain our faith that in the end, we shall prevail, no matter what. As we move ahead this year, let us make Heb. 11:1-6 our phrase of the year 2024: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Whatever is hoped for this year in our business and personal lives, even where not set seen, I pray that by faith it will come to pass as the Lord meets us all at our point of need throughout this year by Christ Jesus. In 2024, the key word and ‘key to locked doors’ is FAITH.
I thank all our staff for their diligence, hard work, dedication, sacrifices, selflessness and unyielding spirit throughout 2023.
Here is to a new year filled with hope, growth, shared triumphs, and faith.
Happy new year.
Sincerely,
Kayode Thomas, CEO
●Dr. Kayode Thomas, CEO, Bell Oil & Gas (BOG)
