Influence, recognition God has given me, I’m usingto help others —Rufia Oseni, broadcaster, founder of Oseni Centre
Rufia Oseni is a television and radio broadcaster. He works with Arise TV as a news anchor and talk show host. He is the founder of the Oseni Centre, through which he physically impacts local communities and virtual reach out to thousands of young people in Nigeria. In this interview by KINGSLEY ALUMONA, he speaks about his humanitarian endeavours at the Oseni Centre and the kind of legacy he wants to leave behind.
As a busy and seasoned broadcaster, most people would be surprised, if not shocked, that you have time and interest in humanitarian endeavours. What inspired this passion, and how and when did you start implementing it?
I have always had a passion for give back. If you follow my trajectory — when I was on radio in Lagos, I am still on radio till date on the VOP, I had platformson most of my shows where we give back. We help raise money for surgery and the like.
But after my father died in 2022, that propelled my passion for humanitarian work. I felt the need to do something concrete back home. So we decided to build two centers, a library and outreach centre, where wewould reach out to people through medical outreaches and the like.
The Oseni Centre sounds unique, in the sense that it is attached to your name. What is the mission and vision of this centre? Which pressing society problems does it aim to address, and which categories of people does it cater for?
I attached my name to it because it is my family’s name, my heritage. Our mission and vision is this: We cater to the less privilege in society with the aim to get them out of poverty into prosperity.
We do most of our work through empowerment and education. Through the library, we cater to people in Odogbolu and its environs. We organise debate programme for schools. We also have the training arm,which is basically online training, through which close to 10,000 people have registered for our training programmes. We train them on soft skills, digital skills, and artificial intelligence (AI), including a graduate work scheme, to get them ready for the job market. There are also business and SMEs outreach, where we give people the opportunity to advocate and advertisetheir businesses through my online pages. We also have the medical outages through which we reach out to people with various illnesses.
We aim to bring people out of pain and penury into a place of grace, health, and wealth.
Tell us more about the work you do at the centre, especially as it relates to recent community initiatives?
So every year we do many outreaches. Last year we did a dental outreach, and we did two other medical outreaches, where we reach out to people suffering different diseases. To organise these outreaches, without incurring burden on us, we do a lot of partnerships. So last year, we partnered with the University of Lagos Dental Students Association and the dental club of the university to help us with dental procedures. We did other medical outreach, where we did blood pressure (BP) test, tuberculosis test, and other tests.
And we also partnered with the Aziz Botali Foundation. So we did that, and we provided data care for, I think, close to about 100 people in Odogbolu. We also partner with April Clamsia Foundation wellness and grace, where we got kids clothes and toys, and alsodid their April Clamsia awareness for women.
We also organise debate programmes among the schools in Odogbolu and its environs. Last year we did it for secondary schools, and we are thinking of doing it for primary schools there, to add it to the next year’s initiative we would be doing. Then, we have the online aim where everybody benefits. Across all my social media channels, we advertise free trainings. This year, we are partnering with Glow Till to provide AI training for young Nigerians, because AI is the future. We also provide workplace development and graduate scheme training, with partnership with Genza. We do a lot of partnerships.
Can you walk us through the planning process for your recent outreach? How did you decide on Odogbolu in Ogun State for your project? Why not Abeokuta, the state capital?
Odogbolu is my hometown, so it takes priority first. I am the son of the soil. However, people who benefit from what we do at the Oseni Centre are not only in Odogbolu. Like I said, we have had close to 10,000 people from many parts of the country who have register for most of our online and AI trainings. So,every part of the country benefits from our work. We only have our centres in Odogbolu, and it has been a blessing to many people.
And as regards planning, I do not do it alone. I have people who sit on the board of the charity. And we plan through the process, and we have accountability. We have plans to be able to meet the challenges of organising outreaches, deploying resource and logistics.
What motivated the centre to partner with the Babcock University Medical Students Association for this outreach in Odogbolu and what kind of health services were offered?
These are things we normally do. I was talking about last year, our dental outreach that we partnered with some dental students from University of Lagos. Through our partnership with Babcock University Medical Students Association over 323 people in Odogbolu benefitted from the outreach. We did BP, blood sugar, general body checks and other vital checks for people.
How does the centre plan to assess the impact of this event on the community, and what are your hopes for the outcomes?
We assess the impact of the event by looking at the after effect on the lives of the people. We have increasingly seen people that we have empowered in the community make reference to what we have done through our medical and community outreaches and sensitisations. We have seen people present medical cases in the hospital because they now know about the case through the medical advice our doctors gave them. Many people have benefit from our business outreaches through our advertising channels that have helped their businesses. They have gotten more customers, just like people who benefit from our online training scheme.
What challenges did you encounter in organising and executing the outreach, and how were they overcome?
These are many challenges we face, but we surmount it by the grace of God and through partnerships. We areheavy on partnerships. People on the board of my organisation are my accountability partners. We make donations towards our cause. On the other hand, we are lean on resource, but leverage our partnerships. That is how we are able to cushion financial gap of most of the things that we might need for our outreaches.
How has the Oseni Centre’s approach to community support evolved over the past three years? Are there any key milestones you would like to share?
There are many key milestones. The debate programme, for instance, is something that is highly sought after. We have about five schools assist. We also installed Starlink internet and made provisions for digital learning for the kids in Odogbolu community,especially as they plan for their examinations. Many of them come to the center to use the library. We also put some funds for scholarships, especially for people inhigher institutions.
Funding and state support are difficult to come by for most Nigerian NGOs. How do you get funding for your work? And how do you want corporate organizations and the Ogun government to support the work you do at the Odeon Centre?
Like I said, most of the funds are raise internally from people on the board, but we also leveraged a lot onpartnerships. For instance, we have had pharmaceutical companies partner with us and give items and products. For the debate programme, we are leverage partnership and volunteerism to scale through.
Are there plans of extending the scope and reach of the work you do at the centre to other parts of Nigeria? Where do you see the centre in five years?
Yes, definitely. In five years, we see the Oseni Center doing great work. We have already extended the scope,even worldwide, through most of our online programs.We know that the logistics of our getting centers everywhere in the country might be probably difficult.
So we extend it worldwide through online platform and partnerships. There is something we also do — prison outreaches. I was part of some prison outreach couple of months back when went to the Ikoyi Prison to speak to prisoners and did some things for them there. We also work with a foundation called Icon of Hope Foundation out of Suleja and Abuja, where we gave them media support and also helped them raise funds for their work. We also partnered Icon of Hope to do an outreach in the eastern part of the country.
We leverage a lot on partnerships to scale.
To what extent has your pedigree as a broadcast journalist impacted your humanitarian interventions? And what kind of legacy do you want to leave with the Oseni Centre?
My pedigree definitely has helped enhance the conversation. A lot of people do what we do. It brings a level of agency to what we do. The legacy want to leave behind is a legacy of reaching out to the other person. We are not perfect. There is a need in all of us. Nobody has it all. But if we can try our best to meet theother person’s need, then we would have solved manyproblems in the world. Problems are there to be solved, and is capacity to solve them.
So, if I had the influence, and be in the position to solve these problems, I feel excited. That is the privilege God has given me. I think the influence,fame, and public recognition God has given me is to be able to help another man out there. And, if I cannot do it, then I would have failed God. Then, the question I would ask God is: Why did you give me the fame if I cannot use it to help the other person? That is the essence of the foundation of all that we have done.