This is a true story. A close friend
was driving on a fairly busy road on Lagos Island when he was stopped by a
traffic light. He looked right and his eyes caught a nine or ten year old child
crying uncontrollably by the side. The sight so moved him that he parked his
car and got down to see what was making the child so distraught. It turned out
that the figures didn’t add up for the poor child. The money she had on her
from the day’s sales did not correspond to what was left of her wares and she
knew all hell would break loose at home. My friend solved the problem the only
way he could – by making up the difference. But it was a disturbed man that
walked into his air-conditioned SUV. Emotions welled up inside him as he
narrated the story to his wife. At a point he started sobbing and had to park
the car for the second time. The wife who had hardly seen her husband of thirty
years cry had to take over the steering that evening. It was a sober couple
that went to bed at night.
I am sure it was not the first time
my friend was seeing children dash in and out of traffic with goods that
amounted to very little as it is a common sight on many, if not all Nigerian
major roads. But something tweaked inside him that evening. His brief
conversation with the hapless child brought home the importance of ten, twenty
Naira to a family that is really struggling to exist.
In a normal setting, a ten-year old
should have finished her home work by six, had one or two hours of play time
with her peers and be looking forward to an evening meal. She should not at
ten, be balancing books with dire consequences if they didn’t add up. She
should not have to miss out on the joy of childhood so easily or lose the
innocence of childhood so quickly. A child on the road at six in the evening is
at a considerable risk. What the danfo drivers might not do the okada drivers
will accomplish. Then there are the child molesters, child abductors and child
rapists. In all probability, her walk home at dusk, would take her through
short cuts that would further expose her to untold risks. Would she tell if she
was raped or molested? In any case who would listen? Her death would be as
insignificant and invisible as her life has been. And how far would she go to
get an extra Naira into her pocket?
I don’t know what actually made my
friend to cry that evening. But the story of the very poor in Nigeria will well
up emotions in you if you have a compassionate mind. I know I have had to look
away sometimes when a particular scene disturbs me. It is true that Nigeria has
no business having over 60% of her population in extreme poverty when we pump
two million barrels of oil per day. It is true, and studies have proved it,
that just 10% of the money our leaders and their cronies fritter away will
reduce the poverty ratio by as much as 30%. But what about you and I and the
life styles we lead? How many of us spend considerable sum on consumables and
goods we don’t need against Warren Buffet’s injunction to spend only on what we
need? An average ‘middle class’ Nigerian should plead guilty and I will explain
why. Once a month, he attends his old school meeting. After an hour or so of a
directionless meeting, the food comes out along with expensive liquor. He and
his mates gorge themselves on these until they are satiated. The rest is put in
the freezer or thrown away. The next Sunday is the church society meeting.
Again we permit ourselves an hour of a directionless meeting before the food
and drinks come out. The following Sunday is a town meeting and so on. The
Saturdays are filled with weddings and birthdays. The success of these
functions is measured by the quantum of food served and wasted. A very successful
wedding is the one that has bottles of champagne on every table and is able to
serve three, four course meals.
Now, before you attend your next
function lets crunch some figures. More than half of the world’s population
lives on less than 500 Naira per day. Over one billion children live in poverty
with over 20,000 dying every day due to poverty. Almost 30% of children in
developing countries are underweight or stunted. Nigeria has not in any way
helped global statistics because we are actually above the global average in
almost every index. So a 12-year old on the streets in Nigeria might actually
be 15 or more. It gets disconcerting when we read that the wealthiest 10% use
60% of the world’s consumption while the poorest 10% use just 0.5% and even
more so in Nigeria where the richest 10% corner almost a whopping 90% of what
all of us consume. So each time you want to indulge yourself, think of the fact
that one billion out of 2.2 billion children are in poverty.
So why did God create the poor?
A man of God told a story of a
wealthy man who found himself in a poor neighbourhood. He saw congestion, he
saw leaked roofs that could only promote diseases and he realised that his
domestic animals had a better living condition. He went home a sad man and for
once, the ambience of his home only depressed him more. A rich array of food
was waiting for him but he couldn’t eat. So he went to his room and stared
unseeing at his panelled ceiling. In frustration he cried out; ‘God if you are
so compassionate then why did you create the poor and allow so much suffering?’
A soft voice replied him; ‘son that’s why I created you’.
All Christian youths know the story
of the three servants who were given talents. Two invested and one buried his.
The moral was that we should never bury our talents otherwise it would be taken
away from us. But have we ever stopped to think of the master who gave out the
talents and in so doing shared his possession, his estate? That the moral might
actually be that we should also share? The GDP of 41 indebted countries is less
that the wealth of seven of the richest combined. It’s a no brainer therefore
that poverty would reduce if they could just shed a bit. After all just one
percent of the money spent on arms would put all children, 72million of them,
in school.
According to Nuyiwa Adetiba reporting for Vanguard Newspaper
This
is a true story. A close friend was driving on a fairly busy road on
Lagos Island when he was stopped by a traffic light. He looked right and
his eyes caught a nine or ten year old child crying uncontrollably by
the side. The sight so moved him that he parked his car and got down to
see what was making the child so distraught. It turned out that the
figures didn’t add up for the poor child. The money she had on her from
the day’s sales did not correspond to what was left of her wares and she
knew all hell would break loose at home. My friend solved the problem
the only way he could – by making up the difference. But it was a
disturbed man that walked into his air-conditioned SUV. Emotions welled
up inside him as he narrated the story to his wife. At a point he
started sobbing and had to park the car for the second time. The wife
who had hardly seen her husband of thirty years cry had to take over the
steering that evening. It was a sober couple that went to bed at night.
- See more at:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/god-create-poor/#sthash.3FPbJKU7.dpuf
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