Touching people’s lives comes naturally to multiple award-winning philanthropist and businesswoman Princess Rosemary Osula Mku-Atu.The epitome of beauty and scion of the Osula royal family in the Benin kingdom, has impacted several lives positively through the Rosula Foundation, the non-govermental organization she formed to put smiles on the faces of the indigent in the society.
And she never gets tired of giving hope to the hopeless, of giving succour to the downtrodden, of quenching the thirst of the masses. It was for this reason that Osula Mku-Atu was honoured recently as the Grand Patron of the International Student Film Festival, ISSFS.
Dr Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, founder of the ISSFS, said Osula was unanimously selected by the Board of Advisers headed by Prof. Backleys Ayakoroma, due to her giant strides and monumental services to humanity.
To add another feather to her distinguished cap, she was also, recently, the recipient of the Oodua Influential special Recognition Award, OSRA.
The organizers of the awards ceremony described her nomination as a reward for her meritorious services and selfless efforts toward supporting the Oodua people and their heritage.
Indeed Osula Mku-Atu’s double recognition did not by any means come as a surprise. Variously described as a business mogul, a role model extraordinaire, an educationist par excellence, she has over the years demonstrated uncommon selflessness and charity through her various philanthropic interventions in various sectors of the society.
She is a study in perseverance, courage, ingenuity, vision and the quest to realize humanity’s noblest and vital aspirations.
She is also determined to help fight poverty with education through Rosula Foundation’s scholarship programme that provides opportunity for indigent students to study in private Nigeria Universities. Till date, hundreds of brilliant young kids that would have been out of school are graduates in medicine, engineering, law, and other sciences.
Her intervention has received accolades both within and outside Nigeria.
Osula Mku-Atu’s acts of charity are legion. For instance in the educational sector, over 500 indigent students of Igbinedion University Okada are beneficiaries of the Rosula Foundation “My Dream Scholarship Programme.’ The various scholarships that were provided them have seen many of them though the university, while others are still benefitting from the programme.
In a similar vein, the foundation is sponsoring 21 students at the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti; 48 students at Mkar University, Mkar-Gboko, Benue State; as well as 61 students at Crescent University, Abeokuta.
A very distinct feature of the scholarship programme is that the beneficiaries cut across the various disciplines and not limited to Medicine, Law, Engineering, Pharmacy, Nursing, etc. And most recently the foundation has entered into similar partnership with Wellspring University, Benin City, Benson Idahosa University, Benin City and KolarDaisi University, Ibadan.
The Rosula Foundation Scholarship Programme, is by no means her only intervention in the universities. The Rosula Foundation is currently interfacing with the Igbinedion University Okada (I.U.O).
The Rosula Foundation and the university are currently in a partnership towards the establishment of the first ever Executive Business School in Southern Nigeria – The Igbinedion University Okada _ Rosula Executuve Business Sshool (IUO-REBUS) – for the awards of doctorate degrees in Business Administration The curriculum and style of lecture deliveries is second to none amongst Universities in Black Africa.
As at 2022, the Memorandum of Agreement (M.O.A) was already in place, and the building complex for the School near completion, for the eventual take-off of the programme.
Still, not done yet, the Benin Princess is not limiting her charity works to only the education sector. She has gone beyond that. For instance, the Ogida Police Mobile Barracks in Benin- City was given a face lift, when a massive twin structure was constructed there.
Four other existing blocks at the barracks received the much-needed rehabilitation, providing them with two industrial bore-holes, perimeter fencing, and comprehensive solar lighting, all courtesy of the Rosula Foundation.
The project was commissioned by Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, who was represented by His deputy, Philip Shaibu.
The indigenes of Edo State also benefited immensely from the palliatives that Osula Mku-Atu distributed through her foundation, throughout the three senatorial districts of the State, as a way of alleviating the sufferings of the citizenry, during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Her foundation has also spent millions procuring and distributing food staples like rice, beans, garri, noodles, etc to the needy in the society.
The Rosula Foundation is also playing a very major role in creating employment opportunities for the teeming population.
No doubt, Osula Mku-Atu is indeed a role model. Only recently she was conferred with the prestigious Ambassador for Peace (AFP) by the Universal Peace Federation, an organ of the United Nations with consultative status.
She has also been the recipient of several awards and an honorary doctorate degree.They include :
Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration by the Crescent University, Abeokuta, October 2021; The Vanguard Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2020; Global Excellence Communications Excellence Recognition Award, ERA 2021; Tell Communication’s 2020 Nigerian Women of Distinction and Across Africa Distinguished Leadership and Development Award 2020; Fellowship of Chartered Institute of Cost Managers of Nigeria; and on the 9th. of September, 2022, Wellspring University, Benin-City, gave her an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration.
Other awards include: Award of Excellence for Selfless Service to Humanity 2022, by Miss Corporate Nigeria (Beauty Pageant), the Niger-Delta Most Outstanding Entrepreneur and Most Celebrated Humanitarian Of This Age by Edo Legacy Foundation Inc. Igbinedion University, Okada has also honoured her with a Doctorate Degree (Honoris Causa) in Management Sciences.