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•Ms Aderinoye
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The world’s best
•Ms Aderinoye
Greatness of a nation
is invariably determined not by those who govern her but by the use to
which the ordinary citizens of such a nation put their endowed talents
and skills. No nation can ever be great in the absence of her citizens.
As a matter of fact, nothing is called a nation without the people who
inhabit the landmass of the concerned area and deploy their skills for
the development of its resources. In a nutshell, it is the combined
greatness of individual citizens that often constitutes the greatness of
any nation. That is why all responsible governments encourage citizens
of their countries to strive for lofty heights in all field of human
endeavour. Ironically, however, while some nations become great because
of their citizens’ skills, others remain static because of their
governments’ inaction. Nigeria belongs to the latter. But despite the
continuous inaction of her government, this most populous African
country luckily continues to enjoy the benefit of international glory
often wrought by the personal efforts of her talented citizens.
Saturday, November 29, 2012 was a unique
historic day of glory for Nigeria at the United Nations Headquarters in
New York, where the 2012 global Annual Youth Conference was held. Two
special themes were chosen for the conference which is generally known
as Annual Youth Assembly (AYA). One of those themes is ‘Millennium
Development Goals’ (MDG). The other is ‘Sustainable Development Goals’
(SDG). The main objective of AYA is to encourage some focused world
youths to exhibit their intellectual prowess in proffering solutions to
contemporary and future global challenges. It is organised at the
instance of the ‘Friendship Ambassadors Foundation’ (FAF).
Present at the November 2012 conference
were some shakers and movers of global events from all parts of the
world including permanent representatives of the various countries at
the United Nations. They clustered the venue of the conference like a
galaxy of stars waiting to usher the world’s most ingenuous leaders of
tomorrow into today’s Hall of Fame with a chorus of KUDOS! The event was
beamed live to virtually all parts of the world through various TV
Cable Networks. The historic announcement of the winners which climaxed
the one week event was greeted with a thunderous applause and
overwhelming ovation. Out of the 700 hundred contestants from more than
70 countries of the world, three best winners emerged at the occasion.
One of them was from Africa. Another was from Asia while the third was
from South America. When the glorious moment of announcing the very best
of the three finalists came, a grave but anxious silence descended on
the hall. This was followed by a lone baritone voice that announced
thus: “…..And the winner is RAHMAH ADERINOYE FROM NIGERIA!!!!! The
audience roared into an unprecedented ecstasy of jubilation hugging and
shaking hands with one another just as the chanting of CONGRATULATIONS
rented the air for several minutes with songs of joy. Rahmah had beaten
the two other finalists from China and Haiti to the second and third
positions respectively. It was indeed, a rare moment of glory for a
comatose country like Nigeria dangling ceaselessly like a pendulum with a
noose on the altar of dysfunction. History was made once again by a
Nigerian for Nigeria but without an input from the latter. An
unfortunate incident at that moment, however, was the conspicuous
absence of any official from Nigeria. While all other participants were
officially accompanied and supported by the representatives of their
countries, as usual, no notable Nigerian official representative was
there. Unlike what obtains in focused countries, Nigeria does not attach
any importance to assisting or supporting her own citizens in making
any glory of that sort. As a country, she prefers to proclaim any
individual who, out of personal effort, makes glory as her worthy
citizen. And that preference was demonstrated again at the 2012 AYA
conference. That Nigeria was not officially represented on such a
glorious occasion cannot be a surprise to anybody who knows this country
very well. After all, a similar incident occurred in March 1987 when a
onetime Grand Qadi of Northern Nigeria, the late Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud
Gumi won the prestigious King Faisal Award just six months after Wole
Soyinka won Nobel Laurel in September 1986. And while the foreign press
was celebrating the honour days and nights, the same Federal Government
which sent a powerful delegation to accompany Wole Soyinka to Stockholm
(in Sweden) six months earlier remained nonchalant. It took yours
sincerely to write on the matter severally (then in The Concord)
pointing out the government’s hypocrisy and religious bias before
something could be done at the federal level. And by the time the then
General Ibrahim Babangida-led government decided half-heartedly to
congratulate Sheikh Gumi and accept to play a role, all arrangements had
been privately completed by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola who
volunteered to bear the entire cost.
