कैरिंग फॉर थे POOR

CARING FOR THE POOR

The Bible says that as long as the earth remains the poor would always be in our midst. The Holy Writ also admonishes us to care for the poor because whoever does this is borrowing to God and God must certainly pay back with more interest than any bank or investment can give. The Holy Book also states that whoever despises the poor is mocking God.

No one in his right mind would choose to be poor. Yes to some wealth and the attendant attention may be scaring but every man desired some level of comfort. Poverty or wealth in most cases, as sociologists would say, is a matter of life chances. There is a culture of poverty. This is a story for another day. Most people are poor not because they are not smart, ambitious, brilliant, intelligent or hardworking but are just victims of other factors beyond their control. And the Bible also says that it is God that gives power to make wealth and it is not the power or might of the rich man.

Sunday March 1, 2009 I watched a pathetic story on NTA News Line of the death of one Mrs. Amudat Bello who died after she delivered sextuplets due to post delivery complications. The husband, Mr. Lukman Bello, first ran when he was told the story of the delivery but later realized his mistake and returned to his family. Lukman, the story said is a battery charger, and his income from the business could not sustain his wife and their only child before the arrival of the sextuplets. Now with the arrival of the new babies and the demise of their mother, he needs help and urgently too. If the Bellos had the resources, perhaps those children would have been delivered abroad and maybe their mother would have survived. You see what poverty has caused?

According to News Line report, a scan had earlier shown that Mrs. Bello was carrying a set of sextuplets. I think from the moment this was found, given her socio-economic background she should have been a government project as her medical bills and even diet would have been the responsibility of the government who would one day demand taxes from these children, if they survive; call them for National Youth Service Corps, if they went through university; and seek their support for one national issue or the other?

The Ibibios have a saying that people do not pray for misfortune, so no one would pray to have sextuplets so that he or she can enjoy government patronage or support, many poor people are not beggars except to beg God to change their fortune. No one prays to suffer one of those life threatening diseases so that government would fly them abroad or pick their medical bills. Not many Nigerian would be lucky like the boy from Bayelsa State, who had water in his head, and was lucky to be linked up with the President’s wife to settle his medical expenses. Though we thanked the first lady but I believe there was no need to go as far as Abuja when the authorities in Yenagoa could conveniently settle the bills.

Another pathetic story is that of one Mrs Nnena Ebi, a widow, who has taken up a permanent residence at the Children Ward (Ward Seven) of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. About October 2007 her family experienced a kerosene explosion and four of her children suffered some degrees of burns during the incident. They were taken to the hospital for treatment and were discharged last month (February) but Mrs. Ebi cannot pay the bills for her children’s treatment. Even if she was able to foot the bills she has no home to return to. During the course of her five months sojourn in the hospital her one room apartment in Calabar South Local Government Area was burgled and to worsen her plight, her landlord gave her a quit notice. She now needs about N150, 000 to foot the hospital bills, get a one room accommodation and resume her petty trading which was crippled in the last few months as the capital was used during the treatment of her children.

We need some welfare policies that would take care of those who cannot genuinely afford their medical bills because of their economic status or the high cost of treatment of the ailment. Vision 2020 should include a welfare programme for Nigerians, a Social Security Act for individuals who are aged, poor, the disabled, sick or have social needs. I would advocate for services to be given to these people rather than cash to discourage fake needy people. We need a welfare system that should take care of the poor, the not so poor and the non poor.

Who should benefit from social welfare? If put in place welfare assistance like any other thing in Nigeria would be abused but I think it is a conscience game, if you can pick your bills and you still go ahead and seek social welfare and deprive the needy God will judge. Do no ask me about the various Poverty Eradication Programmes by the various governments in this country. The Poverty Alleviation Programme that was supposed to benefit the poor was hijacked by civil servants and party officials and the real poor were left out.

According to Diana DiNitto, one way to define poverty is deprivation, that is, insufficiency in food, housing, clothing, medical care and other items required to maintain a decent standard of living. This definition assumes that there is a standard of living below which individuals and families can be considered deprived. DiNitto noted that the first sources of welfare assistance to those in needs are families, friends and churches but where these sources failed government should intervene.

We should not close our bowels of mercy against the less privileged in our society. The Bible says the crown does not last in one family forever and wealth does not last through all generations. Today that son of your poor neighbor can turn out to be your saviour tomorrow. He may hold the key to the solution to the world crisis. Give him a chance to live and fulfill his destiny. Nigerians should rise up and contribute to the welfare of the poor and needy among us. We should be our brother’s keepers. We should be able to squeeze, so to speak, a few naira for the needy, it maybe all the insurance we need for our rainy days. If we checkmate our greed we can spare some nairas for those in need. Today that money has failed we need to contribute to the survival of our country men and women who are facing one challenge or the other, it may not be a waste after all.

The same federal government that foots the bills of treatment of President Yar’dua owes those innocent kids the same privilege, after all, our president did not contract his ailment while in office or in the cause of discharging his presidential duties, what is sauce for the geese should also be sauce for the gander. I doubt if our president were to still be a lecturer he would still have been alive today or able to foot his numerous foreign medical trips. Those children must not die because of money or lack of concern by Nigerians.

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