TheCable

As a student of Pharmacy at the University of Ife (now the Obafemi Awolowo University), Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, OFR, actively participated in student activism.

He graduated in 1965 and was elected as the Secretary-General of the International Students Conference at their annual conference in Christchurch, New Zealand. He spent the next few years establishing student union organisations across the world. Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi is also noted for leading a delegation of several nations to visit the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon and advocate for a peaceful resolution of the prolonged Nigerian Civil War. He was later commended by General Yakubu Gowon for his service to the nation.

In 1968, he returned to Nigeria and established the popular JULI PLC (previously known as Juli Pharmacy Ltd) two years later. Juli Pharmacy would go on to be the first indigenous company to be quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

He continued his track record of selfless service by serving as Nigeria’s Health Minister in 1993, and as chairman, president, or executive on various boards, clubs, associations and organisations such as the Oodua Investment Conglomerate, the Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy, the Rotary Club of Ikeja, Nigeria, and several others.

Despite being a fully trained and practising pharmacist, his versatile mind and zeal for learning took him back to the University of Lagos to study law until he emerged as the best graduating student in the class of 1987 – aged 47. As a lawyer, he has used his skill in the service of others, providing pro bono legal support to prisoners and underprivileged people. In an interview with Funke Olaode of This Day Newspaper, he talked more about this, saying:

“I went back to the pharmacy later but still kept my pro bono legal service particularly where people are suffering such as prison. Some inmates have been there for more than 10 years without being charged to court. So we visit the prison, take up their cases to see if we can free them. I have been doing it for over 30 years and I am still doing it. I have tremendous fulfilment from the exercise.”

His commitment to serving Nigeria’s socio-economic development are so noted by all, such that in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari commended his outstanding support for several national and international developmental goals on the occasion of his 75th birthday.

“As the former Minister attains the milestone of three score and fifteen years, President Buhari salutes his unwavering commitment to the socio-economic development of Nigeria over the years and his outstanding support for several national and international developmental goals.”

Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi recently turned 80 years old, and in a recent interview with THISDAY, he explained that a life of service was second nature to him.

“I am wired to provide service in various ways which I am doing through various organizations that I belong to,” he said.

Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi currently serves as the Chairman of the MTN Foundation, the social investment vehicle of MTN Nigeria that has invested over N21 billion in various initiatives in Nigeria’s 36 states and FCT, with over 900 projects across the country.

Through the MTN Foundation, he has spearheaded initiatives that support education, health, youth empowerment, and helping vulnerable individuals, adding beneficial value to the lives of many. The foundation has installed over 40 500KVA transformers and 40 650ft boreholes in communities, consistently donates medical supplies to healthcare centres, and household supplies to orphanages and correctional centres, to mention a few projects.

As the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread in Nigeria, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi led the MTN Foundation to donate over 70,000 PPE items to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, and medical equipment to the Nigerian Police Hospital, Ikoyi to facilitate the delivery of quality health care. Through the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP), the MTN Foundation has also offered young Nigerian entrepreneurs with access to funding, training and mentorship opportunities, amongst others. Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi has also driven the MTN Foundation’s Anti Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP) to lead conversations about the increasing prevalence of drug and substance abuse among Nigerian youth, and creating further awareness among the demographic to prevent first trial of drugs.

Under his aegis, the MTN Foundation has supported Nigerian schools and students in diverse ways. The Foundation has donated furniture, digital libraries to secondary schools and refurbished many educational facilities from primary to tertiary level. The MTN Foundation also supports the education of thousands of Nigerians through the MTN Scholarship Schemes. The scholarship schemes award 500 deserving full time Nigerian undergraduates (with a separate allocation for blind students) with annual scholarships worth N200,000 per awardee. This scholarship is given to each awardee from when they win the award until they graduate from the university.

To display its commitment to investing in youth education, and in commemoration of Prince Julius’s 80th birthday, the MTN Foundation has renovated and fully equipped an e-library at his alma mater, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).

The donation included the refurbishment and handover of 50 desktop computers to the e-library, which has been named the Juli Library, after Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi.

In explaining the thought behind the donation, Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi, said the infrastructure was donated to grant OAU students easy access to books that will broaden their scope of learning, adding that empowering young people with the right education will lay the foundation for a formidable future in a digital world. He said:

“When it involves providing adequate infrastructure for students to access quality education or enable them acquire knowledge through reading and exposure to diverse educational content either physically or virtually, we have become completely invested in making those possibilities a reality. This is because education especially for the youth is a priority for us at the MTN Foundation; we believe that empowering young people with the right education will lay the foundation for a formidable future in a digital world.”

The Chairman of the MTN Foundation handed over the refurbished library to the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede via a virtual handover ceremony on Thursday, July 30, 2020. Professor Ogunbodede praised MTN’s donation, saying,

“This gesture will accelerate students’ learning process as well as bridge the knowledge gap in subject areas where textbooks are not readily available. On our part, we appreciate the MTN foundation for digitizing our library and expanding the learning scope of our students with ICT, we are committed to set and implement sustainability measures to prevent cases of vandalism and mismanagement.”

For students of Obafemi Awolowo University, this upgraded library will be a welcome addition to their school’s infrastructure. Through this library, they will have access to a wider range of books and resources to support the education of their minds and boost their academic performance.