The Nation Newspaper

Tag: poor

  • Don donates cash, materials to the poor

    A philanthropist and lecturer at the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Olumide Oluwagbemi-Gabriel has urged individuals and corporate organisations to assist the less-privileged in the society, particularly the abused and abandoned children, widows and other physically-challenged people.

    He gave the advice while presenting cash, food and relief materials worth several thousands of Naira to children on admission at the Ondo State Specialist Hospital, Akure and Special Children Centre of the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation under the Nigeria Police ‘A’ Division, Akure as part of activities to celebrate his 40th birthday.

    Oluwagbemi-Gabriel was accompanied to the centres by his friends, colleagues and members of his family to appreciate God for sparing his life to attain the age of 40.

    He said he opted for unorthodox way to celebrate his birthday when it dawned on him that if as a member of the middle-class he could feel the impact of the current recession in the country, the poor and vulnerable in the society must be worst off.

    According to him, he decided that the only way he would celebrate his 40th birthday was not to throw party, but by giving back to the society.

    This, he said, was to emulate the philanthropic gesture of one of his mentors, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), the founder of ABUAD.

    The don, who tagged his gesture “Project 40”, revealed that 40 humanitarian projects spanning 40 persons and institutions are scheduled to be carried out in phases.

    The projects, he said, included donations of education materials to his alma mater, AUD Victoria Island, Lagos and Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos, payment of school fees of some selected indigent students of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) and Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo.

    Other areas of the project are empowerment for selected widows and physically-challenged cobblers as well as donation of relief materials and cash to hospitalised children and those at the Police Special Children Centre.

    Recipients of the celebrator’s gifts showered encomiums on him for coming to their assistance.

    The Head, Pediatric Ward, State Specialist Hospital, Akure, Dr A. Bello and the Officer in Charge, Police Special Children Centre, Yemi, praised the initiative of the don which they described as product of compassion, especially at this period of recession.

    The duo urged others; especially corporate bodies and individuals to come to the aid of the vulnerable in the society, stressing that government cannot do it alone.

    Oluwagbemi-Gabriel appreciated God, family members, colleagues and other supporters who supported his passion to give back to the society in commemoration of his birthday.

  • It’s season to care for the poor —Senator Tinubu

    It’s season to care for the poor —Senator Tinubu

    The senator representing Lagos Central in the National Assembly, Senator Oluiremi Tinubu, has described the Eid-el-Kabir as an opportunity to remember the poor and the needy.

    Congratulating the Muslim faithful in the Lagos Central Senatorial District, Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole in a statement she issued in Lagos yesterday, the senator also called for peaceful co-existence among Nigerians irrespective of tribe of religion.

    She recalled that the Eid-el-Kabir, “otherwise known as the ‘festival of sacrifice’, in honour of Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, is symbolic of our willingness to give up the things we value in obedience to God’s will.

    “Marked by charitable giving, we must at this time, remember the poor and needy in our society.

    “This season is a reminder that we must put aside our personal interests, desires and ambitions, shunning divisive comments for the greater good of family, community and country.

    “Thus, I urge us all to adhere to the tenets of faith, living peacefully with all our brothers regardless of religion, in furtherance of the peace of our great nation.

    “May the blessings of the season remain with us now and always; and may Allah accept your good deeds,” she said.

  • Poor education and intolerance

    SIR: Where education is not a major provision in a community’s infrastructure, confusion can govern attitudes. It is easy to denigrate and demonize an ethnic or religious category of people when it appears under the spotlight for the first time. Where nothing is known about a particular religion, misinformation and profiling can be refined by propaganda and spread throughout communities, cities and countries.

    Discrimination against people in any setting is generally accepted and spread through ignorance. Where facts and information can be withheld or censored, the way is open for a biased curriculum to be circulated.

    These continuing practices of invaders segregate citizens with divide-and-rule strategies. No different in colonial era where one part of the population was offered education and industry while the other was left untutored and unemployed. Those educated soon started to feel socially, morally and spiritually superior to their poorer counterparts. The disenfranchised were opened to exploitation of resentment, envy and rebellion.

    Those with poor education are not always able to access information that can be compared to propaganda fuelled by special-interest groups.  Even though many human-rights laws have components of spiritual ideals, suppression of information about different people and religions can assign these rights exclusively to majority communities. With ethical guidelines intimating an embrace of universal rights, events can nevertheless be orchestrated to limit those rights selectively.

    Religious intolerance can be introduced to a population’s psyche where it never existed before. Where education is not available, it is possible to build on people’s fears and contrived prejudices that their rights are being threatened by followers of a different faith.

