All you need to know about Yusuf Ali Literary Campaign Grant from 2012 till date

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YUSUF ALI LITERARY CAMPAIGN GRANT FROM 2012 TILL DATE

culled from :http://punchng.com/social-media-killing-reading-culture-yusuf-ali/

Barrister Yusuf Ali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is a man of many parts. Apart from immersing himself in his law practice, which is his first love, the man is passionate about reading and writing

He is also one of Nigeria’s newest authors and his book, titled Anatomy of Corruption in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Solutions, underscores the fact that corruption has wreaked much havoc on the country, its polity and every pore of the Nigerian society.

Today, Ali’s passion for literary promotion and development has found expression in his sponsorship of some of the key programmes of the Association of Nigerian Authors, which is the umbrella body for creative writers in the country. For the fourth consecutive year, for example, the author and philanthropist has provided funding for the annual ANA/Yusuf Ali Literary Awareness Campaign, ANA/Yusuf Ali Creative Writing Workshop and ANA/Yusuf Ali Short Story Writing Competition for higher institutions in Benue and Kwara States.

Explaining, in an interview with Punch correspondent, why he is so driven to support the activities of the Association of Nigerian Authors financially and to promote literary creativity in the country, he says, “Any perceptive person knows that the awareness for literature and its development is very low in this country nowadays. A lot of things have taken away the people’s appetite to read or write. Many Nigerians no longer pay attention to literature and the need for a robust reading culture.”

An opportunity to do something about the situation eventually landed in Ali’s laps and he had felt immensely relieved. He says, “While I was interacting with the past leadership of ANA sometime ago, the idea of providing sponsorship for a literary awareness campaign in the country came up. I think we should all pay attention to any type of campaign that will promote reading and writing.”

UTILIZATION OF THE FUNDS BY ANA SINCE 2012 TILL DATE

2012 -2014

In 2012, all state chapters of the Association received sub-grants, at various times, between 2012-2014, for local literary awareness campaigns involving secondary schools across the country.

2015

In 2015, the grant was applied by the then National Executive Council of ANA to host a workshop on fiction writing in Abuja in which about 25 students, drawn from tertiary institutions across the country via a competitive process, participated.

2016

In 2016, the Denja Abdullahi-led National Executive Council of ANA took the literary awareness campaign a notch further by focusing on innovative literary awareness campaign among tertiary institutions across the country through the state chapters.

2017

The grant was used in 2017 to publish three children’s literature titles under the Nigerian Writers Series (NWS), which have been distributed to chapters of ANA nationwide to power ANA ‘s A-Book-A-Child nationwide project that was flagged off at the association’s 36 th International Convention, which held in Makurdi, Benue State, in October, 2017, and the Phase 2 of it launched by the wife of the Governor of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, at the 37 the International Convention of the Association held in Ikeja, Lagos, last year.

2018

The 2018 grant was deployed to facilitating a comprehensive media supplement on the projects executed with the yearly grants over the years and an intensive workshop for 15 selected chairmen of ANA chapters focusing on “Innovations in Contemporary Literary Awareness Campaigns” to deepen the execution of the project in the coming years.

2019

The association under the national leadership of Mallam Denja Abdulahi has devolved the fund to some selected state chapters of ANA to carry out innovative and cutting edge literary awareness campaigns in their domains as contained in the capacity building workshop held in Ilorin in 2018

ABOUT YUSUF OLAOLU ALI SAN

Yusuf Ali Esq.; SAN started his early life by been enrolled in a local Quranic school and in a formal school in 1960. After his primary education, he went to a secondary modern school for three years, he worked briefly before he gained admission to Ibadan Boys High School, Ibadan, where he passed his school certificate with grade one. He was the labour prefect .

He again worked briefly as a clerical officer in the old Oyo state Ministry of Finance as a tax officer posted to Igboora in 1977.

He gained admission to the University of Ife, now (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) in 1978 and graduated with a 2nd Class Upper Division for his Bachelor of Laws degree.

He was a winner of the prestigious Federal Merit Award for undergraduates and a University Scholar while an undergraduate at Ife. He attended the Nigerian Law School, where he also passed with a 2nd Class Upper Division

About a decade after graduation, Yusuf Ali went back to his alma mater for his Masters programme which he completed with flying colours in 1991 when he bagged his LLM. He was appointed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria in 1989, as a Notary Public

He attained the highest professional honor at the Nigerian Bar in 1997, when he was conferred with the prestigious and honorable title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria , S.A.N. Yusuf Ali has been in active legal practice for over three decades.

He joined the law Firm of Adegboyega Awomolo & Co in 1983 and rose to become a partner before he left to found his own law firm in June 1994.

He is the Principal and Founder of the Law Firm, Yusuf O. Ali & Co, Ghalib Chambers, with offices at ILORIN, Lagos and Abuja with Ilorin as the head office .

Yusuf Ali SAN is a member of many professional bodies such as:

1. Nigerian Bar Association
2. International Bar Association
3. American Bar Association
4. Commonwealth Lawyers Association; among others.

He has won and conferred with many fellowships such as:

1. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, (FCIArb) (UK).
2. Fellow Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) (Nigeria)
3. Member Chartered Institute of Taxation Nigeria (CITN)
4. Fellow Society for Peace Studies and Practice (FSPSP).
5. Fellow Dispute Resolution Institute (F. DRI)
6. Honourary Fellow, Nigerian Minning And Geosciences Society.

