Abdulyasir Garba a Poet, Writer, Graphic Designer, an Almajiri System Reform Advocate, founder, Young Support Foundation and A Day with Orphans, Nigerian Youngest Activist and the Third Youngest World Humanitarian
Early Life and Family
AbdulYasir Garba or more popularly known as Lit. G., (a short form of Literature Guru), or Mr. President was born on September 9, 2002, to a Fulani family in Gwagwarwa district of Nassarawa Local Government Area of Kano State in the northern region of Nigeria.
In particular, His paternal grandfather, Mallam Abdullahi was a leader of the then Fulani Empire. AbdulYasir’s father, Alahji Garba Abdullahi, was noted for his learning and intelligence, he is a hotelier and an International Consultant on Military Affairs.
His mother, Hajiya Rahmatu Musa is also a hardworking and intelligent housewife who makes sure she gives the best love and good upkeep for her loving children.
Garba emanated from the family of seven including his dad and mum. Saifullahi Garba (popularly known as Lil Sayf) is a very good and close brother and friend to the Garba II who has now become cynosure of all eyes. Another very important person in the life of Garba is his best friend and sister, Nusaiba Idris by name but he calls her Miss Nucy.
He claims to have been first prompted, motivated and influenced by his parents to set his foot into the arena of loving and having a strong passion for humanity and thereby putting happiness and joy on their faces and as well as the inspirations behind doing all the humanitarian services he does and is continuing to do more.
Garba gained the soubriquet and epithet Literature Guru for his much learning in Literature in English alongside English Language where he has been reading wide ranging number of pieces that shows the importance of saving and contributing to humanity. He often used to refer himself back to the spiritual realm that says, …if anyone save a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind… (Q5:32).
Thus, talking about his extracurricular and hobbies, Garba, is fond of Reading, Research, Writing, Tourism, Photography, Swimming, Horse Riding Music and Making Friends.
Garba’s Educational and Professional Training
Garba attended the famous Benevolent Academy in the year 2008, for his Primary education, and thereafter proceeded to the Arrayhan International School, Kano, Nigeria to obtain his Secondary Education and is currently in the final class, writing his Senior School Certificate Examination popularly known as the West African Examinations Council/West African Senior School Certificate.
Garba is a very fast learning, hard working, deft and sagacious young intelligent chap, his wisdom and sagacity has been coming to the limelight all through his days in school.
It is not a surprise that he had inherited the profound mind, intelligence and encyclopaedic predispositions from his parents and that is what Temple (399) and El-Masri seems to ascribe to Fulanis when both of them claim that the Fulani generally have a high reputation of piety, intelligence and learning; indeed Barth asserts that, they (Fulanis) are, the most intelligent of all African tribes (110-111, & 115-116).
In an attempt to validate these hypotheses, Garba has been among the best and leading pupils both during his primary and secondary school days; for instance, he has been a class representative (or monitor) for his colleagues right from the Basic 3 up to his stay in SSS 3, first term; he has been representing his schools in numerous Debates and Quiz Competitions quite a number of times both within in the length and breadth of Kano city, the neighbouring states and as well as the country at large.
He has maintained his position of been the best of all the students in all the schools he attended and had served as the school head boy thrice. Right from his juvenile age, Garba was endowed with humanitarian proclivities which generated lots of challenges to him from both his school teachers and even some of his colleagues.
Citing from his past experiences, Garba often remembers the perceptions and attitudes of some of his teachers out of deep abiding liking they have for him in relation to his passion to add value for humanity and as well as promoting his humanitarian services which they considered as some forms of threats and distractions to him.
He used to quote some of them as saying, many a times my teachers used to show me that all my humanitarian works are waste of time and distractions to me.
In the same vein, some of my colleagues used to inform me that, master so and so said that you are no longer a genius since the time you began advocating towards restructuring and improving the lives of Almajiri Children.
To make matters worse, there was a time I was told that one of my teachers had said that all my humanitarian works are nothing rather than a means of gaining fame and generating lots of popularity and as such, it is nothing but a glaring show-off (riya).
But all these presumptions and many other more according to Garba, only increased me in faith and sense of courage and motivations that what I was actually doing as at then is surely going to come to the limelight sooner than later; that was what I kept on telling self anytime I mocked or criticised.
What keep on baffling me was, while I am commanding a lot of encomiums, comments, plaudits, and commendations for the kind of social works I am doing but why is it that my teachers keep on asking me to stop it (during Online Interviews on Thursday, December, 2019).
