Ooni’s TV show for underprivileged, first of its kind in Africa-Adesegun Temitope
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi is indeed a generous and humble king who has brought himself to the level of less privileged in the society. Recently, the first class monarch launched a TV show HAI TV SHOW, solely dedicated to the less privileged. The Deputy Chief Convener of Hopes Alive Initiative a pet project of the Ooni of Ife under which the television Show is being anchored, Miss Temitope Adesegun shared the vision and objectives of the Initiatives with ESTHER TAIWO.
Could you please introduce yourself?
My name is Temitope Adesegun, I am privileged to be the Deputy Chief Convener Hope’s Alive Initiative, an initiative that is due to the passion of a man who lives solely for the people, whose desire every time is to see somebody smile and with so much respect and honour, I call his name His Imperial Majesty Arole Oduduwa Oba Adeyeye Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi.
Tell us more about Hopes Alive Initiatives?
Hopes Alive Initiatives is part of the 11 point youth oriented agenda of His Imperial Majesty Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ojaja the 2nd and great Ooni of Ife, without the Ooni of Ife there won’t be the existence of HAI as we all know that agenda can only be driven by programmes and initiatives thus the creation of Hopes Alive because his desire is to see everybody smiling by putting smiles on their faces.
What are you bringing on board to Nigerians?
Hopes Alive is currently gathering all NGOs that have the same vision to work together as partners in progress to share information about themselves with a view to working better to put smiles on the faces of the less privileged in the society. Government should create enabling environment for NGOs because they are complimenting efforts of government by going directly to people where government cannot reach. Government should find a way of encouraging them and not to impose laws on them in recent times Nigerians have come to the realization that non governmental bodies are fast becoming the pillars on which the marginalized in the society rely on, most of these non governmental bodies have faced and are still facing a lot of difficulties in achieving the aim and fulfilling the mission on which they primarily embarked on. It is to this end that Hopes Alive Initiatives evolved, standing firm in its vision to serve as to go to an a resourceful brand advocate of nongovernmental organization all over the world with the view to alleviate socio-economic, cultural and environmental challenges in a bid to reduce the impact of poverty among the most vulnerable in the society. This is a masses oriented initiative of His Imperial Majesty.
When did you start Hopes Alive Initiatives and how far have you gone with your activities?
Amazingly I must say in few months HAI has done a lot. We officially started December 2nd2015 and as at 25th of December we are the IDP camp in Abuja. Imagine a community of about 5,470 people without water, it was practically there but with the existence of HAI, we brought life into that community by providing water, they fetched and drink and have life put in that camp and we didn’t just stop there, their monarch said he believed so much in education, he doesn’t joke with education so we said what can we do again to have more impact in this community, kids are going back to school so we provided stationeries, books, school bags. We visited their clinic and found out that it is as empty as not in existence, we had to supply drugs because they had no drugs, we didn’t stop there, in the first week of January, there is this NGO called kids sport, what they do is they bring together the orphans every year and do football competition amongst them in different locality so we supported them, gave them life back by supporting them financially and was physically present and our intention is to take the best group, there is a programme they will be attending in London this year, I will be supporting that also bring out the talent that they have it’s not just about supporting them, every child is gifted, so HAI is trying to focus on that talent that they have, to show case the talent and once its being exhibited, it means that you are helping another generation entirely that’s one of our aim and of course valentine’s day just past by, what did the Majesty do, we gave valentine babies amazing baby gifts, diaper, baby bath, wipes, clothes and a few to mention and we put smiles on the faces of the families that were privileged to have their babies on valentine’s day. We gave them gifts mainly baby items that were shopped for in London by me, His Imperial Majesty sent me to Mother Care in UK to buy those things for the babies because he believed that the gifts must be equivalent to the babies we are giving them to, these are babies coming to the world for the first time and they must be welcomed with love.
Can you shed more light on the television show that is being debuted by HAI?
Talking about the TV show coming up soon, we are launching our TV advocacy programme, we call it HAI TV SHOW. It is a TV show that is first of its kind and solely dedicated to the under privileged. Any organization or NGO can bring any problem or solution, activity, challenges or whatever they are doing in their NGO it can now be on a laudable platform where everyone can see and embrace.
What is your definition of an underprivileged?
The simplest way to describe an under privilege person is someone who cannot comfortably eat three square meals, can’t afford the minimum living standards which is equated to a Dollar per day, which is N365 Nigeria rate. Someone that lives below that standard on a daily basis is considered as underprivileged.
Who are the target audience of the Television Show?
It is all encompassing, we are not segregating or dividing maybe the adult, widow, children, it’s all in one as long as you are tagged an underprivileged. Either educationally you are not able to go to school, or financially you are not able to sought your daily activities or responsibility or you are not able to achieve your desire on a daily bases due to lack of fund then we are here for you.
Are you doing this all alone as an organization or you are into partnerships?
That is the reason why we have Non Governmental Organisations, we are working not as a sole company, we are working together with the NGOs in collaboration with all other NGOs. That is not to say when we see an individual who is an under privileged we will not attend to that person but our channel is focused on the NGOs so we can work with them from different foundations.
Is Hopes Alive Initiatives a Nigerian based alone?
HAI is global, it’s an international initiative, it’s for everybody, not for Nigeria or Africa alone we are starting with our own country and from there it spreads abroad, that’s why we need people to come on board to be a part of HAI, to embrace and collaborate with HAI and help reduce the hardship that people are facing.
About 100 girls were recently kidnapped in Dapchi, what can your organization do to assist?
Yes, we actually got information some days ago, we got a call and I discussed with his imperial majesty and then we will need to see him and see what we can do, first thing we need to do is aggressive campaign and see how we can be solely involved in this campaign to bring this kids back.
Any call for support from any angle?
We are having our official launch in March and we are praying to God and we know that by God’s grace we will be able to raise funds via the people that will be coming for the launch, like I said, it’s not something we or the Ooni can do alone, so we are people that so much believe in the spirit behind Kabiye’s drive to make everyone smile. So we are all coming together, we are still using the same hall, we are going to be here as one family and body to keep hopes alive, Hopes Alive Initiatives is encompassing, the Ooni has a dream for an average child who is just locked up in the four corner wall of a classroom, they are all put in one house, being accommodated we can actually do something for these kids that once in a while we take them out of this shell, we take them to one state, let them see what is going on around them don’t just leave them in one box and just wake up to do their normal busy chores , we are going to be promoting that via this path.
A Bill was recently passed in the National Assembly House of Representatives to regulate NGOs, what will you say about this?
NGOs are partners in progress with a view to working better to put smiles on the faces of the less privileged in the society. Government should create enabling environment for NGOs because we are complimenting efforts of government by going directly to people where government cannot reach. Government should find a way of encouraging us rather than clamping down on our activities.
Government should be NGO friendly because we are out to assist the government therefore government should not make operations difficult for those assisting them, if all NGOs are properly registered there should not be need for any policy or law against them, I believe this type of platform where all NGOs with the same vision are coming together to form coalition will go a long way in instilling discipline on members rather than government imposing laws on us since we are rendering selfless services to the poor masses.
