100 Bags of Rice in Exchange for 100 Heads …?
More People Have Been K1LLED in Nigerian Giveaway Stampedes in the past 7 Days Than people were Killed in the 2017 Manchester Bombing and the 2015 Paris Attack combined.
Mass Festive Season Giveaways should be BANNED for now or at least regulated.
The Abuja Stampede is a wake up call… Poverty is not a function of location but the mind.
The bl00d from Okija and Ibadan stampedes are still fresh.
I respect the efforts of those who genuinely want to give back to their communities – that’s commendable. But we now need to find better ways to empower our communities beyond Mass Food Giveaways.
I am fundamentally opposed to the idea of mass giveaways – both online and offline.
Philanthropic Middle Class Nigerians need to learn philanthropy from the Upper Class.
You will never find any member of the Upper Class involved in Mass Giveaways. From Aliko Dangote to Tony Elumelu, Adenuga to Otedola, none of these men would gather thousands of people to ‘share’ clothes and food. They know they will cause stampedes and deaths by doing so. They have watched their Western wealthy friends solve social problems by funding Social Projects without killing anyone. So they form Charity Organisations through which they distribute a portion of their wealth to touch lives. They have touched tens of thousands of lives through their non profit organisations and they haven’t registered any casualties due to stampede.
The Middle Class are newcomers to wealth and philanthropy. Some of them are driven by ego and the desire to be seen as a ‘successful’ son or daughter of the soil. 50% of them feed the poor but the poor actually feeds their ego. Others are religious – like the King’s Ex Wife who’s an ‘evangelist’. They believe that feeding the poor brings blessings for their new year. Again, this is not philanthropy. This is Religious Betting. They bet on Blessings using philanthropy. But there are few who are genuine. They just want to serve humanity but they don’t know how to do it without giving food, money etc directly to the masses. These are the ones who will read this post and reach out to me to help guide them in IMPACTFUL but SILENT PHILANTHROPY.
I respect the efforts of the Nigerian middle class. I do. I think the Nigerian middle class can double their impact if they distribute their resources through social projects than through mass giveaways. Let’s build and donate Tech hubs to communities. Let’s send young people back to school or pay for them to learn IT skills etc. Let’s create Funds to fight injustice and police brutality done against poor people. Let’s pull our resources together to provide medical care to the poor. Let’s build companies that create jobs for our communities. And in Christmas, go home and rest. Don’t let anyone pressure you into doing more. Let the community celebrate what you did for them throughout the year.
My name is Charles Awuzie and I call for the temporary banning of mass giveaways until the government creates guidelines and regulations for such public giveaways. This is in the interest of the public. We can’t lose over 100 people in one week just because of 100 bags of rice. It’s not worth it.
For those who will come after me and claim I’m stingy, please read this….
This year alone, we’ve spent at least Millions in Naira empowering others through free courses, payment of medical bills, buying JAMB forms, funding research in universities, and helping homeless people get shelter in both Nigeria and South Africa. And this excludes the monies spent by the Evolve Communities in organising free medical outreach etc. I didn’t pay for those outreaches. They were funded by the community and their partner. We didn’t have to wait until Christmas. This Christmas, we are not under any moral pressure to give money or food to anyone because we’ve done a lot during the year. While what we’ve done so far is neither a lot nor enough, at our current level, we have maximised limited resources to make huge impact.
If we put a figure to how much we’ve spent just this year on empowerment, you probably won’t believe it.
