God, why did you create the poor?

God, why did you create the poor?

Chinua Achebe, exit of a
literary giant

By Nuyiwa Adetiba

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.