SPOTLIGHT: Meet Usman, final-year medical student who started food business amid ASUU strike

By Jabir Ridwan

It was 8 am but the intensity of the heat from the sun had already gone very high as if it was noon.

Like every other day, Usman Abubakar Rimi was busy putting things in order for the day’s business at one of his shops in Sokoto metropolis. 

The 27-year-old is a final-year student of medicine and surgery at the Usmanu Dan Fodio University, Sokoto (UDUS) in Nigeria’s north-west. 

But since the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) commenced its over eight-month strike on February 14, Usman has been making the most of his time as a food vendor.

Usman hates being idle and that aspect of him is understandable. He has always wanted to own a business of his own.

For long, however, the rigours of school left him with no ample time to transform his dream into reality.

That changed when ASUU strike struck.

Speaking with CRISPNG, the medical student said with the profit made from the business, he has been able to sustain himself.

“I started this business due to incessant strikes in tertiary institutions. The latest of such which started in February has kept us at home for more than eight months. That informed my decision to start a business that I can be earning a living from for the time being,” he said. 

“As an individual, I have always wanted to own a business but due to insufficient time, I was not able to do that for long. With the prolonged ASUU strike, however, I decided to utilise it and run a small business’’.

Usman is already dreaming big. His plan is sustain the food business — which started barely three months ago — even after ASUU eventually suspends its strike.

“I have made proper arrangement for the business so that even when the strike is called off, it will not affect my academic activities,” he added.

The Katsina state indigene has continued to pull the weight of fame in the Diplomat area in Sokoto metropolis where his shop is situated.

Apart from his food selling business, Usman owns another shop in Wamakko Local Government Area (LGA) of the state where he sells bags, caps, among others. 

Though still a student, Usman is already solving one of Nigeria’s major challenge — unemployment — in his own little way.

He currently has about 10 people working for him across his two shops.  

“I am always happy to know that I am an employer of labour. Presently, I have engaged 10 people in my two shops,” he said.

Usman’s foray into business is a strategic move. He has no plan of backing out of his dream of becoming a medical doctor.

“I believe that in this trying time, there is need to have an alternative which is to run a business. As a man, I can’t rely on studying medicine alone,” he said.

With the business, the student has taken a huge financial burden off his mother, who retired from work in 2020.

“My mother retired from work since 2020 and have managed to send me money severally in the past despite her condition. But now, I pay my rent — which is about N150,000 — from the business.”

Usman’s strides so far was not by chance. It came through dint of hardwork and enormous sacrifice.

“I used to shun many activities as a medical student. There were times when I open my WhatsApp once in a year, that is at the end of every year after finishing my exam,” he said.

Admonishing young ones not to give up on their dreams, Usman quoted the popular maxim: “success is not final, failure is not fatal it is the courage to continue that counts.”

He added: “Don’t always sit down and wait for opportunity but create them.”