By Remi Johnson
Towards eradicating abject poverty among citizens in Nigeria, a Non- Govermental Organization, NGO, “Equity Advocates,” has called for more government and individual support for the less- privileged in the society.
The Founder of “Equity Advocates” Dr Ene Ede who made the call in an exclusive interaction with Kapital FM in Abuja, said the support, and an enabling environment for Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, to thrive was necessary at a time when international donor’s funding are dwindling.
She identified the withdrawal of support by some donors to the country as a challenge that needs the urgent intervention of all well meaning individuals as well as government at all levels to ensure that the vulnerable groups in the society are not left to wallow in misery of lack and disillusionment.
Dr Ede specifically commended Rtd General Theophilus Danjuma for his selfless humanitarian intervention to the less- privileged in the area of healthcare delivery, education, among others, and tasked wealthy Nigerians to emulate such gesture.
“I think this is giving us the opportunity to begin to look inward. Look at somebody like General TY Danjuma. He has done what many governments put together have not been able to do. He has done tremendous, unconditional, focused charity work, reducing misery drastically.”
The NGO Founder stressed the need for all those at the helm of affairs to work towards changing the narratives of bad governance, corruption, and scenarios wereby opportunities are carved out for the few, that are either praise singers or party loyalists.
“Whichever God people believe in, there are basic expectations of every human being to support those who are vulnerable, who cannot fight for themselves.”
“So, there are a number of us who are gifted in this area to liberate people from the clutches of poverty, misery, emotional trauma, and suicidal tendencies.”
“The call to action is that Government are mandated by the Civil Society Corporation, that you must budget certain amount of money given to organizations, especially now that we are faced with the danger of extinction, dwindling international funding .
“So, what we are calling for is that, let every individual, socio- cultural groups, traditional institutions, do a lot of charity, and CSOs is charity work, sacrificial work that you are not looking to being rewarded by human being.”
“It’s not every NGO person that is into activities to generate wealth for themselves. It’s natural for a society like Nigeria to feel so because of our circumstances, the bad governance, mis governance, as well as the opportunity that is carved for a few selected people or party loyalists” Ede said.
Dr Ede, however, commended the tenth assembly for constantly engaging the civil societies and called for more oversight functions .
“I think the leadership of Speaker Tajudeen Abbas should be commended and other members who are visibly, genuinely committed to oversight functions”
“There should be sufficient support, let it be conscious, deliberate efforts to be able to support civil society groups. At any level, whatever suspicion you have, at least something is being done.”
“And we can also be having that conversation about oversight. CSOs, too, should make themselves available for oversight. I think when we do this the society will be better for it because the level of misery is quite high.”
Speaking on the challenges NGO face, Dr Ede listed suspicion as one of the greatest challenges that NGOs encounter despite all their efforts to provide the needed interventions for the poor towards making the world a better place for all.
“Talking about the kind of challenges that NGOs face doing humanitarian work, whether they are in civil, local NGOs or international or regional or social cultural groups, basically, the challenge they face is that of suspicion, despite the labour they undergo for the ordinary people .”
“Even people who are so suppressed and oppressed that you are trying to help see NGOs with great suspicion that NGOs are enjoying. Even some of the vulnerable people say, “Oh, you are just coming to use us.”
Dr Ede also used the medium to encourage genuine NGO owners who are sincerely committed to the task of bringing hope to the hopeless, and voice to the voiceless, not to be dettered by the insults and unpleasant attitude they sometimes receive in the course of carrying out their selfless duties.