The last weekend in June was unprecedented for Bauchi residents. For two days, the 15,000 capacity Abubakar Tafa Belewa Stadium was overflow with fun-seekers and visitors from within and outside the country, who came to witness among other activities, a novelty match between discovered football talents and some top African ex-international stars. In this interview, Noah Dallaji, founder/president, African Children Talent Discovery Foundation (ACTDF), organisers of the event, tells OBINNA EMELIKE his vision for youths, why event success signals safety in North-East, among other gains. Excerpt:
How safe is the North-East at the moment for business?
It is safe for business, and I guarantee you that. After the exciting event that pulled the highest crowd in the country after a long while, you cannot blind any body’s eye that the zone is not safe.
There were no personal security for anybody, people were on the road in Bauchi 3am-4am. When we arrived Bauchi for the event that day, I did not go to my village, which is about 1:30 journey until 3am. I waited for everybody to settle down before leaving and people were shuttling between Bauchi and my village 3am without any incident.
When we were coming from the stadium, the boys followed us and the car broke down, we were there for almost half an hour. I had to go down and they had to bring a car to evacuate us. But no one complained of any issue rather people were comfortably staying in the bus. I have not received any bad report.
Some people even wanted to go to Yankari. But when Yankari Game Reserve opens up, we are opening business in the state.
Many have heard about Yankari and want to come, but are afraid, they thought the North-East is like a war zone. But they have been here, seen and confirm that Bauchi and the entire North-East is safe.
Why did you host an event of such magnitude in Bauchi, which is perceived to be unsafe?
The general perception is that the North East is dead area and red zone. But we took the risk, against all odds, we went ahead to organise a programme that has never happened in the state before and pulled a crowd that has never gathered in the state before.
People came from different states of the federation, others flew in from different countries. For the three days the event happened, it was peaceful and people returned back without any incident.
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The fact that an event of such magnitude, world class organisation and participation from across the world happened for three days without any issue means that the North-East is not at many perceived it. Some embassies have reversed the impressions they have about the state; they are now saying that Bauchi is safe for business.
Again, those who are saying the country should break, have you seen the people in that stadium, they are people from all parts of the country-Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas, the country was fully represented.
They were there for one reason; they were excited without watching their backs. That is a testimony of the safety in Bauchi now and in the North- East.
How were you able to pull such a crowd, especially some top African sport and entertainment personalities to Bauchi?
There is no secret. It is all about having genuine intention about everything you want to do. If it was a bad intention, you will always get it wrong. These are people we have been working with and they believe in the cause we are pushing.
No right thinking person will not believe you if you are impacting young people. The problem we have today is that young people lack platforms. But if there are platforms they will use their energy for positive things. Again, if you carry people along and they know that they are incorporated in a thing, they will not start behaving anyhow.
All these people who are causing trouble are intelligent, someone who has the sense and intelligence to commit crime, can use it positively to impact the society. But they cannot impact without a platform. So, these are the platforms we are creating where they can showcase their talents and use them to benefit the country.
How long has the platform been?
The talent hunt is in line with the mission statement of our organisation. The only thing is that we have not been exposing the sports angle. We have been doing other things like entertainment and that is why you are seeing many top entertainment personalities around. We have been working with them for a long time. But now we are beginning to go into other areas like sports.
We have adopted two Olympic athletes. One is going to do Taekwondo, she is a lady called Blessing, and the other is going to do 100 metres race. Now it is football. One of the football stars was telling me that there are opportunities in Europe, and that these upcoming ones can become better than them if nurtured in sports academy and that gladdens my heart and that is the primary reason we are in Bauchi. The novelty match is just part of the excitement. A country can get back to its feet by incorporating these young people. Nigeria has not seen such as an event in a long time and it happened in the North-East without any incident.
How has the event impacted Bauchi and North-East?
It has impacted the entire country. People from other African countries and even in America watched the event because it was live on NTA, TVC, Arise, Radio Nigeria, among other media platforms. You cannot claim ignorance of the event; it has changed the narrative of insecurity in the North East. Again, the event was announcement over a month before it happened on major media platforms and posters were pasted everywhere, yet it was peaceful. So, it is a promotion for Nigeria. Peace has returned to the North East and businesses are set to fly again.
Were there collaborators in the event?
This is our initiative of the foundation. I hope the private sector will now see and say lets us partner to move the country forward because it is a legacy that will remain forever.
The question now is, are we going to be doing it in Bauchi? No. We will be changing states across the country. It will go round the country to make sure people from other parts of the country are impacted. A lot people came from different parts of the country to grace the event in Bauchi, one of the beneficiaries is from Imo State. So, it is not about Bauchi or North East.
I am so glad that the event happened in Bauchi successfully, without any incident, people were entertained and empowered, and a proof that North-East is not a dead zone area.
People kept calling from Taraba, Adamawa and other parts of the zone congratulating me and saying that so something positive can happen here. Why not, good things will always happen here, we are safe now.
Jay Jay Okocha told me, chairman, it is only you that can bring me to Bauchi. He left South Africa to be in Bauchi for the event, and he is going back on Sunday. He said chairman, I cannot say no to you.
Kanu Nwankwo was going back to London to join his family, but he has to wait to attend the event, Hadji had to come from Brussels, Steven Appiah was in the studio for the ongoing Europe tournament, he abandoned it and came.
They believe so much that something can happen and they came. You can see the result.
What is it about you that is drawing high net worth personalities to you?
It is all about having a vision and letting people believe in your vision. This is enabling me to contribute my quota to youth empowerment, peace and national development.
Again, you have to live with people in peace. You have to respect and honour people. The moment people know that you respect and honour them, I don’t think there will be an issue.
For instance, the ex-international football stars told me that they did similar novelty match with bigger stars in the world for the President of Benin Republic last year, but the crowd was not up to 1000 people. They even had a gala night and the president was sitting down there and that they have never done any novelty match and see bigger crowd like in the Bauchi event.
They said when Ronaldo retires from football, he cannot pull this crowd for his testimonial. Those who we invited and couldn’t make it, watched the event and regretted not coming because of the excitement and huge crowd.
How are you going to sustain the event?
All we wanted is to give these youths a platform. Now, we have discovered few of them, we will make sure they will be sent to football academy. When they get to the academy, it is up to them to take their lives seriously. When you are good, nobody will turn you down, even the academy. They have opportunity and need to take advantage of it. One player sent me a text message saying that now I know that my ambition of becoming a player has come to realty, some people are watching me live and I was talking with these stars, and look at the stadium I am playing and people watching me. He said, he would do everything to make me proud. So, it is up to him now.
How many talents did your hunt discover during the event?
About 36 of them.
What other areas of talent discovery are you pursuing?
We will do basketball, entertainment such as music, dancing, comedy, acting among others. You know that what some youths need is to hear a word from someone and their lives will change. We want to use our platform to speak that word that will change lives in Nigeria, turn youths away from crime and encourage them to use their energy on positive impacts.
What do you want to gain at the end of the day?
I am not in this for any selfish gain; rather I am fulfilling a vision of empowering and lifting people from poverty. By doing so, I am also helping to engage many hands positively and discouraging them from going into crime. All I desire is that when these ones we are empowering become stars and able to stand on their own, they should also help others too.
When is the next event happening and where?
It is a legacy. I was with a governor recently and he asked me to organise the event in his state this August. I told him that I will not be able to do so because his own is political, while ours is a legacy. I told him if you genuinely wants to do it, allow us to do it separately, we will call it a different name and not legacy because legacy is done only in a year, and such programmes are not easy to organise. We do it yearly so that it will be on record and people will know that it is a serious programme.
