Professor Muhammed Mustapha Akanbi, a Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin has been described as a focused, loving and a considerate legal luminary who derives pleasure in putting smile on the faces of the downtrodden people.
The commendations were made by the participants at the MMGIVIT Poetry competition and various beneficiaries of his third annual MMGIVIT Charity Initiative where no fewer than 2,000 people benefited from the open sale of various materials, career talk, free medical tests and several other humanitarian services that were mapped out as part of activities to commemorate his birthday.
The open sale took place at the premises of Nana Aisha Academy, Akerebiata area, Ilorin, while the poetry competition held at the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin a day before the sale of materials.
The open sale featured the sale of clothing materiels, children wears, shoes, kitchen utensils, and electronic appliances at give-a-way prices, as well as free career guidance for secondary school students drawn from 10 selected schools across the state.
In her address, the Chairman of the occasion who is also a former member of the Ondo state House of Assembly, Barrister Fola Olasehinde-Vicente described the initiative as a catalyst for even distribution of resources in the community.
Barrister Olasehinde-Vincente whose speech was titled ‘The role of Non Governmental Organisations in Community Development’ said MMGIVIT Charity Initiative has proved it’s worth by placing priority attention to redistributing wealth, for the upliftment of the less privileged in the society.
The former lawmaker who represented Ose Constituency at the Ondo State House of Aassembly between 2011 and 2015 lauded the good initiative of MMGIVIT Charity at this time when economic situation of the country has severely deteriorated which has ultimately made some citizens to become living dead.
Olasehinde-Vicente therefore gave kudos to the chairman and other team members of the initiative for collectively coming together for the purpose of providing charity oriented activities and self financing through donations and consultations.
Earlier in his welcome address, the founder of the MMGIVIT Charity Initiative, Professor Muhammad Mustapha Akanbi said the rationale behind the formation of the initiative was borne out of the need to promote community development using charity as a platform.
Professor Akanbi said the programme was put together by him, with support of people of like minds across the country, to replace his birthday ceremony saying that he chose to give hand of fellowship to the less privilege rather than throwing unnecessary party for the mere birthday ceremony.
He explained that 50 community development associations across the state had earlier been contacted and engaged to submit the list of 30 people each from their domains to ensure that the gesture gets to those who really need it.
The MMGIVIT’s founder said the items distributed were donations from friends of like minds who share his philosophy of life, saying that an individual donated a ‘first-grade’ children wears from Ondo state, while books and prizes presented to the the winners of the poetry competition were donated by another friend.
Akanbi expressed satisfaction over the peaceful way and manner the event was conducted and thanked all collaborating bodies including security agents for working towards the success of the event.
Meanwhile, a day before the open sale of materials, about eight secondary schools across the state locked horns in a poetry competition organised by the initiative, held at the faculty of Law, University of Ilorin.
The competition which was keenly contested produced Unilorin secondary school as the winner of this year edition of the competition.
Earlier in her address at the event before the commencement of the competition, titled ‘Promoting Community Development Through Charity ‘ the Chairperson of the occasion, Professor Mosunmola Imasogie called on well-to-do people in Nigeria to cultivate the habit of giving charity to the less privileged.
Imasogie who is a Professor of Law from Bowen University, Iwo, in Osun State said the current situation in the country shows that Nigerians cannot wait for the government to come to their rescue because things are seriously tight and hard for people across the country.
“We need to imbibe the culture of giving so that people that are rich can give back to the society. Charity initiative like this is very important especially at this time when Nigeria is battling with recession. A lot of people cannot eat, a lot of children dropped out from school. Government has failed us. It is like Nigeria is becoming a failed state.
“Things that government ought to have done are being picked up by individuals. People can hardly help. If you cannot satisfy yourself how can you think of others? Look at the situation in Nigeria, things are very tight, salaries are stagnant and expenses are increasing every day.
Pump price of petroleum is officially at N145 but over N200 in black market, even at N145 is very expensive because salaries are not raised up but because of the failure of infrastructure we can’t even do anything about it,” she added.
Professor Imasogie therefore appealed to governments at all levels to be alive to their responsibilities, and provide necessary help and succor to the masses so as to rescue the vast majority of citizens who are at the verge of death simply because of hunger and frustration.
She also called on well meaning Nigerians to be kind enough to adopt and help children of the less privileged, as doing that will be of great help not only to the helpless children but also to the society in the future.
“There are a lot of mad people on the streets, federal, state and local governments are not doing anything about that. It is like we are in a state of helplessness. The obligation to feed yourself is on you but when you cannot feed yourself because you don’t have the means, then, it becomes the government’s obligation to give. Government should have something like social security for the upkeep of the less privileged.
Unfortunately, even if they say they are giving some people money, nobody hears about it again. The names will be compiled by politicians, they would put their children names, eventually you find out that the money goes to those who do not really need it”, Imasogie stressed.
Earlier in his address, the Dean of Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, Dr. Adam who spoke through Dr. Yusuf Arowosaye at the occasion thanked the initiator of the project for deeming it fit to initiate a project that is targeted at putting the smiles on the faces of the downtrodden.
In his remarks, the Chairman of MMGIVIT CHARITY, Professor Muhammad Mustapha Akanbi said the event marked the second edition of MMGIVIT Poetry Competition, saying that it is a project that was initiated to spread the culture of charity using poems as a platform.
“Part of what we do in the annual MMGIVIT is poetry competition. We believe that we can use poetry as a vehicle to promote and spread the virtues of charity to create awareness in the minds of people. We believe that government cannot do everything for the people. If the rich members of the society give to the less privilege, there will be even distribution of wealth, there will be harmony in the society”, Akanbi said.
He said lack of love and affection is the biggest problem we are having in Nigeria today, adding that MMGIVIT believes that unity, love brotherhood can be achieved from the perspective of charity, pointing out that absence of love is the architect of the trial and tribulations we are passing through in Nigeria as a people.
Therefore, Oreoluwa Adeyemi of the University of Ilorin Secondary School emerged overall winner at the 2018 2nd MMGIVIT Charity Poetry Competition held at the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin.
Similarly, Azeezat Yusuf of Sapati International School came first at the junior category of the poetry competition.
Alabi Abdulkareem Olawale of Muslim Model College and Aboyeji Richard of Unilorin Secondary School came second and third respectively in the senior category while Musa Favour and Ejiko Blessing of junior secondary School category took the second and third positions respectively.
Highlights of the event included presentation of cash, collections of books and certificates to the winners, presentation of prize to the best poem won by Richard Aboyeji of USS, school with best entries was also won by USS, while all other students that partook in the competition also went home with consolation prizes.
End
