Just like the Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun, Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, popularly called Mother Teresa of Calcutta who devoted her life to international charitable works until her death 5th September, 1997, Princess Rosemary Haddesah Osula-Atu who was recently honored by Vanguard Media Limited as one of Nigeria’s Personalities of the Year 2020 is known for her selfless humanitarian endeavors in the country and the United Kingdom where she is based. Quite arguably, the newspaper award may have made the self-effacing Edo State-born industrious but highly introverted quiet achiever - who does not crave after publicity - the proverbial golden fish that has no hiding place.
Even though the unmistakable mark of the high bred glows all over her oval face, spiced up with traces of pure blue blood running through her tender veins as a scioness of the royal Bini stock, the accomplished woman entrepreneur par excellence wines and dines with the proletariat in the society. Little wonder then, she established the Rosula Foundation – a non-governmental organization – as a vehicle through which her public-spirited projects could be achieved. Assiduously devoted towards alleviating human suffering, Osula-Atu is known to help in fighting poverty by providing aid and support to the less privileged. During the COVID-19 pandemic period, about N100 million is estimated to have been spent by the princess in medical outreach and giving out of palliatives to the poor as well as aged in parts of Britain and a few states of the federation like Benue, Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, FCT and Edo.
In the area of education, scholarships in various courses are said to have been won by indigent students to study in a number of Nigerian Universities. Only last month, 11th December, 2020 to be precise, latest batch of successful students under the foundation’s “My Dream Scholarship Programme” were offered opportunities to obtain first degrees in courses of their choices in the country’s tertiary institutions including the Igbinedion University Okada. Aside from educational concerns, Osula-Atu is reputed to have business interests spanning the telecommunications, manufacturing, tourism and real estate sub-sectors of the economy. In all those areas of specialization, the Vanguard honoree could be seen to be driven by the passion to give back to the society through empowerment supports which include offering interest-free capital to women to set up small and medium enterprises.
Empirically speaking, our nation is grappling with the devastating effects of the second wave of COVID-19 with dire consequences on the socio-economic well-being of the citizenry. Whereas hundreds of employees or more who are losing their jobs almost on a daily basis without financial abilities could do with some safety nets, impoverished families lacking basic necessities of life would require urgent palliatives in form of foodstuff and essential commodities to manage their crisis situations. Similarly, students from indigent homes whose ranks are swelling with each passing day have to be awarded scholarships to keep the young hearts engaged, thereby eliminating possibility of their getting into mischief to constitute a menace to the society.
If the truth be told, therefore, the munificence of Rosemary Osula-Atu needs to be encouraged by government recognition and possible collaborative partnerships in view of the humongous capital outlay involved in prosecuting private philanthropic projects. Such impetus may not only serve to ginger the altruistic soul in recording more feats in her benignity but contribute towards birthing a new generation of benevolent Nigerians armed with the requisite wherewithal to support government efforts whose prerogative it is indeed – by virtue of the provisions of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution - to provide social welfare to the generality of the people.
