TAKE it or leave it, the predicament of the less privileged in our society today calls for concerted efforts from all and sundry to make life worth living for them.
It is an understatement to say there is hunger in the land. This may sound ridiculous to some few opportunists, but go down to the grassroots and see for yourself. You will be shocked to find out that the situation is very pathetic.
Though it is a general phenomenon, affecting both the rich and poor, but the magnitude cannot be the same. Those who cannot afford to feed at least should still be happy that they have life. However, it would be necessary for those who are opportune to look around and deliberately give to a neighbor who does not have.
The truth is that there are so many families out there that are unable to have a meal a day, not to talk of looking out for those luxuries of life. Nevertheless, let us make a radical departure and seek for the less privileged families around us.
It is common for people to shower those who already have enough with gifts, leaving those who really need such gifts to cater for themselves. We must change that mentality. When you patronize only those in your class, those who already have enough, because you want to impress them or seek for favour or you want to show you belong to a certain status in the society, you have not met the injunction of our lord Jesus Christ (Be your brothers keeper )
Let us change our approach to solving issues, and we can be better off when we meet the needs of those who really need our assistance. We know the economic recession has affected every one, including those who have enough for themselves, while the downtrodden may not really feel the impact that much.
The economic recession has brought so much hardship and what we can really do is to pray that it does not continue for too long. We have seen how the application of wrong prescription by non-professionals has made the recession to persist this long.
Some came in as doctors into the macro-economic management of the country and are giving the tools of medical doctors to advice on how to solve the problem of recession. Some came in as carpenters and they are using carpentry tools to advice on the problems of economic recession, some came in as engineers and they are using their tools to advice on how to address economic recession.
They have not allowed the professionals to do their jobs. They have not allowed the professionals to provide the direction and when it was obvious that the nation was slipping into recession if urgent steps were not taken, the warnings from professionals were not heeded.
So many factors brought us to where we are today and they include Nigerians penchant for imported goods and an absence of export culture as well as the corruption in high places.
There is no doubt that corruption is really an issue in Nigeria today, just as it is in other advanced societies. It is seen as the root cause of Nigeria’s underdevelopment and has been identified as the reason for capital flight from the nation, which has resulted to the hardship we are all facing today.
With the revelations made so far, and the magnitude of corrupt practices by mostly public officials, stealing from government coffers and depriving the people of their entitlement, we can now appreciate the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration focus on corruption.
We have heard how some critics have condemned the administration’s efforts towards hounding those who use their positions to enrich themselves to the detriment of the masses and the nation.
They have opined that since assuming office in Aso Rock, no meaningful achievement have been recorded, rather than the fight against corrupt men and women who have bleed the nation dry to the despicable situation we now find ourselves today.
It is instructive to note that the corruption war is to recover back what has been stolen from the nation and it is their expectation that the money will be injected back to the economy. What will interest the common man on the street is how the country can bounce back on its feet and life return back to what it use to be some years back.
Even though it will not happen in so short a time, the Federal Government and other government agencies should be interested in what happens to the masses in the society.
With the huge sums of money that have been stolen away from the coffers it is only by the grace of God that Nigeria is still surviving as a nation. The reality is that if we do not tackle corruption with the aggressiveness it deserves, corruption will grumble the nation and the people will continue to suffer.
That is why everyone should be in support of the corruption war and sincerely join the crusade. Let us be our brothers’ keeper and align ourselves with the downtrodden who have been victims of corruption in high places.
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Eubaldus Enahoro is Assistant Editor with the Nigerian Observer