Moreover, that kind of spirits of positivity and pragmatism in me, keep on reminding me that a festering incurable ailment (like the pangs, torments and distresses the pauper, needy, orphans, Almajiri children and the like are undergoing in their daily lives) requires a dissecting surgical approach for suitable medical application.
That was what exactly I aimed at doing; my dream was to form a strong team of young minds with discerning minds, very enthusiastic, having strong desire and passion to change the world by bringing positive changes in to it (world) and provide basic necessities of life to the destitute, orphans, Almajiri children and so on, to be able to get food to eat and places to sleep like every other child in the world.
Also, I aspire to take them from off the streets and make them change from bad to good and add value to their lives by taking them back to school and provide them with basic knowledge and skills to be able to fend for themselves in order to be self-reliant he said.
This was his first and most important dreams and aspirations he ever had in his life he claimed. Garba’s passions and desires to touch people’s lives was aggravated when he was 12 years of age, he experienced the kinds of agony, grief, and distress that a certain good friend of his was going through as at then, in spite of his minor tendencies in age, he was flabbergasted and dumbfounded until when his parents began to notice his bizarre and unusual actions, reactions and receptions.
After sharing his thoughts and experiences about the predicament situations his friend was undergoing at that material point in time with them, he started challenging his families, relatives and even extended the challenges to his friends, associates and any other person that might come to his way to start thinking and planning on how to raise some humongous amounts of funds in order to touch and add value to the lives of those destitute, vulnerable and susceptible minds and as well as every other person in distress he may come to across with.
In no distant time, Garba started collating and gathering the data of all the those targeted people around his vicinity, which he was very curious to present and show it to every person he come across, particularly those who he thinks are ready to render assistance to them.
His reasons for showing people is not farfetched, he didn’t show them to expose or make them a thing of contempt but rather meant to convince them (benefactors and philanthropists) to come to their aid by taking swift and quick actions and reactions to help the people in question; but that seems to be an excise in futility with no much positive impact recorded at all.
As a young student, Garba has passion and abiding like for writing, particularly writing od Articles and Poems which he think can assist him to bring his aspirations of becoming a professional writer to life in future to come; he has written wide ranging number of articles and poems which he considered to be very useful and beneficial particularly to his people and as well as the generality of mankind.
He was also a onetime musician who was able to receive an Award presented to him by the Kano State and was sign out of music the same year. Talking about his social profile, the young Garba is a young public speaker and a graphic designer by profession; he used to designs and makes fliers, handbills, billboards, posters and so on, to earn his living which in most cases he spent the hard-earned money in charity work and assisting those in need.
As a Social worker, human developer and humanitarian personality, he is the founding father of the Young Support Foundation that has now become a global network for assisting humanity particularly those young minds who are said to be the leaders of tomorrow; he is a member Kano Youths Ambassadors; he also founded “A Day with Orphans,” first launched early this year at Kano, as the name implies, it is a day described by the general public as the best 24 hours of euphoria and happiness in the whole lunar or calendar year; he was also recognised, selected, honoured and awarded as the Nigerian Youngest Activist, and the Third World Youngest Humanitarian Personality, 2020 respectively to mention a few amongst others.
Influences on Garba
Kano, the headquarters of Kano State of Nigeria is a cosmopolitan town of many ethnic, races, colour and religious groups and affiliations. It is a Centre of Commerce which its pleasant physical and climatic features offered attracted most people from different parts to the world to come and settle their in Kano.
A city, blossomed by business and all other commercial activities is taken place, a city where you collate refuse and recycle them in exchange for money. Although a Shariah-based state, Kano has a record of much liberty and freedom of association and expression which makes the city good, favourable and accommodating for all and sundry to live in regardless of religion, tribe, gender and colour one may be having; Kano has remained to be the focal point of commercial activities and a meeting point where virtually all the tribes of the federation of Nigeria is fully represented.
Tradition demands people to unite and come together to achieve a set goal(s), it is on this note that the little Garba has met with different categories of people who had implanted indelible impacts in his life both inwardly and outwardly and/or directly and indirectly, be it in the social, economic or intellectual facets of his life.
First and foremost, he claims that both his biological and spiritual parents and relatives were said to have influenced him; notable among those who couched, mentored and assisted him in both academia that had opened his eyes wider and guided him which was later applied to his journey in the realm of humanitarian services.
One of the most important and distinguished personalities he so much respect is his English tutor, whom he called Sir, Abubakar Muhammad. This lovable loving and personable personality has really contributed immensely towards the development of my moral, social and intellectual facets of my life he said.
