By Abdurraman Muhammad
As many Muslims around the world are celebrating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be unto him), the former Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Dr Abdullahi Baffa Bichi has distributed food items to over 500 households as a philanthropic gesture to commemorate the 1443 Maulud Celebration.
Speaking during the distribution exercise, that took place in his residence at Bayero University Kano, Old Campus, Dr Bichi said the essence was to put smile on the faces of people by cushioning the effect of harsh economic situation in the country.
He noted that many people are finding it difficult to feed their families and therefore, his action was to make them happy on this festive period.
The donated items included a bundle of cloth, bag of rice, millet and maize each and a portion of meet.
“As we are today celebrating the birth of our Noble Prophet SAW, we feel obliged to put smiles on the faces of our brothers who could not afford a good food for their families”.
Many people who benefitted from the gesture expressed their appreciations by describing him as the rising politician who has the interest of a common man at heart.
After collecting his items, Malam Abubakar Idris said, “the items came handy as he had no single grain in his house with a family of five.
Another woman busted into tears of joy, lamenting that it has been over a week since last they cooked a solid food in the house. They just rely on other difficult means.
“We were surviving on crunches for the last few weeks, as we have nothing in the house, my husband died last year during the Covid-19 pandemic, he left me with five children and no one to feed us. The selling of akra I was doing did not last long due to lack of capital. In addition to the food items, he equally supported us with a by to take-off money to start a business. We really appreciate him and may Allah continue to guide him. Alhamdulillah.”
A director in the One 2 Tell 10 campaign organisation of Baffa Bichi, Honourable Ghali while explaining the concept of human empowerment, noted that the desire was to bail out the needy especially widows, orphans and other needy persons in the society.
Honourable Ghali disclosed that the only way out of the economic crunch is for all the wealthy and public sprites individuals to come up with program that would have a positive pact on the lives of the less privilege by providing them with capital money so as to be independent and self reliant.
“Our desire is to empower people to be self-reliant so that they can as well be productive to the society. No nation can grow and prosper if the teeming populace are in abject poverty and economic dependency. Ours is to teach a person how to fish so that he can be productive in the society,” he declared.