By Faidat Bello
No fewer than 500 indigents across Kwara State and beyond on Saturday (January 28, 2023) benefited this year’s edition of the Wealth Redistribution and Charity Day organised by MMGIVIT , a charitable initiative that was founded by late KWASU Vice Chancellor, Professor Muhammed Mustapha SAN, eight years ago.
The event which also featured free medical test and free consultation of Medical Doctors, was the climax of the annual week-long activities which included poetry competition among secondary schools students, counselling and interactive session with community development associations in Kwara State.
Items distributed included household materials such as furniture, mother-cares, clothing materials, shoes, washing machines, mattresses, and electronics, among others
Speaking with Highprofile on the sideline of the event, the pioneer Coordinator General (CG) of MMGIVIT, Professor Kayode Ibrahim Adam, said the initiative was a brain child of late Prof. M. M. Akanbi in his characteristics of putting smiles on the faces of the less privileged.
“I must say that the founder of the initiative, Late Professor Mustapha Akanbi (SAN) came up with the idea of MMGVIT for the simple reason that he wanted the less privileged to be lifted up and not because he was expecting any gain but simply because he derived satisfaction from people having joy. He didn’t know he would pass on so soon; but the good thing is that that legacy outlived him, and one can say he lives on”.
In her words, the current CG of the initiative, Dr. (Mrs) Saeedat Aliyu hinted that “more than 500 people had benefited from free distribution of the items, saying that the beneficiaries cut across gender, ethnic group and religious affiliations.
She said “We could see the joy on their faces, and you really can’t put a monetary value to somebody’s joy and happiness. So, the joy and excitement on the faces of these people can really not be quantified”.
The head of medical team, Pharmacist Adim Udeh, said the medical checkups afforded the beneficiaries ample opportunity to know their health status, saying that people with health emergency were advised by the doctors to go to the hospital with referal letters.
“Because majority of those that came in for this program belong to the indigent population, we know that healthcare is a challenge among those group of people and of course most of them haven’t had access to the primary healthcare system; most of them don’t even know they have high blood pressure. For those people, usually, it is when emergency occurs, you find them going to the hospital”, Pharmacist Adim said.
According to him “ up to 3 to 4 of the beneficiaries with blood pressure with above 170/100 had no inkling about it. The doctors had to counsel them and, of course, wrote references for them to go to the hospital on Monday, ” he said.
The pioneer Board member who is now the deputy chairman of MMGIVIT, Dr Fatimoh F. Abdulrazaq explained that the purpose of the initiative is to make people happy.
The MMGIVIT head of Publicity and Media Committee, Mr Sanni Abdulrazak said “as the name implies, we are redistributing wealth. All these things were gotten from those who have it at home. Some have been abandoned for so long. Some are here, and the person feels he has excess of it and some are there just gathering dust at home. So, we, as an initiative, had to reach out to all these people that we know. We tell people who know somebody who knows somebody, so that way, information reached out to those who have all these in stock. We had to mobilize our people and make sure that we get all these things together so that we can redistribute them to those who need them”.
One of the beneficiaries, Hajia Gbemisola, a resident of Sobi Road who heard about the program from her community’s CDAs thanked the organisers for the kind gesture and dielscribed the items received as valuable.
Gbemisola implored the organizers to make it a continuous exercise as all fingers are not equal.
She therefore prayed God to reward and forgive the founder MMGIVIT of his shortcomings and grant him paradise, just as she prayed God to equally reward those that are piloting the affairs of the initiative after the demise of the founder.
Anorher beneficiary, Mr. Isa Abdullahi, who is a resident of Abayawo said “when I got here, I saw that this is a good thing. It is a praiseworthy event that would be appreciated if it continues like this”, adding that “if we can get more people to do things like this, it will make a lot of people happy”.
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