When the riverside Ilaje community of Isale-Akoka, Yaba Local Council Development Area of Lagos State got a gift of a block of modern toilets and baths, a borehole and the empowerment of 100 women, they were awestruck. Reason: such a gesture had never been extended to them in their almost four decades of settling there.
A community, which, in the words of its leader, Mr. Ikuejamoye Asogbon, has been long forgotten suddenly found their hopes raised through a gift which assured them that they truly existed.
The gift, which was extended to them by the Bayo Fatusin Foundation and facilitated by the New Canterbury Consult Limited, was meant to improve their lives through improved sanitary condition and the provision of potable water.
“You would not know how happy we are today, considering what God has used the Bayo Fatusin Foundation and the New Canterbury Consult to do for us. We have had series of failed promises in the past from both politicians and the so-called philanthropists, who come in different guises and colours. They would come and take photographs and promised to return. But they never came back,” Mr Asogbon said.
In an exhortation before the inauguration and handing over ceremonies of the block of toilets, borehole and disbursement of the interest-free loans to the women, the General Evangelist of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor John Kalejaiye, said the foundation and the projects’ facilitator were not the ones that did the projects, but God.
“I appreciate the opportunity given to them for executing these projects. It is not the foundation, but God. I pray that God would continue to work with him,” he said.
He mentioned two categories of people; those always running looking for blessings and those that blessings always look for.
“There are two categories of people; those chasing blessings around and those being chased by blessings,” he said.
The second category, he said, are the people who go around blessing others with what God has given them and they are always blessed by God.
The cleric made a biblical allusion about a man by the pool of Bethsaida in the and how Jesus healed him after several years of neglect, even as he likened the community’s experience to it.
“There are places in Lagos looking for this kind of opportunity, but it came to Ilaje without stress. It has nothing to do with politics,” he said.
He added that vision without provision is like television. “You may have a good vision but lack the means to actualise it; it is meaningless; it is like a television set,” he said, urging them to come back to God, their Creator.
The chairman of the foundation, Mr Bayo Fatusin, in his speech, said the projects were executed to the glory of God. Quoting copiously from Psalm 41, he said: “Blessed is he that considers the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.”
Continuing, he said: “This is why we are here today so that we can key into that covenant. The word of God is God and God is His Word, and God can never change.”
He said the essence of the gesture was to tell members of the community that Jesus loves them. The foundation, he said, was borne out of the desire to touch the lives of the people positively and bring smiles to their faces.
“We are determined to win more souls for Christ through charity, eradication of poverty and hunger. Our targets are the widows and the less-privileged people, among others. We intend to make realise their full potential and become self-reliant.
“Our prayer as we dedicate, hand over these projects and give cash to the women, is that God be with you and give you the grace to know Him alone. If we rest our hopes on Jesus, we will prevail. There is nothing he cannot do just as he did for me,” he said.
He said the foundation has other areas of intervention. Some of them, he said, would be inaugurated next month in Ondo State and the Takwa Bay project in Takwa Bay, Lagos Sate.
“God has used us in the last 10 years to bless the lives of many Nigerians who are less-privileged. This we do through granting of scholarships, empowering them and putting foods on their tables. We always intervene in motherless babies’ homes, give aid to the needy and make our presence felt at the old people’s homes. God has helped us and we have to also bless others,” he said.
The high point of the event was the empowerment of 100 women, who, after weeks of training by New Canterbury Consult, were carefully selected as being qualified to benefit from the interest-free revolving loans payable within a year. The loans ranged from N20, 000 to N100, 000 depending on the needs of the beneficiaries.
