BY MUSBAUDEEN  SHEKONI

After positively impacting the lives of Nigerians across the country, the Foundation for Effective Leadership and Development (FELD) decided to bring home its philanthropy as it recently empowered 275 persons in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State in its move to assist the less privileged fulfill their dreams of quality education. Hon. Paul Adingwupu, the Chairman of the Foundation in this interview with some journalists disclosed how important it is for the rich to assist the youths who are brilliant but lack financial means to achieve their aspirations. Excerpts:

What is the idea behind FELD Foundation?
The idea behind FELD Foundation came up about a year ago when we thought of the prevailing conditions in our villages in Aniocha South, Delta and Nigeria in general. We also watch what is going on outside the country and we see that government cannot do everything. Government must be supported to reach out to the people, based on that; we felt that we should emulate what is happening internationally. The only thing we thought we could do was to have a kind of foundation that can execute such programmes. That is how FELD Foundation came into existence. Then we registered the foundation and decided to pursue this particular programme.

  What does it hope to achieve?
From my first explanation you can see that FELD Foundation is just a non-governmental organisation that aims to empower our people, to alleviate poverty in the society and to help children return to school.   We don’t want anybody to be left out. Not many people can have money to go back to school and so FELD Foundation is taking it as a responsibility to make sure people go back to school.

We also decided to localise some of our objectives by bringing it down to Delta State and even locating our place which is Aniocha South Local Government. It is a medium to empower our people; the market women, farmers, the youth and even the young ladies that want to go back to school. That was why we instituted scholarship for some of our people. We also instituted the corporative society for the farmers and the market women so they can get help by receiving a token to help support their businesses. This is the local aspect of it.

Mr Adingwupu

We also have a quiz programme that is running and it started about seven months ago. The programme is tagged My Education Quiz Play, you must have been watching it on some TV stations. So far, we have been able to empower many children in universities and secondary schools in Nigeria irrespective of the state one comes from. Once you come and play in the quiz, you could win up to N2.5 million if you are studying medicine and N2 million if you are studying other courses in the higher school and you can as well get up to N1 million if you are in SS 3 or about to write your WAEC. So it is just basically to alleviate poverty and send people back to school.

You just said it is a non-governmental organisation…
Yes

But there is the impression that the Foundation is a facade for a political ambition…
(Laughs) You see, in everything you do, people will give a different interpretation to it. Those who know me know that I don’t need to set up a foundation in order to get political power because I already have political power. I am giving back to our people and that is what I am doing. So those that are saying it are those who do not want to give back, they are what I would call selfish people. Look at it this way; am I going to contest for presidency in 2015? What about those that are winning millions and going back to school from Plateau State, Edo, Kogi, Kano and all over?   Or is it because of the localised one, it is not true.

There is no political undertone to it; it is an NGO and so shall it be. It has remained that and has gone far before bringing it to the people. We cannot allow our people to remain under perpetual poverty; that it just the purpose of localising it. It will be unfair that they are hearing that people are winning money and we are not impacting directly on them, then what are we doing? We want a situation where violence and other poverty associated vices, like kidnapping and stealing will reduce in the society; that is why we brought the programme back home.

So Why Aniocha South first?
(Smiles) Oh well, if you are a dancer and you want to try out new steps and you have a band, after practising, you will show your people and they will be the first to critique you by either clapping for you and telling you if you have done well or by saying that you didn’t do it well, why not do it the other way?  So they are the people to correct us and also encourage us. This programme will go beyond Aniocha South; it will go to all the nooks and crannies of Delta North and spread to other parts of the state. It is just a question of time. It is obvious that with the empowerment so far, women benefitted more from the programme.

 Why the soft spot for them or does it have anything to do with your background?
Well apart from the fact that I was brought up by my mum because I lost my dad at the age of six, it also goes to show the importance of women in the society. Let me tell you this; no matter who you are, you are from a woman. There are things your dad cannot tell you or may not know about you, but your mother knows about it. If you watch, any man that is great, he must have started from somewhere, and a woman must have played a role in the life of such a man.

It could be a mother, wife, sister, stepmother, foster mother, aunty or even cousin, women are great motivators. If you give her money to transform her life and train her child in school, she will tie it to her apron and make sure she follows the instruction to the letter because she has soft spot for the child. But give it to a man, he will use it for something else first like playing pool or going to a bar for a few drinks before using what is left of it.

My mother made me what I am today and what was she doing?, she was a trader, buying and selling goods basically foodstuffs from Onitsha. With her efforts, I attended one of the best schools of my time, Saint Anthony’s College, Ubulu-Uku and later University of Benin. How did she make it, maybe she had about 10,000 Pounds of those days or something equivalent to what we are giving the women today and she did a great job training not only me but many other graduates.

So I looked at the dexterity of women using my mother as a case study and I arrived at the conclusion that if I go through women, I will be able to train more children through them, so we give them preference. But that notwithstanding, men are also getting empowerment. If you look at the list, 10 men and 10 women, including five youths are being empowered in each ward in a local government. I don’t think there is any partiality. We have finished the first phase; we want to see how they can turn the money around.