    In the words of one late Pa. Ladipo Johnson, “Nigeria is moving fast in the wrong direction.” Further problems arise when fanatics base their beliefs and proclamations and actions on a few select principles ?of their faith. Either ones that suit their own agenda or, principles around which their agendas are created. And here lay the compounded difficulties of translation and interpretations.?

    Sometimes it seems that Nigerians can be tolerant of different customs and cultures, but when it comes to a matter of religious differences, even those which occur among different sects of the same religion, divisions remain.

    It was Pearl S. Buck who said and I believe it to be true that, “it’s natural anywhere that people like their own kind but it is not necessarily natural that their fondness for their own kind should lead them to the subjugation of whole groups of other people not like them.”

    One wishes that we can pursue the Nigerian dream and mission through partnerships and create networks of cooperation that are focused on growth to improve the lives of millions of people.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

     

  • ‘Spare a thought for the poor’

    Rich Nigerians have been advised to spare a thought for the poor instead of throwing lavish party to celebrate their birthdays. The General Overseer of The Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN) Prophet Temitope Joshua gave the advice during a homily to celebrate his 54th birthday at the church premises, Ikotun in Alimosho area of Lagos State.

    Prophet Joshua said while they are in such excited mood, they should seize the moment to remember the less-privileged persons in the society. The cleric noted that such gesture would go a long way in making them favourably disposed to God and building a home for themselves in the hereafter.

    A statement signed by Prophet Joshua and made available to Southwest Report, stated that the event was a low-key during which he admonished the congregation not to present to him gifts or money, He urged them to rather distribute such gifts to orphanage or motherless babies’ homes in their neighbourhoods.

    “I will always remember the teaching in the Holy Bible that emphasises on giving to the poor,” he said.

    Continuing, he stated: “I have told my members that I am not going to be having a lavish birthday party; but I want them to identify poor people in their neighbourhoods and celebrate my birthday with them by sharing with them what they would have brought to me as gifts.

    “I also wish to seize this opportunity to admonish those whom God has blessed and who are fond of spending such fortune on their birthdays every year to have a rethink.

  • ‘Quality of service in Nigeria poor’

    The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Admini-stration (FCTA), Malam Muhammad Bello has said that emphasis must to be placed on better service delivery if the country were to unbundle the tourism sector and make it a major revenue earner.

    Bello said this when a delegation from the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), paid him a courtesy visit at his office.

    According to the FCT Minister, the complaint generally by most people that visit the country is that the quality of service being provided is not good enough when compared to what is obtainable in other climes.

    He said, “A lot of people get put off by the way we receive them at the airports, the way we treat them in the buses, the way treat them at the hotel reception points, the way we clean their rooms and the way we provide them service generally. I think if as Nigerians we are able to really improve on that aspect, it’s going to be a huge catalyst in trying to revamp and really get the full potential of the tourism sector.”

    Bello said operators in the sector must change their attitude towards service delivery by ensuring that the environment is clean and available facilities work to optimum standards if they were to turn around the fortunes of the industry.

    A statement issued by his Special Assistant (Media), Abubakar Sani, the Minister said: “We have to work on service delivery. It’s not really the quality or sophistication of what we provide. Some of the places you go, you find that really, the furniture is simple, locally made, the buildings are locally made. But the facilities work. The cleanliness is emphasised”.

    He reiterated the willingness of the FCT Administration to partner with the stakeholders in the tourism sector by making available accurate data of all tourist destinations in the FCT as well as facilities for the training and retraining of manpower in the sector.

    He said, “The social secretariat will provide you with all what we have in terms of tourist sites, in terms of facilities that we have that could serve as meeting points as you train, facilities that have some semblance of accommodation that you can house youngsters that you want to train for a week or two.

    “So, any requirement that will involve partnering with you and the other agencies will, we will do it. In the FCT within our agencies, we have units and departments really specifically meant to cater for this and in the past, we’ve had a lot of interventions,” the Minister emphasized.

    Bello while stressing that the FCT Administration shares the vision of achieving a massive turnaround in the tourism sector, however called for synergy among the major players in the industry.

    Earlier in her remarks, the DG, NIHOTOUR, Mrs. Chika Balogun said there is need to reposition the FCT to become a major destination that will attract conferences, not only within Nigeria but from the West African sub-region as well as the rest of the world.

    “We have to be a conference destination that is actually dedicated to going to solicit for those things and doing all the needful for us to begin to attract conferences to Nigeria. It is a sign of very big business and one low hanging fruit that we can very easily pluck.

