​MM INVESTS IN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH EDUCATION

The day dawned particularly brightly on January 28, 2017, for the members of 

Ilorin Emirate Youths Development Association (IEYDA). 

As they gathered at the Palace of the Emir of Ilorin for the 2017 

Empowerment Programme of their association, everything seemed normal on the 

surface.

However, one guest’s appearance at the event heralded the unusual for all 

that were in attendance. 

The Special Adviser to the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki on 

Intra-Parliamentary Relations, Protocol Matters and Special Duties, Hon. Mashood 

Mustapha (fondly called MM) was the guest; the beneficiaries of the unusual gesture 

were students. 

It was an amazing moment when MM announced his intention to be funding 

the education of two students from secondary school to university level annually, 

starting from this year 2017. Two beneficiaries will be selected annually from the 

members of Ilorin Emirate Youths Development Association (IEYDA). 

Excitement of the people who were in attendance on the lifetime gesture 

peaked when he brought out a sum of One Hundred Thousand Naira to fund the 

acquisition of Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), Unified Tertiary 

Matriculation Examination (UTME) and preparatory classes for the two maiden 

beneficiaries of the award. 

Those who know him sufficiently attest to the fact that education, which is the 

bedrock of development and best legacy a leader can bestow on his people, has 

always been the biggest priority of MM. 

It is on record that as a believer in education and human capacity 

development, he had hundred of home and abroad scholarship students, 

empowerment and career job beneficiaries during his tenure as representative of 

Asa/Ilorin West Federal Constituency at the seventy House of Representatives, 

Abuja and as an aide to the Senate President. 

Some of those scholarship beneficiaries are still studying in some European 

countries till the moment. 

It is also an important educational achievement to count that Hon. Mashood 

Mustapha ICT Centre located at Hiwanu LGEA School, Kuntu Ilorin, has been 

catering for not only the people of Asa/Ilorin West but entire indigents of Ilorin 

Emirate since 2013 in terms of free internet services, computer training, online 

registration, CBT training and so on at “NO COST”. The centre has trained more 

than a thousand Kwarans on computer literacy. 

As a pride of Ilorin Emirate who is keenly interested in the development of his 

town through industrial and infrastructural development, he took time to pay homage 

to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, in his palace where the Emir 

prayed earnestly for him immediately after the empowerment programme.