It was he (Abiola) who invited about 200
eminent Nigerians to form a delegation which was to accompany Sheikh
Gumi to Riyadh, (the Saudi Arabian capital) where the award was to be
given. He also provided their travelling tickets and Basic Travelling
Allowance (BTA) even as he chartered the Jumbo Jet that conveyed them.
The then government only stepped in belatedly following my series of
articles and that was on the suspicion that Bashorun Abiola might use
the event to score a political point. Thus, if we have a government in
place today which repeated such episode by choosing to be indifferent to
the great honour won for Nigeria by Rahmah; it should not be a
surprise. The sadistic tradition has long been established. Thank God,
however, that the name of this brilliant future leader did not come up
at that level in connection with cocaine pushing or human trafficking
which would have automatically attracted the attention of our government
and Nigerian Press. The 1987 episode is recalled here because yours
sincerely was on the two mentioned (Stockholm and Riyal) delegations.
Who is Rahmah Aderinoye?
The common question on the lips of most
people who witnessed the 2012 MDG event and which may also become the
main question from many readers of this column is the one above. Who is
Rahmah Aderinoye? And the answer to that question is not far-fetched.
Rahmah Adebodun Aderinoye is a tender female University student with the
heart of a brave male. She is the fifth and last child of her parents
but also the fourth daughter. Her natural visage betrays her
intellectual mien. In appearance, she looks half her father and half her
mother an indication that she cuts a chip of each of the two parents.
Rahmah Aderinoye, a Nigerian student of Biology at the University of
Texas (USA), is vigorously proving to be a sucker rather than a bud in
her family tree. And like any potent sucker, her burning desire is to
outgrow the stem and foliages of that consanguine tree without minding
any local tradition accorded her gender. Her pedigree is strong, no
doubt, but her towering surge is independent of that pedigree as she
charts her course ahead with little expectation of any assistance from
any particular individual. She has caught a niche for herself in a world
where even older adults refuse to be weaned from their parental ladle.
Born to Professor Rasheed and Hajia Biqis Aderinoye in Ibadan about 23
years ago and christened Rahmah (meaning Blessing) this courageous young
woman is truly becoming a universal blessing not only to her parents or
her country but also to African continent as well as the global Muslim
Ummah. Already, without prompting, she has chosen to be an Ambassador
Plenipotentiary for her fatherland as she flies the latter’s
green-white-green flag loftily and admirably at the international level
without asking the forbidden question of ‘what can my country do for
me?. By all means, Rahmah epitomises the new dream generation with a
life ambition to put Nigeria on the special map of success story. Now a
final year biology student at the University of Texas, Arlington, USA,
Rahmah had her elementary education at the University of Ibadan Staff
School and her secondary education at the International School, UI,
Ibadan before proceeding to South Carolina University from where she
moved to the University of Texas on scholarship.
What qualified her for this laurel?
Motivated by a burning desire to give a
helping hand to fellow Nigerians in alleviating the crushing poverty and
squalor in the land, Rahmah established a Non-Governmental Organisation
(NGO) named ‘Youth for Intellectual Interaction Initiative (YIII) with
more than 20 volunteers in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the US. It was
this NGO that she used in applying for participation in the 2012 MDG
project that fetched her the glorious laurel that now makes her a global
star. And with that laurel she has automatically become a ‘Fellow of
(UN) Resolution’. Already, she has been commissioned by UNICEF to
develop and work on a concept to empower the vulnerable youths in Africa
an assignment which she sees as a veritable opportunity to further
propel the African youths into continental development through a
deserving renaissance. Thus, she is a UNICEF global Ambassador.
Shortly before the announcement of the
results of the competition, Rahmah called her father on phone to inform
him of her nervousness having been overwhelmed by the galaxy of other
contestants. But in response, her father, an experienced professor of
education, told her to calm down saying: “I won’t be surprised if you
win”. And when the event was over, she made the following confession:
‘So, when my name was announced, I became frightened and was shaking.
