Tijani Remilekun Usman is the Chief Executive Officer of BELTIJ Limited, apart from being a businessman he is also a Philanthropist with great passion to help the less privileged in the society, in this interview with Remi Oladoye Publisher National Insight, TJ as he is fondly called said poverty can only be tackled if Nigerians are creative and invest more in factory and Industries that churches and Mosques
Mr Tijani Usman presenting a pack of noodles to an aged womanCan we meet you sir ?
My name is TTijani Remilekun Usman, I am a businessman, I am into furniture mining and other businesses , I am a Yoruba Muslim, I am from Ilesha from loro family, I was born and brought up in the Eastern part of Nigeria, Onitsha to be precise.
You distributed food items to about one thousand people on Thursday, what informed the decision as a businessman
First of All I am a Muslim and I am guided by my religion, secondly is that if i can buy a shoe of a thousand dollars why can’t I give to people to eat, I don’t need to have too much money to do charity its just an obligations I belief that comes from within
This is the fifth edition of the program, can you give an average costs of what you give annually?
some of the beneficiariesI have been doing this for the past five years and it has been consistent, on every 31st of December. the cost is a fraction of what God gives me every year, what I give is nothing compared to what God gives me every year , I am just a fortunate person who belief in God and HE has been blessing me and from I have been blessing other people e too and I am hoping that other business men like me would emulate same so that they can be a blessings to other people.
With your level of connection and exposure why did you choose to stay back in Ilesha anytime you are in Nigeria, why not Abuja, Lagos or Port Harcourt
I belief in developing my community , I have travelled all around the world , I have lived in South African for more than 20 years before I decided to be come back home, I belief in empowering my people because I know charity begins at home
Apart from giving food items what other things or plan do you have for the people of Ilesha
Scholarships program and sponsoring overseas training for some of them is in the pipeline, because I believe if four five people doing the same thing annually we can reach out and have more impacts on the grass root. Just on the 24th of December I hosted about 300 children I donated stationary for them because I belief in education, I make sure that they also have fun and enjoy themselves as well, because no ever parent especial with this lockdown and covid-19, not all of them have money to buy Christmas clothe and give their children the happiness they deserved during this festive and we also belief by January February we’ll have nothing less than 150 people employed in mining and furniture in Ilesa
Are you doing this for politics?
No not for politics, I am not interested in Politics.
What’s your advice for well to do businessmen like you in the diaspora that are yet to connect with root back home
My advice to them is first , they should remember their community and country, they should also to reach out to the less privileged people in their community. You can see the level of poverty in Africa, more especially in our country Nigeria and government cannot tackle it alone, I want to implore more businessmen to emulate what is happening today so that they can be of impact and influence in the society and more people will be taken out of poverty.
How best do you think poverty can be best tackled in Nigeria?
The only way poverty can be tackled is for government to create enabling environment, government cannot employ everyone but Nigerians especially the youths need to be more creative in creating more jobs than opening churches and mosques , so that people can be employed and paid salaries, we are not all created to be blessed I believe if we cab built more factor and industry we can be able to engage people rather than given them food , food items is just for those who can no longer work or those who couldn’t find jobs
We are in a new year what your Wish is for Nigerians
I wish Nigerians a prosperous new ear and I hope that 2021 will be better for all of us
