Grandpa Aminu Dantata’s Style

He does not like to talk about his style. And it is not because he is 88 years old. It is the way he has dressed for most of his life. He believes every single act depends upon its place within the entire philanthropy framework; just as every single block in a building derives its value when seen along with other blocks put together to hold up the building. He knows too well the danger of isolating a block and making it seem more important than the others when in reality it is just part of the whole.

Philanthropy is his style. He has kept faith with different offerings from that stable. Interestingly, his favorite designer is the talebearer from the camp of social needs. The anonymous character who beckons with the details, and engages unobtrusively, the rest of society with gaps and openings that require urgent attention.

In 1990, Grandpa had one of such encounters with his favorite designer. He had come to him with details of a challenge most business owners in Kano metropolis faced. These business persons lacked vital intelligence for taking their businesses to the proverbial next level. They needed experts to help expand their capabilities with more efficient tools and approaches to running those businesses. In his response, he made arrangements for all business owners to travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where for days, they were housed, fed and taught by many bright minds from the academia, and expert business owners themselves. Of course, he picked the bill for the entire exercise. But like already mentioned, this incident must be placed within context of the other acts, details of which remain in the file called anonymous, retained in the custody of the designer bearing the same name.

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