BY EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO<\/p>\n
A key aspect of the general scope of African cultural value system is
\nthe obligation on Africans under their respective customs and
\ntraditions to be charitable to the less privilege even as hardwork and
\nresilience by all are encouraged.<\/p>\n
In the days of yore, going by recorded accounts in many great African
\nphilosophical texts, the ordinary African in his native land is made
\nto imbibe the cultural value of giving. Typically, hunger, starvation
\nand extreme poverty aren’t notorious in ancient African communities.
\nIndeed, different African traditional communities thrived on
\nproductivity in agricultural practices. In Igbo cultural or
\ntraditional society, the wealth of a man used to be rated by the
\naccumulation of yams in the family barns.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to these days when due to mismanagement of resources and
\nwidespread corruption by a lot of central government officials and
\nsub-national officials in the 36 states and the federal capital
\nterritory, poverty, hunger and deprivations practically walk with four
\nlegs on the streets of virtually all cities and towns all across
\nNigeria. Majority of Nigerians have migrated away from their rural
\ncommunities to urban areas in search of greener pastures away from the
\nfarms. The effects of social media and the bridging of communication
\nbrought about by the World Wide Web has broyght a new kind of
\nlifestyle whereby most youths have embraced the quest for white collar
\njobs and have substantially abandoned traditional African careers in
\nthe Agro-allied sector. Absence of social amenities encourages
\nrural-urban drifts and these migrations erode the African attachment
\nto the cultural value of GIVING. Due to widespread poverty, Nigeria
\nhas become like a basket case thereby compelling rich and generous
\nnation’s in the Western Societies to initiate actions to fund
\ncharities in Africa and Nigeria as the nation with the largest black
\npopulation in the World, also receive some of the largest part of the
\nlargesse from the West.<\/p>\n
The unprecedented scope of poverty is the reason such externally
\nfunded interventions are carried out in major flashpoints by such
\nqualitatively governed and administered bodies like the European
\nunion, the British funded DFID and the other components (USAID)
\nimplemented yearly by the government of the United States of America.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, an official of the United States embassy in Nigeria was
\nquoted in the local press as stating that the United States of America
\nprovided $89 million in 2018 to fund some poverty alleviation
\nprogrammes in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Looking at how many developed economies prioritize giving of aids to
\nAfrican nations shattered by poor economy and corruption, it can be
\nsafely said that the West has more cultural attachment to giving than
\nAfrica for instance whose history is replete with documentary evidence
\nthat most African communities were built around the ideology of
\ngenerosity.<\/p>\n
It would seem that the so-called Western civilization has exchanged
\nour generosity amongst ourselves for mass poverty, hunger, starvation
\nand collapsing economy. The new trends of mass poverty and the lack of
\nthe spirit of giving by rich Africans has also contributed to the
\ndecline in the well-known traditional value system of giving. However
\nthe Western societies still values and carry out the task of giving.<\/p>\n
President Bill Clinton, who governed the United States of America for
\ntwo terms did a great book about giving in which he made a call to
\naction, as it were.<\/p>\n
A review of the book seen online says that \u201cGiving is an inspiring
\nlook at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the
\nextraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and
\norganizations\u2014and by individuals\u2014to solve problems and save lives
\nboth \u201cdown the street and around the world.\u201d Then it urges us to
\nseek out what each of us, \u201cregardless of income, available time,
\nage, and skills,\u201d can do to help, to give people a chance to live
\nout their dreams.<\/p>\n
Bill Clinton shares his own experiences and those of other givers,
\nrepresenting a global flood tide of nongovernmental, nonprofit
\nactivity. These remarkable stories demonstrate that gifts of time,
\nskills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as
\ncontributions of money. From Bill and Melinda Gates to a six-year-old
\nCalifornia girl named McKenzie Steiner, who organized and supervised
\ndrives to clean up the beach in her community, Clinton introduces us
\nto both well-known and unknown heroes of giving. Among them:<\/p>\n
Dr. Paul Farmer, who grew up living in the family bus in a trailer
\npark, vowed to devote his life to giving high-quality medical care to
\nthe poor and has built innovative public health-care clinics first in
\nHaiti and then in Rwanda; a New York couple, in Africa for a wedding,
\nwho visited several schools in Zimbabwe and were appalled by the
\nabsence of textbooks and school supplies. They founded their own
\norganization to gather and ship materials to thirty-five schools.