    “We will like to partner with you in terms of training and retraining the manpower within the FCT. We would like to be your number one partner in terms of training especially within the hospitality and tourism industry,” the DG said.

  • Poor Nigerians get free treatments

    The Federal Government has conducted a total number of 4,349 free surgeries and 17, 793 health screenings to poor Nigerians across the country, Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole has said.

    Speaking in Abuja, he said the Ministry had set a target of 10,150 free surgeries and screenings to assist the poor.

    Also, the ministry provided over 200,000 nutrition for Nigerians suffering from malnutrition in the northeast. The intervention has since become a project, the Health Sector Nutrition and Emergency Response, delivering comprehensive health interventions and emergency services in the troubled region.

    The Minister said:“The government must pay for those who cannot afford healthcare.”

    Adewole said the programme was a promise by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, as part of its pro-poor universal health coverage agenda.

    The Minister said the programme tagged, “Better Health for All” was ongoing and would be scaled up in the year.

    ‘’You would recall that in July 2016, the Federal Ministry of Health launched the Rapid Result Initiative (RRI) Programme to carry out surgeries and screenings to indigent Nigerians across the Country.

    “The programme was borne out of plan to respond to the critical needs of the people and deliver on the mandate of promoting health with focus on Access, Affordability and Demand,” he said.

    Adewole said the Programme encapsulates a set of initiatives developed as a strategy to actualise the vision of the administration to produce quick and visible impacts that will affect the lives of every Nigerian, especially the most vulnerable and the poor in the society.

    The six components of the programme are surgical interventions, Screening of Nigerians for major Diseases, Revitalisation of PHCs, Mutual Health Assurance, Treatment of 200,000 Severely Acutely Malnourished children and operationalising the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

    The programme sought to deliver 10,150 surgeries to the indigent Nigerians among which are Herniorrhaphy 4,240, Cataract Extraction  2,300 Cleft Lip & Palate Repair  450, Club Foot Repair100, Keloid Cryotherapy  80, VVF Repair  300, Myomectomy /Hysterectomy   840, hydrocoelectomy  840 and  Correction of refractive errors + glasses 1000.

    The health screenings cover 22,000 cancer: 10,000 cervical, 10,000 breast  and  2,000 prostate, 42,000 Diabetes Mellitus; 42,000 Hepatitis B Virus as well as  60,000 Mass De-worming.

  • Why the poor will remain with us

    Sir: Being poor literarily means one is unable to get and meet his desires. It is regarded as a state of financial incapacity. We live in a world where poor people dominate the economy. Nigeria as a country has a poverty rate of 67.1% which indicates that majority of citizens are living below the poverty line leaving very few to dwell in affluence.

    Government on the other hand sees to the organization as well as welfare of citizens; thus engages in countless number of programmes to ensure that poverty is reduced to the barest minimum. Most times international agencies as well as private bodies come into the equation, to see to it that an item of the sustainable development goal is achieved. Despite these interventions, the average rate of poor people in the community rather than decrease keep increasing by the day

    Numerous individuals have been empowered, yet few were able to keep the track of their objective because the mentality of most poor people lies in meeting their daily needs. That is why they tend to increase their consumption with respect to their income once they are empowered, making them find it less desirable to engage in the act of saving. Most of them find these empowerment programmes as comfort zones, causing them to relax forgetting that “what makes one successful doesn’t keep him successful”.

    Nigeria is a country endowed with vast arable land yet the youths prefers to be idle as they patiently wait for the comfort of the so-called white collar job. Land is meant to be cultivated to enhance production yet we have concluded in our mind that the occupation called farming is meant for the under-class in the society.

    A beneficiary of YOUWIN during the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan regime was given a desired sum of money (about N3 million) alongside necessary equipment to empower a particular number of youths in the area for a period of 3-6months. This individual after receiving the particular sum for the first quarter operated for some time then closed down the venture. Although the venture was said to have closed down because the administration delayed in paying the fixed sum slated for the second quarter, my summation is that the owner of the venture was without vision and passion for the sum given for the first quarter is enough to start a reasonable venture successfully even without stress.

    Truth be told, there is no use whatsoever trying to help people who are not ready to help themselves for no one can push anyone up the ladder unless he is ready to climb himself. The truth is most people aspire to become successful; most people termed poor dream to live in affluence. Only that they think they need to acquire much to kick-start their dreams so they decide to do away with the little resources at their disposal. It should be noted that “one who cannot manage little cannot control plenty” for we cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.

     

    • Boboye Abosede Grace,

    University Of Ilorin.

