A good man and true

Adam Musa's charitable nature and modest demeanor have won the hearts of colleagues and students

Adam Musa's week begins with a crowded two-hour bus ride for a flag-raising ceremony at Chunmiao primary school, a compound of old classrooms for the children of migrant workers on the outskirts of Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province.

An hour later the young Nigerian steps in front of a room full of expectant students, some of whom recently organized a dance exhibition for their teacher that moved him to tears.

The dance represented the spirit of Lei Feng (1940-1962), a soldier idolized across China for his selfless and modest actions. It was special to Musa because the students call him "foreign Lei Feng".

"I know Lei Feng, he is a good man. Everyone should learn from Lei Feng," he says.

Born to a family of diplomats in 1985, the second of nine children and the eldest son, Musa grew up bearing heavy expectations, not least that he would become an ambassador like his father, who was made Nigeria's ambassador to Canada in 2007.

In 2008 Musa was picked by Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study in China for a master's degree in sociology. With ambitions to become a diplomat he then went on to study for a doctorate in international relations at Central China Normal University.

Musa's bond with China was solid after so many years in the country and became even stronger in January this year when he won 250,000 yuan ($40,700) in Community Heroes, a televised competition aired by China Central Television, in which people compete to win money for charity.

Musa's prize money will soon be used to build a computer classroom and multi-media lecture hall at Chunmiao school.

It's not the first time Musa has raised money for the school. In March last year he set up "Adam's special scholarship" there using 5,000 yuan he had won on a similar televised game show on Hubei TV.

"I just want to give these children hope. Hope is the most important thing in our lives. I don't want them to give up their hope," he says.

While he gives money to the school, Musa himself leads a frugal life, according to friends, eating simple food in the school canteen, wearing cheap clothing and rarely taking a taxi.

"He has always been a very honest, simple, happy and obliging person since I got to know him a long time ago," says Liang Wei, deputy secretary of the Youth League Committee at Central China Normal University.

Musa recalls how his involvement with the school began in May 2010, again during a television show. During the show he found children from Chumiao school warmed to him, calling him "black uncle".

The school principle then invited him to visit the students and some time later, after a long bus ride, the hopeful young man found himself touring the school grounds.

Musa was pleased to be there but shocked by the badly equipped classrooms and poverty of the surrounding village, and, eager to help, offered to teach English.

It was a tough job to begin with because the students' level was low, but Musa broke through any barriers that may have existed by making his lessons among the liveliest in the school, with a mixture of speaking, gesticulating and drawing.

"I liked him at first sight," says Chen Ying, the school's head. "He made eye contact with the children very quickly."

Musa's teaching methods proved effective and now he often has to hide in his office before classes begin to escape groups of pupils wanting to talk to him. They also text him regularly asking about his life and send him greetings cards and boxes of sweets.

Many schools in the area do not have a foreign teacher and Musa believes the students at Chunmiao feel privileged and proud that they do.

Musa's charity work goes back to Nigeria, where as an undergraduate he taught at a school for children whose parents had moved away for work.

Musa says the motivation for that and for his work at Chunmiao is interest and love.

Last March Musa was among 42 foreign students who organized a "foreigner Lei Feng volunteers team" with the aim of taking "action for public good". Those actions have included recruiting 105 foreign students to donate blood to Wuhan Blood Center and visiting nursing homes and orphanages.

Last year Musa was rewarded for his good deeds with the 2011 Hubei Province Man of the Year Special Award and this year he received the 2012 Ten Stars of Social Work award.

His charity work has made him something of a celebrity in both China and Nigeria, but according to Musa he is just trying to follow in his father's footsteps, "to be a good man, do good things and stay with good people".

Zhou Lihua in Wuhan contributed to this story

Contact the writers through hanbingbin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/19/2013 page29)