MONEY: Making It, Enjoying It, and Giving It Away

For the first time in 2007, one Nigerian  made it into the annual publication by Forbes magazine of the world’s billionaires. While Bill Gates was dislodged from the  number one position he had enjoyed for some years (moving to third place) by  another American, investor Warren Buffett, Nigeria’s own renowned industrialist, Aliko Dangote slipped into the 334^th position [with a net worth of  US$ 3.3bn]. On the list of Africa’s billionaires, Dangote holds an enviable 5^th position. Other African billionaires include Egyptians Naguib Sawiris  and Nassef Sawiris  and  South Africa’s Nicky Oppenheimer and family. The African billionaires, most of them entrepreneurs, represent   wealth running into billions of dollars.

Having a Nigerian and a host of other Africans on this list is a good  thing as it presents a different face of Africa; a more promising and positive outlook from the usual stories of poverty, hunger, disease and corruption. Africa also boasts of the finest crop of forward thinking and visionary entrepreneurs and industrialists.

The vast majority of other Nigerians, can hardly comprehend such wealth; running into ten digits and above. Aliko Dangote and other wealthy Nigerians (and there are probably hundreds of others in this  category) have a rare chance to make history;  to use the advantage that they have to lead the fight against poverty, maternal and child mortality and morbidity, HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and the increasing problem of illiteracy. These are all high priority areas for Nigeria reflected in the  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Almost every sector and facet of the Nigerian way of life needs some level of rehabilitation.   

There is a role that you can play as a Nigerian and you need not belong to the billionaire category to do something; to contribute to changing the circumstances around you; to become a philanthropist; to be concerned enough to contribute your quota to the fight against underdevelopment, poverty and death. The needs are so enormous that governments alone cannot solve all the problems; even if they had the political will to do so.

Nigeria currently has the 2^nd  highest maternal mortality ratio in the world; second only to India.  What this means is that  for many Nigerian women, pregnancy  often does not end in  rejoicing but in  death. More women are dying unsung in the underserved rural areas and some regions of the country. Many of these deaths can be easily prevented.

Let us take a closer look at the  HIV and AIDS  issue as an epitome of the development challenges that Nigeria is facing at the moment and the critical entry points through which support can be channeled.  Although the prevalence rates appear low, Nigeria ranks third in terms of the actual numbers of people infected with HIV after India and South Africa. Estimates indicate that nearly 4 million Nigerians are HIV positive.

According to the records (Nigeria UNGASS Report 2007),  only 16.67 percent of  adults and children with advanced HIV infection are accessing  Antiretroviral  (ARV) Therapy. Even for the privileged few who are able to access ARVs,  issues of sustainability arise; how to ensure continued access to these drugs becomes a key concern because they are expensive drugs (and out of the reach of  most of the people who really  need them to stay alive) and the government and donor sources may sometimes be difficult to access, irregular or even unavailable!  Ideally, once a person living with the virus commences use of ARVs, the treatment is meant to be sustained throughout the lifetime.

Unfortunately also, only  about 5 percent of  HIV positive pregnant women are benefiting  from the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission  (PMTCT) programme. This is a critical strategy  for truncating the spread of the virus. If  we could  ensure that all Nigerian babies are born AIDS-free, this would be a giant stride forward. This is not impossible to achieve either.

There is also the issue of  orphans and vulnerable children left behind as a result of the HIV and AIDS crisis. Less than 10 percent of  households of orphaned and vulnerable children aged 0-17 receive  basic external support in caring for the child or children. Unfortunately the hardest hit communities are facing the problem of children-headed households in scenarios where  the orphans are so many that the traditional extended families are no longer able to absorb any more children. In situations like this, even the basic necessities  of food, clothing and shelter are hardly assured and education may be completely out of reach. Some of these ‘abandoned’ children contribute to the growing street kid problem.

 These are just a few of the entry points where concerned Nigerians, philanthropists can extend a hand of support. There is a role to play as a donor, volunteer or advocate.