  • ‘The rich should help the poor’

    ‘The rich should help the poor’

    The well-to-do should give the downtrodden a lift by using their wealth to positively impact them.

    That was the message sent out from the Christ Holy Church (CHC), Aba, Abia State.

    The head of the Women and Children’s Department of the church Deaconess C. E. Umeh made the call while visiting some orphanages in the commercial city.

    Umeh, who led a delegation of women on the visit, donated several items including toiletries, rice, baby wear, noodles and cash to the homes.

    Umeh lamented the lack of care and attention given to the children in the orphanage by both government and well-off individuals in the society.

    Deaconess Umeh who is also wife of the Bishop of CHC, Province III Nathan Umeh, frowned at the high rate of unwanted pregnancy in the society especially among teenage girls which she said accounts for the high number of abandoned children.

    She warned people who engage in premarital sex, especially youths, to desist from such act and avoid things that could prevent them from being focused in life and achieving their set goals. She said they should emulate Christ who lived a righteous life and used his days on earth to win souls for the kingdom of God.

    She said that the reason the church chose to celebrate Mothers’ Day after Easter was to celebrate the role women played in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    They visited Ngwa Road Motherless Babies Home, Seventh Day Adventist Motherless Home, Father Basil Motherless Babies Home, and Peace Sisters Outreach Ministry International (Abandoned Children), among others.

    Rev. Joy Igweze, proprietress of Peace Sisters Outreach praised the women for their love for orphans and the less privileged.

    Igweze recalled how she had saved many children from dying after they were abandoned by their mothers at various locations in Aba and environs, describing the job of nurturing, feeding and paying the schools fees of the children as very challenging.

     

  • Workers’ Day: Varsities’ facilities still very poor, says ASUU

    Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has lamented the poor condition of facilities prevailing in public universities nationwide.

    Chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the union Dr Deji Omole, said there is nothing to celebrate going by the deplorable conditions of laboratories and the suffering of lecturers in public universities .

    The union enjoined the Federal Government to, in the spirit of Workers’ Day celebration, address the shortfall of personnel cost and other obligations in the nation’s public universities.

    In a statement issued in Ibadan on Tuesday, the union noted that the present administration has been economical with the truth in meeting the agreements it signed with the union in 2009 and 2013 Memorandum of Understanding. The union lamented that their colleagues are enduring the worst of welfare and lacks attention.

    According to Omole, while the student-lecturer ratio keeps increasing in the face of poor laboratories tools, lecturers are still expected to teach students with those obsolete facilities, and through that, produce globally competitive graduates.

    He lamented that most university lecturers now face hard times due to fractional payment of salaries and, unpaid earned academic allowances (EAA).

    He said Nigeria may suffer another brain drain as conditions of service for Nigerian academics are poor even when placed in the context of other universities in Africa.

    He lamented that Nigeria has continued to lose her best brains to universities outside who offer better conditions of service and welfare.

    The ASUU boss said if the welfare of those in service is addressed, it will check corruption and primitive wealth accumulation.

  • Archbishop laments poor wealth distribution

    Nigerian-born Archbishop of Christian Community Ministries International Sao Paulo Brazil, Emmanuel Chukwu Emmanuel, has faulted the nation’s wealth distribution system.

    The faulty system, according to him, is responsible for Nigeria’s economic crisis.

    Emmanuel said: “A situation where one man is richer than the country is wrong and that is because of wrong distribution of wealth.

    “There is no magic to advance the economy if our leaders do not know how to distribute the wealth through investments in the country.”

    The cleric also reasoned that the lack of fear of God was also to blame for the woeful economic condition of the country.

    “There is hardship in the land because of the lack of fear of God. Africa is the richest continent in the world but does not know how to manage its wealth because the leaders are not God-fearing.

    “They do not believe in the wisdom and knowledge of the distribution of wealth,” he stated.

    Emmanuel frowned at the preponderance of greed among the nation’s political leaders.

    “When we stop being greedy and think about our brothers, infrastructure will be better than what we have presently.

    “There is no need taking money to Switzerland that cannot be accessed by your children when you die,” he stressed.

    However, he believes all hope is not lost though, especially for those whose trust in God.

    “We serve a God of miracles. God provides our needs. We are not led by the economy of this country but by God’s financial supply, as God says.

    “When you believe in God, He supplies all your needs; He is not a man that lies.

    “He has been supplying my needs; there is no lack. Supernaturally, God has been seeing members of my church and me through.

    “We have number of testimonies. He makes dreams and goals come true. I know it that God is not a man that lies.”