Preye Tambou: Will this ‘Book Advocate & Author’ make it onto the Forbes or The Times Magazine Lists?

The young author whose bibliography includes ‘Heroes in Many Trials’( 2009), ‘The World is a School’, ‘Readership Edges’, ‘The 17 Dynamic Readers’, ‘The Joy of Reading’, ‘Stretch To Success’, ‘Execute Your Dreams’, ‘From Backstage To Platforms’, ‘Fame Must Not Kill Your Talents’, ‘Entrepreneurship: 12 Ways To Achieve Business Success’, and ‘101 Money Making Ideas For Young Entrepreneurs amongst others, is on a mission is to inspire, motivate and educate people through books, seminars, workshops, counselling, consulting and coaching.

Preye Tambou is a  business, readership, and personal development consultant and a young entrepreneur. The Founder and National President of Edgewise Readership Networks (ERN) which provides business and educational consultancy, counselling and career advisory, training and manpower development, mentoring and reading empowerment, publishing, printing and packaging, as well as branding concepts, Preye is also a member of the Motivational Speakers Network and the John Maxwell Team, a student’s mentor, youth coach, inspirational writer, editor, and a book advocate. Let’s catch a breath here, shall we?

Born 26th February 1987 in Lagos, Nigeria into a polygamous family of 17 siblings, Preye had his primary education in Irepodu Primary School ketu Lagos, started his secondary education in Government College Bomadi Delta State and concluded same in Ayakoromo Grammer School, Burutu Local Government Area in Delta State in 2004.

Currently studying Economics at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, Preye’s dream of making a difference bore fruit when he founded his organization in September, 2011. Prior to this time, he had held several leadership positions in varying organisations- religious and secular- including Youth President, Campus Ambassador, Chief Editor, Director of Education, and Coordinator of Human Resource Departments.

Preye is passionate about innovation, invention, risk taking, networking, writing, swimming, gospel music, volunteering, selfless service and adding value.

Thus far, his organisation has coordinated mentoring and reading empowerment programmes for Junior and Senior Secondary Schools wherein successful men and women from diverse professions and organizations motivate and donate educational books to the school’s library as well as the students. He has impacted and empowered over 500,000 students in 28 public and private schools through Foundations in Nigeria as well as Africa from 2011 to 2013 such as the Ijaw Youth Development Association, Hadunni Oluwawa Foundation, Booktent Resources etc. Preye hopes to transform lives through his daily broadcasts via social media and his guest appearances on television programmes and talk shows, radio interviews, and varying newspaper publications.

For Preye, “Profit making, materials and gifts has never and will never be my motivation. I just want to help the youth to be useful in the society. Day after day, I think on how I can help young people to become job and wealth creators instead of only job seekers. I think I have found my own way to contribute to the stability, development and growth of Nigeria and Africa at large.”

His inspiration? Reading, researching, studying and observing the environment. He has allegedly read over 1600 autobiographies and biographies of great people all over the world within the years 2009–2013.

“Many rewards I am experiencing today are as a result of my dedication to lifelong learning and reading great books, people and things have added great value to my life just by reading histories of people who changed their world and positively impacted generations.”

 Challenges or disappointments? Of course! Preye asserts that he has been downgraded, scorned, criticized, and misunderstood on several occasions. He has also faced tribalism, nepotism, and favouritism that went against the successful organisation of programmes in some communities as well as raising funds for these programmes.

His biggest failure was when he unable to carry out a youth conference project due to lack of funds and sponsorship from organizations. This did not discourage him but rather empowered him to achieve more.

Future plans? Preye hopes to build schools, organizations and training centres as well as at least one university and fifty two public libraries in Africa.

His first mentor is God ; others are John Calvin Maxwell, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye (General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God) and Mr. Kolawole Owolabi (Founder and CEO of Pragmatic Educational Press).

Preye has his eyes on a Forbes listing as ‘Africa’s Young Entrepreneur of the year’ and for Time Magazine as the ‘Personality of the Year.’

He inspires us thus, “Reach high for the stars, throw of the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds of your sails, explore, discover, start small but dream big, go confidently in the direction of your dreams and live the life you’ve imagined.”

Akpah Prince is a freelance writer.