Other notable important personalities who had written their names on indelible sand of Garba’s book of history were the Proprietor of his prestigious Arrayhan International School, Father Saleh Adamu Kwaro, Mr Salman Yahya, we call him Master, our amiable Class Master and an indefatigable Mathematics tutor who had done so much for me to like the subject he offers by simplifying and breaking all the complexities and intricacies inherent in Mathematics, despite all these technicalities and simplicity he employed while teaching me Mathematics, I still find it very difficult to understand your subject Mathematics – Sir, Please forgive me, sir! He emphasised and laughed!
Garba also claimed to have been influenced by Sir Umar Faruq (literature tutor), Miss Maryam Shuaibu (Manager), and Miss Hadiza Sulaiman (Best Teacher) and host of others among his spiritual parents.
While sharing the principal factors that led him into and becoming very active in doing humanitarian services are; after noticing and observing his strange receptions and reactions after having understood the deplorable conditions his friend was when he was 12, his parents shared the personal experience they had with him, particularly on the kinds of trials and tribulations they had during the time he was born, on hearing this kind of shocking and appalling story underwent by his parents, alongside the experiences he had heard previously.
Garba thought over and over again, and lated decided to take his destiny by his hands by making sure he change the narratives and make any other person feeling, undergoing or about to fall into or face such dilemma to get rid of it, and changing the world by making it a better place for every boy and girl, man and woman, young and all as well.
Garba’s passions and keen interest to change the world remain very sacrosanct as it is often depicts in his ideas, thoughts, philosophy, acts and deeds. For instance, in one of his speeches during a programme organised by Hajiya Aisha Lemu, which the Association of Model Islamic Schools, Kano State chapter selected him to represent his school at the National Pick and Talk Competition held in Kwara State, 2020, Garba stresses that, if we show love and care then we can move the world the way we decide and want it to be moved.
This is what I intend to continue doing until and unless I and my right-thinking brothers and sisters change the world by improving the conditions of orphans, Almajiri children, poor, destitute, needy, less privilege and those in distress he added.
High Points of the Social Development and Humanitarian Services
Garba was said to begin his humanitarian services and community development right from his early age and started from the nooks and crannies of his home base.
He began to experience the hardships and torments inherent in poverty from one of his childhood friends at the age of 12. This was when the feelings and spirits of helping were birthed and started growing in the veins and capillaries of his system and was ripe for cultivation in the near future. The fruits of such are thus what the world is experiencing from the impacts this young man continues making globally day by day.
At 14, Garba assembled some groups of his family members and friends alongside some of his neighbours together and formed an organisation aimed towards sensitising and creating Awareness to the general public on the nature, typologies and kinds of predicaments that Almajiri Children undergo through and particularly those who come from a very far place from their homes.
Although, he found it very difficult to organize it at first, particularly when some of his friends became despondent and stepped back in the course of setting and designing the template, Garba also became so dejected and disheartened too, but to God be the glory; his friends with discerning minds and with no dying spirits like Isyaku LMB, Muhammad Aliyu Yahaya, Nuhu Danladi, Naziru Abdullahi, Aisha and Salma Rabiu actually were the ones who stood by him and made him to keep hope alive until the program recorded humongous amounts of success.
He was said to have been supported by his parents both in cash and kind that were able to host over 30 participants and provided them with some fast food, snacks and soft drinks during the first and most important gathering he has ever organised in his life.
Ever since his humanitarian works began to thrive and flourish from the community level, extended to the national and now begin to be spread all over the global.
This kind of swift and quick metamorphosis attracted the attentions of the world and made the little Garba the cynosure of all eyes in the eyes of the entire world and recognised him as a supporter and benefactor to orphans and Almajiri children.
Looking at his humanitarian services and community development, Garba has educated, fed, clothed and took more than 275 Almajiri children to various recreational places across the far and wide northern Nigerian region.
He has also assisted and supported more than 3000 orphans in both social, financial, moral and intellectual aspects of their lives globally; which earned him global recognition and honoured as the third Youngest Humanitarian Personality in the whole world recently.
He has carried out so many humanitarian and community development services regardless of tribe, religion, gender and national inclinations across the length and breadth and centre of the northern region of Nigeria.
As young intelligent person, who aspires to become a public, career mentor and motivational speaker, Garba had organised different kinds of seminars, conferences, symposia and workshops for quite a number of different NGOs within and outside the city centre of Kano.
