I came across this article in the newspapers while reading today and as I’d usually do, I decided to celebrate this guy as one of my own BUSAYOAKANRO.COM Heroes of the year in relation to the CNN Heroes of the year. His vision on empowerment and passion about making it happen at no monetary cost to the beneficiaries fits in well with my definition of a true hero. Please enjoy reading.

Kuti Olarenwaju Peter, is a philanthropist. A Nigerian with a big heart, he lives his life striving to bring succor to people in the shackles of poverty and make their lives worth living. His consuming passion is to see that citizens are empowered to become self-reliant. To keep this dream alive, he said he has been channeling all his earnings and resources into training of youths on entrepreneurship and skills acquisition.

It is something the 32 years old graduate of electrical and electronics engineering who hails from the Ikorodu area of Lagos state has been doing for the past seven years.

Since he enrolled for trainings with the Junior Chambers International (JCI) in the 2000, he never looked back. Over 3000 Nigerians have benefitted from his programme of economic empowerment.

Peter who also holds a post graduate diploma on development, policy planning and administration said also that he engaged in training corps members for free over the years to prepare them to face the challenges of unemployment in the society when they pass out.

“I train and empower people on how to start their own businesses, that is entrepreneurship and personal development. I have done that severally for youths and National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) members. When they come to camp, they come with blank minds, they don’t even know what and what to do within the one year. And from my own experience I discovered that within that one year they can learn so many things in the new environment they’ve found themselves, but how they would go about it is always a kind of problem,” he said.

What Peter does is to put them through on what to do through training. Since February this year, he has set aside 45 minutes to one hour every Friday to train corps members on skills acquisition. The idea, he said is to drive them through their entrepreneurship ideas and help to deepen their knowledge and sharpen their skills for life after school.

He is elated by the results he has been getting since the programme started. Beneficiaries of his kind gestures, according to him, have continued to testify to the potency of the trainings on their economic lives. He said: “From the testimonies I get from the trainees, they have confirmed that the ideas are workable. Some of them, before they came into NYSC scheme have not been earning anything, they just get money from their parents. While they are on their own, the first three months, they would not get employed because they would not know how to manage their resources. They would not still have the feelings that they are already on the way to being on their own.”

In that situation, he said, Peter would tell to start a small business while they are serving so that after their service year, they would still run with the same vision at least, managing themselves and thereby continue to grow after their service year., and this has been wonderful, he insisted. As some of them started practising what they have learnt, a majority of them complained of incurring loses at the start. But Peter said he encouraged and taught them on what to do, adding that risk bearing was also a characteristic feature of entrepreneurship. Apart from Youth Corps members, secondary school pupils and youths generally from his free training programmes.

He said the fund he was using to execute the trainings was largely from the proceeds of his small business. He said he was also getting supports and contribution from his friends and family members, especially his mother, who believed in him and his vision to help the society. He insisted that he was not expecting any personal benefits in return for his philanthropic activities, adding that it was the greatest legacy anyone could leave behind after life on earth.

“One important thing is that whatever money you make, you still need to sow it back into the society. And I know that in the nearest future, people of goodwill will come to assist when they have seen the good works. For now, I sow money from the little jobs I do to empower the youths because empowering people is something I so much believe in. The gain I have in return for this is just the goodwill I get from the people and their testimonies give me satisfaction. There is much goodness in helping people and not being conscious always about what you will get in return. You never can tell, some of the people you’ve helped may still be the ones to help you when you are in need of help,” he said.

Observing that wealth is not everything, he said leaving a legacy is more helpful to the society. And Peter, the only meaningful legacy one can leave is the empowerment given to others. “It is the vision that other people can continue with after you have left this world. So when you amass wealth, you are busy thinking about yourself and not considering the society or touching on lives. As a result, there would be nothing to remember you of after you have left. So it is all about leaving legacy. If you want to leave legacy, you must definitely empower people,” he noted.

According to him, those who amass wealth are people who do not really have any vision, and would neither want to leave anything behind nor be remembered for any good they had done. On the other hand, he said, those who are most remembered after they had gone are those who assisted and empowered others who would continue with their visions after their death. He believes that nobody is too poor to affect lives positively. “Even if you don’t have much, you can sow into the lives of people and everything would work out well and the society will be a better place for all to live in.”

Peter is convinced that when this spirit has been imbibed by a greater number in the society, there would be very little margin between the poor and the rich. Heaping praises on Rochas Okorocha for choosing to spend his money on the poor, he said those who dismiss the gesture on the ground that Rochas is a politician miss the mark: “What of other politicians that have the money but are not doing anything with it, so what do you say about that? When you have money, touch lives. Create something that people can benefit from.

Do community based projects. Do things so that people can benefit from your good will.”

Through his organization, PETCOM Integrated Training Consult, the he trains people for free on soap making, hat making, candle making amongst others. For those skills which he lacks, he pays experts who have them to train his beneficiaries on them in order to achieve his dream of making his fellow youths entrepreneurs. “This is the best thing that will happen to any nation,” he said.