Guinness Record: Alkali distributes 4, 000 packaged food to Gombe community

The Contestant for Guinness World Records who targets building a six-to-eight metres World’s Tallest Packaged Food Tower, Mr. Alkali Jonah Musa, has distributed about 4, 000 packs of food to the children and people of Bangunji village of Shongom Local Government Area of Gombe State.

The food distributed were those meant for building the food tower, which unfortunately could not be built during the first attempt, due to the weather, which affected the plastic containers and could not stand.

Alkali was meant to have erected the tower to beat the 3.37 metres record achieved by Heinz Africa and Middle East FTZ and Majid Al Futtaim, both in Dubai, the United Arab Emirate.

According to Alkali, the first attempt did not succeed, but that he still had one year within which he could achieve his goal, because he had received the approval from the Guinness World Records in December.

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He was determined to break the record, despite the challenge he encountered saying, “I understand the problem and now that I understand the problem, I feel the problem has been solved. The problems are the packs and the packs are now very flexible, simply because of high temperature.”

Alkali said because the challenge was traced to the flexibility of the containers, he was re-strategizing to get stronger and rigid containers that could withstand any weather condition, saying he will come back strong and fully prepared to break the record.

The 31-year old graduate of Fisheries Technology from the University of Maiduguri, said the food stuff used for the preparation of the food, with all classes of nutrients, were all sourced locally within Gombe State, hence getting them would not be a challenge.

He is presently undergoing his Master’s Degree in Social Works in the University of Georgia, United States of America, due to his involvement as a social worker.

“Being a Social Worker simply means coming up with an ethical way of fighting for humanity, advocacy, inclusion and diversity. These are the ethics of social work and because of that, we want to advocate for these people, so that they can get quality nutrients, quality nutrition and then they can have what is required for themselves,” said Alkali.

Alkali’s mentor, Mr. Maina Laban Binus, a retired Civil Servant who is involved in community development, said Alkali was one of the products from community development and that the challenge he had taken was one amongst other challenges in the past.

Mr. Binus said breaking the Guinness World Record would not be an exception for Alkali.

According to Mr. Binus, he believes so much that Alkali will eventually succeed in breaking the record, which will also put Gombe State and Nigeria on the Global Map, thereby projecting the positive feat being recorded by youths in the country.

He said he believed in Alkali, because of the so many achievements he had attained, as well as opportunities that had been given to him by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, to travel round some countries and carry out Youth Empowerment Programmes.

Mr. Binus said the present challenge before Alkali would not escape him, because he believed that Alkali’s comeback would be successful.

Dr. Agom Dauda Ibrahim, who is the Coordinator of the Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni Association of Nigeria in Gombe State, in which Alkali is a member, said the attempt by Alkali was a bold step beyond inspiration, because his courage in taking up the challenge was a big achievement in which so many children were fed.

“The goal, of course, would have been to achieve it. But as he mentioned in the beginning, that’s the secondary goal, actually. The primary goal is to create awareness on the need for food security in Nigeria and especially to be able to feed these young ones who are also leaders of tomorrow,” Dr. Ibrahim said.

He said the primary goal of the programme had been achieved with the feeding of so many people in the area.

Dr. Ibrahim also said sourcing the food stuff from within was a great achievement, which was also sending a signal that Nigeria could comfortably feed itself with highly nutritious foods, if citizens could think outside the box.

He also said another goal of organizing the programme was to encourage others to take up such tasks, because after sharing with their alumni, they were equally encouraged to be solution and change makers in their various communities.