NAN-H-105
Empowerment
By Ehigimetor Igbaugba
Benin, Jan. 23, 2017 (NAN) A UK based social worker, Mr Pius Alile, says one of the ways Nigeria can overcome its developmental challenges is to empower communities, rather than individuals.
Alile, a Nigerian and Founder of the Pius Alile Coalition, an NGO, said Nigerians also needed to be selfless if they were passionate about developing their communities.
The social worker, who stated this while talking with newsmen in Benin, on Monday; appealed to the state government to begin to channel its resources toward tackling issues of welfare of the people.
According to him, failure by the government to build strong institutions, infrastructure, corruption and empowerment of individuals, rather than the communities, have been largely responsible for Nigeria’s developmental challenges.
He also said the wide gap between the rich and the poor was responsible for the setbacks Nigeria had continued to experience as the rich were getting richer and the poor man’s fortunes continued to dwindle.
“Our leaders should be driven by service rather than personal gains. Individually, we need to begin to be selfless; we need look at the little we can do to contribute to the development of the people.
“We need to build institutions, infrastructure and technology to tackle under-development, fight poverty; as well as corruption.
“We also need to build people with good character who will be responsible for driving the policies of these institutions,’’ Alile said.
He said his NGO was primarily established to assist communities with their developmental challenges and to also assist indigent students in their educational pursuits.
He said as part of commitment to improving the lives of the people in the communities, the organisation would on Saturday be giving educational support to 60 indigent students in the Edo South Senatorial District.
Alile appealed to wealthy individuals and private organisations to partner with the government in its quest to surmount the country’s developmental challenges, as all hands must be on deck to achieve any meaningful development.
“Yes, this is what is obtainable in the developed world; government alone does not provide all that is needed to make life better for the people.
“NGOs, private individuals and organisations need to partner and assist the government in this regard,’’ he said. (NAN)
ESI/DOR/AJA
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(Edited by Nyisom Dore/Adeleye Ajayi)