Daniel Usifoh: Education, shortest way to wealth.

Somewhere in the Niger- Delta,Southern Nigeria, precisely Delta state, a white storey stands, serving the various needs of the people of Agbor, in Ika South L. G. A of the state for years. This two-storey building, with its base filled with shelves of books, located along the popular old Lagos-Asaba road, stands like a
beautiful white stallion, welcoming
all to ride on its back.The library which began its life in 2005 with just 200 books, can today boast of more than 5000 books on its shelves. No wonder some run to it for the feeding, and
satisfaction of their hunger for
knowledge; others, for the practice and learning of entrepreneurial skill (weaving), to keep body and together; all at no cost.

Recently, Nwuliafrica had an exclusive chat with the man behind all these, in the person of Mr. Daniel Usifoh, a humanitarian, entrepreneur, and philantropist
who felt the need to give back to
his beloved Ika community what
God had given him.

What is Sunday Usifoh Memorial
library all about?

First of all, let's start with the brief
history behind the name of the
library. Sunday Usifoh (late) was
my father; a stark illiterate with
neither primary nor secondary
education due to the death of his
father at the tender age of six. But he was determined to fight poverty which he successfully did. He became a millionaire by all standard, and the first to
build upstair in my town, that got
him the name Sunday Uloenu
(upstair, he chuckles). He also made sure his children were educated, i am the second
son, and the first graduate in the
family. He also trained at least ten
persons from my town up to the
university level before he died
happily, including one Mr. N. E. Akpele, one of the pioneers of University of Ibadan, and father of the Accountant General of Delta state government, Mr.
Cyril Akpele. So the best way to
remember him for these past deeds was to name the library after him; Sunday Usifoh memorial library.
I also wanted to give back to the
community what God gave me, by
making the library available to the youths, the aged, teachers, and whoever that wish to make use of it. In other words, it
helps to get people out of the
street, to ignite that reading
culture, stimulate people, tell
people as my father told me, "that the shortest
way to wealth is through
education". I still stand by it; so far i don't regret it. I feel fulfilled that at any point in time, there are at least 10-20 people inside the library on daily basis. We have recorded in the past, 70 in a day. We have about 5,000 plus books too.

Coming to the Weaving section,
what has been the story about it?

Very discouraging! I have four
native weaving looms and one
mechanized, so a total of five. The strategy is to train a person, by my trainers, after three months i will give the person twenty thousand naira, threads and a
weaving loom, but i have not been
able to do that because people have not shown interest. Although i have three persons that are through with the program but are yet to be sent forth officially. But it will be coming up soonest. Again, due to low patronage, what is being produced is not sold.
I think lack of awareness maybe
the major factor. But i am not in
for profit-making too, that is why i am not too inclined to go for advertising it.

Any peculiar challenges in running
the library?

Yes. one is limited availability of
books, though recently we got 77
books from Lions' club int'l, Lagos
district. Two, the issue of power.
We run the generator for the most hours we are here. Third, pilfering of books by library
patrons. I have books borrowed
out but are yet to be returned.

Is there any plan towards solving
the challenges of the weaving
section, specifically the low turn out and patronage as a result of low awareness?

Yes, there is. Last Owa Iguonu,
which we never happened before,
we displayed our Akwaocha products. One commissioner came, and we took pictures together with the Akwaocha, but
she complained that the weaving of the Akwaocha is only encouraging Chinese economy, because the threads are from
China. I explored the idea of
Backward integration, i.e
encourage the local
cultivation of cotton by the natives, as well as provide a ready market for them. By so doing, one-third of what we generate will go back to our people. As a result of the above, i went to market, without carrying out a proper research and foolishly bought (shaking his head and smiling) ten thousand naira worth of cotton seeds, and planted it in my compound. At the end, i
discovered that these plants grow
with specific soil types, and comes
with species that must match it. An expert i spoke to also confirmed it.
Further research in the internet exposed me to the lots of species. Through Onu Ika (a socio-cultural group), i am trying to sell the
idea to the traditional ruler.

What are your future plans for the library?

One of plan is that ultimately, the
whole of this building will be Sunday and Daniel Usifoh memorial library, that is when i am gone; and am trying to
let my children to also understand
that too. Maybe at that time, they
can will it to the Local Government.
Right now, my focus is converting
the last floor into a library, in one or two years time.
The second plan is to digitalize the
whole library. Thirdly, a plan is already in place, put together by my children abroad, to ship in a container filled with books for the library. In addition to that,
the library was advertised in an
event in U.S.A., called "Agbor
U.S.A" few weeks ago. I heard the organizers encouraged Ika indigenes living there
to always come back with small
boxes, containing at least five to
ten books. This act made the library to go beyond Nigeria.

Thank you for your time, sir.

Thank you too.
1st pix:  Mr. Daniel
2nd pix: library, exterior.
Others: the interior of the library.