What we hear in Nigeria and read on the internet and the mass media today are enough to cause anxiety and depression because some Nigerians have made life miserable for others. They careless about the fate of the nation and what happens to their neighbors.
To such people, the welfare of others does not concern them in as much as they can continue to live flamboyant lifestyles. To them, any other person can as well feed from the dust bin or preferably commit suicide.
It is obvious that some people prefer to celebrate those who areWealthy, irrespective of how they made their money. That is why some youths are so desperate to make money by all means and those at the helm of affairs loot and stockpile what they have stolen in and outside the shores of the country
While we try as much as possible not to wash our dirty linen in the public, it is necessary for opportune Nigerians, especially those entrusted with the responsibility to provide such services to strive to make life more meaningful for others.
If indeed Nigeria must regain its lost glory, we must change our attitude towards the acquisition of wealth. Let us reach out to others who are less privileged and not believe that the government must do everything. It is not wise for the road to your house is riddled with portholes and you are expecting the government to fix it for you when you can conveniently rehabilitate the bad portion of the road.
We all know that all fingers are not the same. When you are blessed financially, look out for what you can do that will affect the generality of people around you. The idea of having so much money you do not need or stockpiling them overseas for other nations to develop their society should be discouraged.
When you invest in the people or in the country, you are creating opportunities for others to have a source of livelihood. When you limit the numbers of exotic cars worth several hundreds of millions of naira in your car park and you decide to provide means of employment for others, no matter how small, you are feeding and meeting the needs of families and contributing to the growth of the nation.
In the words of Amb. Dion Osagie, the founder and president of God Sent Foundation a nonprofit organization in Texas, social welfare is one of our biggest problems in Nigeria and he expects the government to create a platform where people can run to when they need help.
According to him, “another big issue is unemployment which has created a lot of social vices. When the unemployed are hungry, they get involved in crime. To fight crime in our community, we must have to create jobs. We must find ways to put unemployed youths on stipends.
“When people have hope they will get N5, 000 or N10,000, they will be happy and stay away from crime. But when there is no hope, the graduate who has been in the house for several years without a job will want to do anything to survive.
“A young person who graduated from the university and still at home for four years with no source of income, is a very big problem to the society and this is what leads to so many social vices. When somebody call such a fellow to take part in crime where they will make one million naira, such person is most likely to do it because he is hungry.
“It is very important that we find a way to create a source of income for the younger generation and the government can do it, through the provision of small soft loans. I have a lot of such proposals on my table, people who want to go into business can start with as little as N1m soft loan. The loans should be given to creditable youths with a good background and with this they can employ three or four more persons.”
On the security challenge in the country, the American based Entrepreneur believes that the security votes that go to each state monthly, should not all be used for ammunitions and hiring of more security personnel. But rather the government should invest part of that money on youth development, because security issues are increasing every day. This will be able to create employment for the youths.
While noting that health care facilities are also in very poor condition in Nigeria, he disclosed that a girl who came to his office in Nigeria had surgery last month for fibroid that was in her stomach for over six years. But, sadly after the surgery, the doctors left some of the stitching materials in her stomach and she was sick for days, crying until he sent her for another surgery last week and it was discovered that something was left in her stomach.
“This is not right in this 21st century. It is insane for any hospital not to have 24 hours electricity. It is abnormal. I cannot think of it. More than 90 percent of new technology operates on electricity, but we are still using out dated technology in hospitals and we are not helping the issues.
“We have got to find ways to encourage the government to do more for the people. But not just the government, the religious groups, churches, mosques, individuals, everyone needs to contribute towards social welfare so that our people do not die untimely deaths any more.
“A lot of people do not understand the purpose of life. Most people think that life is about having so much money, but they forget that having everything is not life. But life should be about how many people you have touched. Success is not measured by the amount of money you have in your account, it is the number of people you are able to effect change on.
“Many Nigerians think that having 20 houses here and there is success. We have got to start teaching our people that success is not about how many cars you have in your drive way, but success is about how many people you are able to reach out to.
“That is the message we need to keep preaching so that many people will understand, because when they die a lot of things die with them. A lot of children do not even know the properties of their parents when they die. When you go to GRA today you will see a lot of abandoned buildings. Their children are either in America or far away from home and they are not ready to come back home. Let us start investing what we have in our people so that tomorrow can be a better day’ he added.
It is therefore necessary for those of us who have been guilty of this oversight to pray and ask for forgiveness. It is written in the scriptures that giving provokes the hand of God. Ask God to make you a giver who will extend acts of kindness to others and your community.
There is no doubt that giving towards social welfare of others brings joy and peace. Your creator who has given you life and all the good things you have today will reward you beyond your expectation.
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Eubaldus Enahoro is Assistant Editor with the Nigerian Observer
