Thursday, May 4th, 2023, mark the 57th birthday of Barrister Kenneth Imansuangbon, former governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State in 2020.
Barrister Imansuangbon is a visible political figure across the acclaimed heartbeat state (Edo). But for those who may have not heard much about him or have never met him it is suffice to say that the philanthropist who is also an educationist can best be tagged as an enigma.
His Pacesetters Group of Schools situated in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has over the years produced scores of high breed individuals who today are reference point in their endeavours.
Barrister Imansuangbon has worked assiduously to regenerate the high standard obtainable in the Pacesetters Group of Schools in students of other schools spread across Edo State by organizing a highly successful yearly schools challenge programme whose intent was to fish out talented and highly cerebral kids who are thereafter encouraged to do more by way of gifting them highly qualitative modern day educational gadgets.
For more than a decade, Barrister Imansuangbon solely sponsored this programme which was made open to secondary school students from all over Edo State.
Alongside this Barrister Imansuangbon also initiated his own unique empowerment programmes which included the sharing of bags of rice in large quantities in major localities of the 18 local government areas of Edo State every Christmas season, an action that fetched him the sobriquet, ‘the Riceman’ which till date has stuck to him as an insignia of the much love and appreciation that the people have for him.
The question on every lips during the Christmas season is “which date is the Riceman going to share rice and other form of empowerment this year?” As it is a programme that he keeps close to his heart and has never defaulted on for the over a decade that it commenced.
One thing that is very noticeable is that ‘the riceman’ is not known to mark his birthday elaborately as some influential personalities would prefer to do. Rather, he diverts the huge sum that would have gone into marking his birthday to purchase truckloads of bags of the staple food, rice, which are shared on the streets and in the market places where nobody will be hindered from accessing the sharing unlike when the resources is used to organize a birthday party probably at a location that will be out of reach of individuals in the hinterland.
Worthy of mention is that over the years during festivities like the Easter and Christmas season the gates to Imansuangbon’s imposing mansion in his Ewohinmi homestead is opened to all and sundry whom he host in their large numbers to feasting and jollification.
Beneficiaries of Barrister Imansuangbon’s large heart of rice sharing during the Christmas cut across social strata, ethnic groups and religious leaning as both the poor and the rich are given equal treatment in the sharing process which in some instances extend to a week of daily movement from location to location from dawn to dusk.
Imansuangbon’s love for humanity which he has continued to demonstrate over the years also include visits to different hospitals where he offsets piles of bills incurred by patients most of whom if not for the timely intervention of the riceman may as well be abandoned to their fate because of unavailability of funds to clear their huge bills. He also pays calls at the numerous orphanages scattered across Edo State where he doles out huge amounts of money and valuable materials aside from bags of rice for the upkeep of the less privileged and deprived inhabitants of the facilities.
As 2024 is around the corner the supplication of the retinue of those whose lives he has touched in many ways with his unique way of giving to the society even as they sing happy birthday chorus for him is that he be rewarded by been voted in as the governor of Edo State which will no doubt be an avenue for him to do much more.
Solomon Odianosen wrote from Lekki, Lagos
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