Yusuf Ali SAN also served and is still serving on boards of many Companies and Institutions. He was the Chairman Kwara State Law Reform Committee. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Al-Hikmah University Ilorin. He was the pioneer Chairman, Council of Public Defenders Kwara state. He is the Chairman Board of Directors Apex Microfinance Bank Ltd

Yusuf Ali SAN held and still holds many professional offices including but not limited to :

1. Sole Judge of the Kwara State Local Government Election Petition Tribunal 1996
2. Member Kwara State Local Government Election Appeal Tribunal 1997
3. Life Member, Body of Benchers
4. Member National Executive Committee, Nigerian Bar Association
5. Former Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Nigerian Bar Journal
6. Former Chairman of the NBA Committee on the Rule Of Law
7. Pioneer Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association Section on Legal Practice (SLP)
8. Pioneer Chairman of the NBA Anti-corruption Commission.
9. News Letter Editor International Bar Association Committee on Damages and Negligence.
10. Member of Council, Commonwealth Lawyers Association.
11. Member Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers.
12. He is the Vice Chairman of the International Bar Association committee on Damages and Negligence.
13. He is a member of the NBA ILORIN Council of Elders.
14. He was co opted into the Council of the University of ILORIN in 1995 to probe the bursary of that university.
15. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the ILORIN Central Mosque.
16. Chairman Alanu Trust Fund of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.

Mr. Yusuf Ali SAN is a Patron and Legal Adviser to many professional and socio cultural groups all over Nigeria. He is also an Associate Lecturer, at the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin. He has delivered more than Two Hundred papers on different and diverse topics at various foray, including the International Bar Association Conferences, Commonwealth Law Association conferences , Annual Conferences of the Nigerian Bar Association, among others.

He had contributed more than 17 Chapters to various legal books and has to his credit more than 40 published learned articles in learned journals in the field of litigation, Commercial Law, jurisprudence , practice and procedure, constitutional law in local and international law journals. He had represented many state governments, high net worth Individuals, Corporate and Institutional Clients before all the superior courts of record from the high court to the Supreme Court in many landmark cases.

Yusuf Ali has been awarded more than 100 honours from within and outside of Nigeria. He is listed in the American Biograhical Institute's Who is Who, as well as in Nigeria's Who is Who.

A few of the over 100 awards conferred on him are:

1. Lifetime Achievement Award by the Governing Board of Editors of the American Biographical Insitute
2. West Africa International Golden Award for Excellence in Enterprise
3. Award of Excellence presented by AIESEC ILORIN
4. Award of Excellence as a Doyen of Legal Luminary in Nigeria by Nigerian Vogue
5. Special Award by FIDA KWARA
6. Award of Excellence by the National Association of Muslim Law Students, National Headquarters, Abuja.
7. Distinguished Personality Award presented by the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan
8. Merit Award by the Nigerian Institute of Management, Kwara State Branch
9. Award of Excellence by the National Association of Polytechnic Students
10. Award of Excellence by the Students' Union of the University of Ilorin
11. Award of Exemplary Leadership and Service by Rotary Club, Ilorin
12. Merit Award by the Ibadan Boys High School Old Boys Association
13. Merit Award by All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, Osun State Branch
14. Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award of 2010 Africa Legal Icon by All Africa Students' Union
15. Award by the NBA Women Forum for Immense Contribution and Activities to the Forum
16. Police Friendly Award 2009 by the KWARA State Police Command
17. Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award on Education Per Excellence/Icon of Societal Development by the West African Students' Union
18. Commander of Great IFE , (COI) by the OBAFEMI Awolowo university national Alumni.
19. Honorary Degree of Doctor Of Letters (Honoris Causa) of Al HIKMA University .

He is very passionate about philanthropy and using the vehicle of YUSUF ALI FOUNDATION of which he is the Founder and sole Financier so far, had intervened in many public institutions by donating:

1. A Twin Dormitary to the University of ILORIN.
2. An Eighty bed Hostel to the OSUN State University.
3. A Ten Bed Advanced Trauma Centre to the University of ILORIN Teaching Hospital.
4. Thirty unit ICT center to the Faculty of Law OBAFEMI Awolowo university ILE IFE.
5. Thirty unit ICT center to the College of Law, Crescent University ABEOKUTA OGUN state.
6. Endowment of the Crescent University College of Law Building.
7. Forty unit ICT center to the KWARA state polytechnic , ILORIN.
8. A brand new Kia Rio 2014 Model to the University of Ibadan for the use of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies of the university.

In the recent past, in order to enhance the work of the KWARA state police command, he donated a well equipped patrol van and some units of motorcycles .

The Yusuf Ali Foundation does a lot of other charity work like award of scholarships to indigent students in secondary and tertiary institutions both in Nigeria and outside, provision of wells and boreholes to communities, medical financial assistance to patients both within the country and outside and the development of literary awareness in secondary schools all over the country by entering into an annual sponsorship with the Association of Nigerian Authors.

Yusuf Ali is a well travelled man and has visited all the continents of the world for professional and educational purposes.

He has published many learned articles in learned journal and contributed chapters to many books.