Out of his indomitable and inquisitive minds and dispositions, he has been invited for interviews by different media houses, radio and television stations to share his ideas, thoughts, philosophy and opinions on how to build confidence and creates some spirits of self-employment, self-development, entrepreneurial skills for personal development in order to compete with all other youths in those developed nations of the world.
Garba has also been volunteering and enjoining other people to do the same in many charity based organisations and as well as social and community development organisations.
He is also fame of been a donor to so many charity organisations from the little he earns out from his sweat, and as well as to all other poor, needy and vulnerable members of the society that come to his way directly or indirectly. I always describe him as a person that is having not ordinary blood flowing in his systems but rather the blood of humanity.
In 2018, Garba began to organise public speaking and career mentoring to the young minds particularly the typical street boys and girls who lost any kind of parental love and care orphans and/or even those suffering from the agonies of abdications of parental rights Almajiri children and the likes of them.
He used to share most of the aspirations he has down inside his mind and as well as started to execute some of his main and important projects at the slightest opportunity he get in contact with, these and many more has been the stepping blocks for him to be describe as social and human developer of high repute both here in Nigeria and globally.
To cap it all, Garba shared his story on his social media handles on how he spent his recent birthday, on the September 9th, 2020 with the comfort of the eye for him orphans and young children, instead of celebrating his birthday with his friends, this young intelligent chap just went ahead and celebrated it with a group of 10 young from the list of the database he had generated for them.
What actually caught his fancies and made him very elated and joyful was the fact that one of the boys that celebrated the birthday with the celebrant, who was staring at the cameraman, was asked what do you want to become in future? And he replied I want to become a medical doctor. And the celebrant asked him again, why? He replied I want to be helping, rescuing and saving the lives of the people having critical health challenges and that was the career of my late father, the boy added.
Garba went further and further and shared the lessons he learnt from the children, when he asked them one after the other on what they aspire to become in future. One of the boys carrying a bottle of a soft drink (Lacasera precisely), threw back the question at him saying, Kai mai Ka ke so ka zama a rayuwa? Meaning: what do you aspire to become in future? in English. I replied, I aspire to become a humanitarian all through my life.
Then a girl seated next to me named, Zainab said, Ni ma irin ka nake so na zama, meaning: I want to become a humanitarian like you too. In English. He cant measure the intensity and magnitude of his joyfulness, delightfulness, gratefulness and fun he had when celebrating with these young children he emphasised over and over again.
Awards Received
Garba is a multiple Award-winning personality and recipient; he had received quite a number of awards of excellence and honours by wide-ranging organisations to include; Kano State Youngest Musician of the Year 2018; Zazzau Emirate Writers Association, who gave him Award of Excellence towards Community Services dated March 25, 2020, Nassarawa Youths Association, the Nigerian Association of Poets, Time Person or Mr Personality of the year, Kano State Youngest Musician and Humanitarian in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Among many recent honours has been the award of the Third World Youngest Humanitarian Personality.
The Project s and Methodology of the Garbas Reform
- Need to Reform and add Value to Almajiri Lives’
One of his important and leading projects he has carried ever was titled: Need to Reform and add Value to Almajiri Lives,’ aims at changing and improving the conditions and lives of the Almajiri children particularly those who lost parental love and care.
The celebrated Need to Reform Almajiri Lives had attracted the attentions of media houses and felt the need to sent their correspondences to cover, capture and air it across to the world.
This high sense of reputation made him a Talk of Town, among both his well-wishers who consider him a leader and his enemies who seems to make him their topic for criticism.
His fame, popularity and the global influences he is making day by day let the Palito Media and Cool FM to name him as the Father of the Masses.
- Educate the Almajiri Child to compete with every other child in the world
This project titled: Educate the Almajiri Child to compete with every other child in the world, is a program which Garba targeted to educate 80 Almajiri children from his locality; he started the literacy classes with the targeted population as he intended, alongside some of his associates who used to assist him in carrying the lessons.
He has fixed classes for English, Mathematics and other important subjects. The classes were able to stand the test of time only for a month and was put a stop to it due to some factors both internally and externally.
He has been trying his possible best to revive the past glory but all his efforts seem to be an excise in futility. Anyway, he is still working towards bringing it back to life he said.
- Make Him Rich
This project with the theme: Make Him Rich, was also organised by Garba, aimed at creating job opportunities by making Almajiri Children and Orphans self-employed and or small scale entrepreneurs.