\nAfter three years, the percentage of seventh-graders who pass reading
\ntests increased from 5 percent to 60 percent;\u2019<\/p>\n
Osceola McCarty, who after seventy-five years of eking out a living by
\nwashing and ironing, gave $150,000 to the University of Southern
\nMississippi to endow a scholarship fund for African-American
\nstudents.\u201d<\/p>\n
This fascinating copy from Bill Clinton confirms the high premium that
\nmodern Western societies place on giving although it is not a blanket
\nstatement that poverty, homelessness have completely disappeared but
\nthe remarkable contributions of rich people in the United States of
\nAmerica and Europe have helped to drastically globalize the essence
\nand prime place of the humane value system of giving.<\/p>\n
However, this piece is motivated by the emerging trends of few wealthy
\nNigerians who have individually decided to dedicate some percentage of
\ntheir wealth towards giving to those who lack.<\/p>\n
By some estimates, the combined estimates of the wealth of only less
\nthan two percent of the richest Nigerians dwarf the entire assets and
\nwealth of the rest of the nearly 200 million people in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Although what these few rich people give to charities cannot be said
\nto be significant when compared to the presence of the largest poor
\npeople in the world congregating in Nigeria, the change of attitudes
\nby these few rich Nigerians has reinvented the old African cultural
\nvalue of giving.<\/p>\n
These rich but generous class of modern day Nigerians are less than
\nhalf a dozen but the quantum of their giving may be small in
\nproportion to their total assets but the shift from the stiff necked
\ngreedy attitudes of most rich Nigerians by those few numbers of
\nwealthy Nigerians should be celebrated.<\/p>\n
These rich and generous Nigerians are also not keen for fame but are
\nguided to be generous by some inherent principles they may have picked
\nup from their ancestral genes.<\/p>\n
These are Aliko Dangote, rated as the richest black person on earth;
\nFemi Otedola who is a son of a well brought up Lagos born Roman
\nCatholic adherent and erstwhile governor of Lagos chief Michael
\nOtedola and lastly the owner of Air Peace Airline who is from Anambra
\nMr. Allens Oneyema.<\/p>\n
A country such as Nigeria with at least 100 billionaires but only
\nthree have demonstrated the uncommon virtue for giving, one can then
\nimagine how good Nigeria will be if all the rich people can have a
\nchange of heart or Metanoia, which is a Greek word for change of
\nheart, and begin today to embrace the attitude of giving like their
\nfellow billionaires aforementioned whose generosity are not done for
\nfame but purely out of good will, then Nigeria will be good.<\/p>\n
The Guardian of Nigeria tells us that the Kano state born Alhaji Aliko
\nDangote has been rated as the sixth most charitable person in the
\nworld. Aliko Dangote\u2019s charitable works seem to be limited to the
\nNorthern region which is his native home. That notwithstanding is a
\ncommendable feat giving that due to corruption by the political class
\nthe north obviously harbours the largest numbers of poor people in the
\nCountry. There is over 10 million out of school children in the North
\nalone even as child malnutrition is at an alarming rate in the North.<\/p>\n
Femi Otedola who has been seen giving lifesaving reliefs to some sick
\nnational legends in the fields of sports and music (Christian Chukwu
\nand Majek Fashek), was reported by a journalist to have donated $6
\nmillion building to the Augustine University in Epe, Lagos state.<\/p>\n
The structure, which is currently under construction, will be the
\npremises of the Faculty of Engineering at the University.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the foundation laying ceremony of the new building,
\nOtedola said, like his father, he was passionate about education and
\ndevelopment of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father was very passionate about a university being built in Epe
\nbecause he was very passionate about education. Rather than spend my
\nmoney on building more houses or buying a jet for myself, I decided to
\nspend the money to support this laudable cause by the Lagos Catholic
\narchdiocese through the Augustine University,\u201d the businessman told
\njournalists.<\/p>\n
Augustine University is a private Catholic-owned University located in
\nIlara, a town in Epe local government area of Lagos State Southwestern
\nNigeria.<\/p>\n
Femi Otedola is the controlling shareholder of publicly traded Forte
\nOil, an oil marketing and power generation company. Originally a
\nNigerian subsidiary of British Petroleum (BP), Forte Oil has more than
\n500 gas stations across the country. It owns oil storage depots and
\nmanufactures its own line of engine oils. Femi Otedola is also one of
\nNigeria\u2019s most popular philanthropists and over the years has given
\nmillions of dollars to causes in education, health and the arts. He
\nfeatured in the 2016 ranking of Forbes billionaires with a net worth
\nof $1.8 billion at the time.<\/p>\n
Lastly, apart from individuals, religious organisations need to
\nembrace the virtue of giving to alleviate poverty in Nigeria. How do
\nyou tell a hungry man to stand up and praise God? With which strength?
\nEven God will prefer that those who will worship Him should be happy.<\/p>\n
*Emmanuel Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria
\n(HURIWA) and blogs @www.emmanuelonwubiko.com [1];
\nwww.huriwa@blogspot.com [2]; www.thenigerianinsidernews.com [3]<\/p>\n
Links:
\n——
\n[1] http:\/\/www.emmanuelonwubiko.com\/
\n[2] http:\/\/www.huriwa@blogspot.com\/
\n[3] http:\/\/www.thenigerianinsidernews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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