By Akabude Uche Peter

Danjuma Ibrahim Yakubu grew up to know life as one with immense responsibilities. With a wife and four children, eight siblings and aged parents to cater for, the stage appeared all but perfect for him to justify his position as the eldest child of the family.

For this journalist with FRCN, Lafia, the inter-play of the unseen force that goes with a name and the Nigerian culture that confers family responsibilities on first born sons was not so kind.

For years, he single handedly had the onerous task of catering for all his people, an assignment made more difficult by scarce financial resources.

But fate showered him with favours. Danjuma was recently presented with the cheque of N10 Million by leading telecommunications operator, Airtel Nigeria, after he  emerged the grand prize winner of the just concluded Red Hot Promo, a consumer loyalty reward initiative put in place by the telecommunications firm.

There is no doubt that good times are here for Danjuma and his defined line of dependants. The win has empowered and repositioned him to discharge his responsibilities to all in a more qualitative manner without breaking much sweat.

His dream to give qualitative education to his younger siblings, bring much comfort to his aged parents, engage in personal development programmes and own some worthwhile businesses have become more realistic.

What is more? Looking ahead after receiving the prized sum from the wife of the Nassarawa State Governor, Hajia Salamatu Umaru Tanko Al-Makura in Lafia, an elated Danjuma was quick to realise the sudden change of status in his life and the new vision that may consequently be birthed.

The desire to also be a blessing to  others like the network has been to him is the immediate pre-occupation of his mind. Doma, a town that saw his birth, bore witness to his growing up and currently serves as his residence, has been in need of pipe borne water.

The long years of waiting for intervention from either agents of government or other concerned quarters to provide this basic need may be effectively over soon as Danjuma appears poised to play the saviour.

In his statement shortly after receiving the prize, he said, “Danjuma, as the name implies, is a person from a family that has a lot of responsibilities. In my case, I am someone whom God has raised to use to address the needs of his family, and part of it is that in my own area, we have a problem of potable water.

So, I will use part of the money to sink borehole but I won’t collect any money for that.

The Airtel Red Hot promo was a multi-million naira open consumer loyalty reward scheme launched in October 2013 to reward customers’ activities on the Airtel network, whether voice  or data. It ran across the six geo-political zones, producing sixty millionaires and other cash prize winners over a period of sixty days.

The promo was one of the company’s several empowerment platforms created to enable customers on the network realise their dreams, achieve set goals, make meaningful impact within their environment, build and secure a bright future. With a rich bouquet of products and services, Airtel is not playing in an unusual turf. Indeed, it has consistently shown commitment to a culture of empowering people whether in the core business area of telecommunications or in the field of sports, entertainment, education, ICT and vocational training.

Airtel’s exploits in the social responsibilities circle is also well documented. Beginning with Oremeji Primary School 2, Ajegunle in Ifelodun-Ajeromi Local Government Area of Lagos State, the company has successfully replicated its exclusive CSR-based Adopt-A-School model in different parts of the country among which include  Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun state, Amumara in Imo state and Ediba in Cross River state.

The Company’s Nigeria’s chief executive  officer and Managing Director, Segun Ogunsanya, in a recent statement succinctly captured the essence of the company’s drive towards empowering Nigerians across all spheres of human endeavour.

There is no doubt the company’s vision of being the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians is being matched with commendable and measurable actions with far-reaching impacts as the stories of Danjuma Ibrahim Yakubu, Amarachi Uyanne, Golden Eaglet’s Adamu Abubakar, Muri Oriyomi Lawal, Robots for Christ, among many others, may have provided sufficient proofs.