He had faced so many stresses, challenges and difficulties on locating some individuals or groups of organizations of entrepreneurs to volunteer and key in into this program and thereby teaching, couching and mentoring the young minds to have a good future of people with discerning, positive and great minds with lots of initiatives and reduce overdependence on government for employment.
What actually motivated and made him elated was the fact that 30% out of a 100 entrepreneurs and factories he visited and solicited to be giving him some slots to engage the targeted people into becoming self-employed and entrepreneurs in future agreed and were able to grant him such request he made.
Thus, 4 Almajiri Children were employed and taught how do factory works whereas 2 orphans were taught on how to run and carrying out some small scale businesses and entrepreneurship.
I feel super elated and delighted whenever I remember or see those small scale entrepreneurs who have now become shop owners running their businesses without difficulties or hindrances and the other working in the factories were also earning and living a good life.
- A Day with Orphans
This program with the theme, ‘A Day with Orphans, was a program founded by the young Garba in collaboration with some Nigerian based NGOs and was launched in January, 1st 2020 in the Kano city centre and is aimed at providing comfort and solace for orphans and particularly the typical street orphans who lost parental love and care.
It was first targeted at taking out 25 street orphans to the special places of dreams by eating and drinking varieties of food and soft drinks together, playing games, riding horses, swimming with them in order to catch some funs with them.
Garba saw the need and importance of extending his tentacles to other parts of the world and or globally; Nigeria being the headquarters and the origin of the program, it has also now expended to the Federal Republic of Ghana, Niger, Uganda, India, Pakistan, Algeria, Somalia and Australia.
In one of the interviews Garba had with some Television channels and radio stations, he expresses his joyfulness, happiness and gratefulness over his ability to be spending his whole day in the midst of orphans, he says,
This is the best day of my life (smiling! Smiling!! And smiling!!!), we spent the whole day enjoying ourselves with these poor young children, we ate together, we drank different soft drinks together, we played together, we visited so many places of their dreams they have been wishing to visit in their lives.
You have observed and noticed the kinds of happiness springing from the faces of these young children; I guess this would be the best day in their lives ever. From what many of them said, I was the first and only person to pick them up from the street and take them out (Laughing! Laughing!! Laughing!!! ).
There one girl that said, Kifi na gaji ka goya ni in ji Maimuna in Hausa, meaning, Maimuna send me to you, that you should back me I am so tired.’ So you see, from this statement, you can describe the kind of euphoria and happiness that is coming out from these children’s faces. As you can see I have no word in my dictionary that could describe the kind of ecstasy at this material point in time because…
It has also come to my notice that this young change maker has set different template on a wide ranging number of projects that is yet to be come into limelight and will be release out for public consumptions sooner than later if God So will and wishes.
I want to conclude this way, I have a dream that the world is going to be a great with the kinds of visionary young minds like Garba, who are trustworthy, compassionate, selfless, sacrificial, effectively gets work done through others, and are endowed with excellent persuasive ability.
Also, we really need to come together, unite, accept our differences, learn to assist and accommodate one another, we will indeed experience a bright, hopeful, promising, fruitful, prosperous, remarkable, productive and beneficial future in no distant times to come.
Written by:
Abdussalam Ibrahim Abubakar,
(+234)7038896364/070859854654
abdussalamibrahim458@yahoo.com
ibrahimabdussalam19@gmail.com
Team Lead, Young Support Foundation, Plateau State, Nigeria
THE ROTTEN FISH: CAN OF WORMS OPENED OF APC & TINUBU'S GOVERNMENT OVER NIGERIA'S ECONOMIC DOWNTURN
WATCH THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND KNOW THE RESPONSIBLE PARTIES TO BLAME FOR NIGERIA'S ECONOMIC CHALLENGES, WHILE CITIZENS ENDURE SEVERE HARDSHIPS.Watch this episode of ISSUES IN THE NEWS on 9News Nigeria featuring Peter Obi's Special Adviser, Dr Katch Ononuju, 9News Nigeria Publisher, Obinna Ejianya and Tinubu Support Group Leader, McHezekiah Eherechi
The economic crisis and hardship in Nigeria are parts of the discussion.
Watch, leave your comments, and share to create more awareness on this issue.
#9NewsNigeria #Nigeria #issuesInTheNews #politics #tinubu THE ROTTEN FISH: CAN OF WORMS OPENED ...
DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS FOR SUBSEQUENT UPDATES
#9newsnigeria #economia #economy #nigeria #government @9newsng
www.9newsng.com