Three winners emerged at the end of the day from three continents (Asia,
Africa and South America) and these were a Nigerian, a Chinese and a
Haitian. I was proudly thrilled to represent Nigeria at the Youth
Assembly at the UN. For me, participating in that Social Challenge
Venture was pretty exciting but it involved a lot of work. I had to
submit some drafts before presenting my project in front of over 700
delegates from the world and face the judges and the crowd. I was
really, really nervous…” Throwing light on the real nature of the
competition, she said: “At the annual youth assembly, Resolution Project
looks at youthful students in colleges, asks them to present a problem
peculiar to their localities and suggest possible solutions to such a
problem. If the proposal is accepted, the project then gives both
mentoring and financial assistance to help them bring about the solution
they proposed.” She continued: “I was supposed to pick a problem
staring Nigerians in the face and propose a solution to it. So the
problem I chose was poverty which is the number one set goal of the
Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. I proposed
empowerment through skills acquisition. This means that I will basically
be empowering people in some vocations thereby making them
self-sufficient and ultimately working towards the set goals of the UN.
Thus, the solution I proposed was empowerment through skills
acquisition.”
Narrating her planned approach to
tackling poverty especially in Africa, Rahmah said: “The best approach
to tackling poverty as far as I am concerned is to train people in some
vocations, stressing that “what we will be doing is training people in
some vocations such as baking, bead making, farming, tailoring and some
couple of others but it’s going to be one vocation at a time. Now, after
these people are trained, we will provide them with basic materials
they need to start up and that way, they can start making money for
themselves.” Asked to state specifically what she will now be doing as a
Fellow of (UN) Resolution and UNICEF Ambassador the 23 year old
eloquent student of Biology said: “I presently volunteer with UNICEF USA
to raise funds and create awareness for various projects. Recently, for
instance, I led a number of fellow youths in the US to raise funds for
the Children of Syria who are being subjected to all sorts of abuse and
insecurity of life. We were trying to get more relief materials for them
in their various refugee camps. And now, I am working on what is called
Zero Project. It is estimated that about 19,000 children die daily of
preventable causes and this figure comes from just five countries in the
world. Sadly, Nigeria happens to be one of them. “At UNICEF, USA, we
believe that number can be reduced to ZERO. For this reason we raise
funds to be invested in the affected countries and we shall continue to
do so until we get to ZERO level. As for her future plans this is what
Rahmah has to say: I want to complete my undergraduate studies at the
end of the current academic session and start post graduate studies.
Also, I am planning to go ahead with my project in Nigeria if only as a
fulfillment of my dream of bringing zero project to my country alongside
my proposed solution at the United Nations. So I need every Nigerian to
team up with me and my teammates in this initiative.”
When ‘THE MESSAGE’ asked Rahmah’s father
to comment on his daughter’s performance he simply said “I am highly
impressed Alhamdu Lillah”. Professor Aderinoye, a Professor of Education
at the University of Ibadan who is currently the Deputy Executive
Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) however
explained that he earlier entertained fear about the project because his
daughter started it when her examination was approaching. But she
assured him that she would cope.
Perhaps if Osun, the ‘State of
Integrity’ had not been Rahmah’s indigenous state, nothing would have
been heard about her great achievement from any government circle in
Nigeria. It was the State of Osun alone that officially invited her for
the establishment of a branch of her NGO in that state and provided an
office for it. The state government, represented by the Commissioner for
Youths and Women Affairs, Mrs. Folake Adegboyega and the Senior Special
Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Women Empowerment, Mr. Abdullah
Binuyo also sponsored the launching of the NGO. And such is quite in
line with Osun State’s policy of youth empowerment.
Lesson to learn
For parents who discriminate in the
training of their children, this is a lesson. Rahmah is the fifth and
last child of her parents. Only one of those children is a male. And all
of them are doing as fantastically well in their respective callings as
the only male child among them. What else does any sensible person want
in a child? More than 90 per cent of Nigerian problems are currently
caused by male children. And on the contrary, it is female children who
take care of their parents better in old age. Besides, isn’t it
ingratitude to Allah on the part of those who think parochially that
male children are better than female children? That is a food for
thought. We pray the Almighty Allah to prolong and protect the life of
Rahmah Aderinoye with further guidance and blessings even as we implore
Allah to give our Ummah many more of her type. Amin.
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