Nigeria's Afe Babalola's Donation of 10 Million Pounds to Kings College, London: Questions Arising

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Why should a poor man donate money to a rich man?

Question inspired by thread of post on Chukwudi Iwuchukwu's Facebook wall

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Is Afe Babalola really a rich man?

If most people around you are poor, financially poor, poor in access to social and material infrastructure, to good roads, quality health care, electricity, ease of access to communications and information systems, among other fundamentals of modern life, can you really be rich, no matter how much money and property you acquire for yourself?

Why should such a poor man donate the little he really has to a rich man?

10 million pounds!

Will that money  transform King's College, London, taking it to the level of Cambridge or Harvard, for example? 

Babalola is quoted as declaring that he is making the donation because “My contribution to this programme is a way of reciprocating what I benefited from the laudable and unique external degree programme of the University of London in the 1960s without which I certainly would have ended up an unsung farmer or at best the secretary of the local motor union.”

Does he not realize that he used that external degree programme because the opportunity did not exist in his own country?

Afe Babalola is described as owning a university in Nigeria and as contributing significantly to various Nigerian universities. 

What is the global ranking of his own university? Is it equatable to King's College, London?

The donation is meant to initiate and sustain

The Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education [ enabling] young Africans to access education and opportunities which they would otherwise not be able to have.

 

… the new centre would offer blended and online programmes, and also offer post-graduate level modules which can be brought together to create professionally recognised qualifications from diplomas to master degrees.

 

[along with providing]  scholarships alongside other funding partners, to support interested and qualified students [ while developing a] bespoke programme for Africa …in partnership with the University of London and an alliance of leading African universities.

 

Why must such beautiful ideas and awesome funding be carried to the University of London, one of the greatest conglomerations of universities in the world, in one of the most prosperous cities in the world, in one of the most prosperous nations on Earth, while Babolola's Ekiti state does not feature significantly on any global development index?

Universities often have transformative effects on their environment. Imagine what such a powerful initiative could have done for Babalola's own university and its surrounding community.

How honest are we Nigerians, though, in the face of money?

The people managing King's College, London, are not hungry people. They can be counted on to spend the money for the purpose it is meant for.

Nigerians are currently struggling with a cash scarcity that has even led to the deaths of people. To what degree can we be counted on to use huge monies strictly for the purpose intended?

On Mon, 27 Mar 2023 at 22:01, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Why should a poor man donate money to a rich man?

Question inspired by thread of post on Chukwudi Iwuchukwu's Facebook wall

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