…How He is Silently Giving Back to Society
Michael Collins Ajereh, famously known as Don Jazzy, has often been described as Nigeria’s Quincy Jones, the late American music maestro who was known to be the brain behind the stardom of such musical icons as Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, George Benson, the Brothers Johnson, etc, as well as the magic hands on the chart-busting We Are the World song of 1984. Don Jazzy, the 42-year old music producer with a Midas touch, fits the description, correctly. In addition to being a versatile producer, he is a singer, songwriter, movie actor and businessman.
Don Jazzy is credited with being the moving force behind the emergence and meteoric rise of Nigeria’s latest music sensations, Rema and Ayra Starr, among others. He has used the platform of Mavin Records, the music label of which he is the Chief Executive Officer, to contribute to putting Nigeria on the global music map through production of hit songs for a plethora of musicians, which are played in different parts of the world every day.
It would be stating the obvious to say Don Jazzy’s name is synonymous with music, ringing a bell across the African continent. He has a string of musical awards under his belt, including Nigerian Music Awards Producer of the Year 2006; Nigerian Entertainment Awards Music Producer of the Year Award 2007; The Headies Award of Producer of the Year for the Moon, Mr.Endwoed and Pop Something 2011; The Headies Award of Producer of the Year 2014 for the hit song, Dorobucci; City People Entertainment Special Recognition Award 2015 and The Beatz Award TM for New Discovery Producer 2019.
Music has not only brought Don Jazzy fame, it has given him immense fortune, with a net worth estimated to be about $73 million, as at 2025. He is reported to be among the richest musicians in Africa.
Almost everything that is known about Don Jazzy is related to the music industry and the string of successes he has recorded. But the Isoko, Delta State-born icon’s life isn’t all about music and the successes that have trailed him. He has another side that is relatively unknown to the public – philanthropy. It is a side Nigerians did not know existed. It would take a mystery donation from him to a noble cause to expose this side.
Martins Otse, the internet celebrity social crusader popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM) had, in October, 2024, solicited for donations from members of the public for his non-governmental organization for the purpose of carrying out charitable activities like provision of scholarship for indigent children in public schools and social amenities in some neglected communities around the country.
In order to preserve the integrity of the project and inspire public confidence in the process, he maintained the open-door and transparent process of regularly publishing donations and the statement of account of the NGO. He announced every donation that was made into the account which he kept in public view, from amounts as little ad N50 to the highest contribution. However, one donation that jolted him into hysteria was the sum of N100 million from an anonymous donor.
What made the donation worrisome to VDM was the fact that it did not only surpass what others were making, in terms of size, it came from a mystery source. All the other donations, no matter how little or big, came with the names of those who made them. Afraid that the money may have come as a bait from any of the anti-graft agencies bent on setting him up for prosecution, particularly the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or some people out to tarnish his image by exposing him to public ridicule, VDM raised the alarm that mischief makers were out to make nonsense of his genuine effort at helping the less privileged in the society.
But a brief message bearing the name of the donor solved the puzzle. “Good morning, bro (VeryDarkMan). I just saw your post. I’m the one who sent the ₦100 million to support. I believe in what you’re doing and trust you to remain as transparent as you’ve always been. We really need that in this country. I wish you all the best with the project and more blessings to you. It’s not easy.” The message was signed by Don Jazzy.
The message turned VDM’s worry and apprehension to uncontrolled excitement which he couldn’t hide in his response. “Wait, what? Don Jazzy? Jesus Christ! Don Jazzy. Bro, my God! You donated ₦100 million because you believe in me? Bro, I love you, man. Please, let me call you.” He offered prayers for his benefactor: “Don Jazzy, I don’t know what to say other than God bless you, keep you, and uplift you. I pray you get the greatest blessings of all time—long life and prosperity. I urge everyone in this comment section to bless him. ₦100 million is no small money, but he did it for the cause of improving public schools and for the younger generations to come.”
And then he made the official announcement of the donation: “Let it be known that on the 16th October 2024, this man named Michael Collins Ajereh, aka Don Jazzy, donated N100 million to give public school kids advanced education with the aim to give them a good educational foundation.”
The N100 million donation by Don Jazzy revealed to Nigerians two sides of him they did not know – his compassion and large heartedness. The gesture showed him not only as someone with empathy and public spiritedness, but also as one that forgives, regardless of the degree of wrongdoing. It came as a surprise that he donated such an amount to the same person that publicly criticized him when he made a donation of N4 million to crossdresser, Idris Okuneye, a.k.a. Bobrisky, when the latter came out of prison after serving a six-month jail term for naira abuse and money laundering.
Expectedly, Bobrisky took a swipe at VDM for accepting the donation from Don Jazzy after criticizing the same person for helping him in “her” time of trouble. “There are some people you should not drag. Don’t drag your helper,” Bobrisky advised VDM.
If Nigerians thought Don Jazzy donated the money to VDM for the sake of publicity in order to leverage on the latter’s popularity, they were mistaken. They were not in for another show of empathy and compassion from Nigeria’s Quincy Jones. In any case, in terms of popularity and celebrity status, Don Jazzy is light years away from VDM.
He demonstrated his public spiritedness again recently when he surprised a social media user with donation of an amount she could never have dreamt off. It all started when an X user, Mr. Whyte, asked fans to drop their account details and tag any celebrity of their choice to see if they would surprise them with N1 million. A woman, Popoola Ajoke Abidemi, tagged Don Jazzy to her account details. In his characteristic show of kindness, the music mogul sent N1 million into the woman’s account. However, on seeing the account balance the woman posted after the donation which he described as unhealthy, Don Jazzy sent an extra N5 million, to bring the total amount to N6 million. The gesture literally set the internet on fire, with fans asking for their own share of the largesse.
As would be expected, a grateful Abidemi showed her gratitude to Don Jazzy. “I’m deeply grateful for this extraordinary blessing,” she said, and added a prayer: “May the Almighty who used you to lift me up reward you beyond measure. May your hands never lack, your heart always be at peace, and your generations forever enjoy divine favour. Thank you, @DONJAZZY”
It came to light that the public donations were just a snippet of the charitable initiative that Don Jazzy uses his Mavin Records organization to do on a regular basis. They were public demonstrations of the milk of human kindness that flows in his veins, through the remarkable generosity that he has been showing silently without any form of publicity.
Don Jazzy has made it a deliberate policy to give back to the society by supporting various causes in the areas of education, healthcare and empowerment. He is known to encourage his friends and associates to show interest in helping the less privileged in the society, in line with his belief that you cannot be successful if you do not use your success to help others to succeed.