As noted elsewhere by Chinua Akukwe:  “A unique situation now exists for significant intervention in the fight against HIV/AIDS by the richest people in the world. It is possible to turn the superstar entrepreneurs and richest people of our time into superstar philanthropists in the fight against AIDS. The key to the intervention of the super rich is to narrow down areas of potential impact on AIDS relief so that they know they are making a significant and measurable difference” (emphasis added.)

As a philanthropist, you can map out the specific areas of interest or concern where you want to put your money  and working  with organizations like Sonflower Development Initiative (SDI), you can work out the details including choosing the  implementing organization and  performance indicators to measure step-by-step, the  change that you want your money to achieve. You can follow-up and be rest assured that your money is achieving the value that you want. In this way, you will not only be  investing in the future of others but  saving  precious lives.

Nigerian cultures, historically have been caring and nurturing cultures -  caring for the extended family, for  members of the clan, for  the sick and aged; and for widows, orphans and vulnerable children. Modernization, the struggle to survive in a very stifling socio-economic context as well as the massive rural-urban shift has tended to erode these positive aspects of Nigerian cultures.

Philanthropy is derived from the Latin philanthrōpia,  and Greek, philanthrōpos, which refer to love of mankind in general.  Philanthropy is defined as an activity performed with the goal of promoting the well-being of fellow men and women. Philanthropy refers to planned giving – to  acts of dispensing and or receiving aid in the form of a gift from individuals or groups; in other words, enabling flow of resources from  those who have, to help the poor, needy and underprivileged and to support development.   

Development work in the form we know it today,  involving a variety of actors – not for profits (non-governmental organisations –NGOs),  religious organisations and charities as well as multi and bilateral donor agencies, individual givers, volunteers and a host of other players work within the boundaries  and parameters of philanthropy -  the need to care for the weak, the less privileged, the poor and vulnerable and to engender development and growth. So far, the resources for this kind of work in Nigeria have been largely provided by donors, foundations and charities based in Europe and the Americas. 

But as many more Nigerians begin to enjoy business success and prosperity, there is a need to look inwards.  In the words of Akukwe, let’s turn our “superstar  Nigerian entrepreneurs and richest people of our land  into superstar philanthropists in the fight against [underdevelopment and poverty]”.

The American, Henry Ford established philanthropies that have outlived him and still carry out his vision. Andrew Carnegie, a renowned philanthropist rightly observed that: “It is well to remember that it requires the exercise of not less ability than that which acquires it, to use wealth so as to be really beneficial to the community”.  Os Guinness was right on track when he said, “Giving and caring are humbling because money carries with it, three distinct challenges – making money, enjoying money and giving it away”.

This is an auspicious time because more Nigerians are making money, they are enjoying money and also giving it away especially in terms of acquiring more cars, the fanciest jeeps, landed property, buying designer clothing and throwing lavish parties in which whole streets  and highways are taken up. Philanthropy is  also another way to “give away”  some of that money in an organized and planned way;  to make a name that lives on long after  the givers’ death. We remember Ford and Carnegie today, not so much for the huge businesses or property they owned,  but  because they invested in the  lives of people in their time, and today, the investments they made are still enriching the lives of people in Nigeria and globally.

Arit Oku is Team Leader of  Sonflower Development Initiative (SDI), a Lagos-based NGO.  Sonflower promotes  a culture of philanthropy and planned giving to support the most vulnerable sectors. Email: arito@sonflowerng.org  

(Written in 2007 and first published in the Sunday Guardian  newspaper.)

What an Awful Amount of Pollution!

I have worked all day in the office.  We ran on a  petrol-fueled generator all eight hours we were at work.  It was one of those days  when the power- generating  company  here  - Power Holding Company of Nigeria  (PHCN)  - was unable to supply even one hour of power during the workday.  There is a popular joke here that the company  is ‘holding’ onto the power and that is why it is unable to distribute power efficiently.   I think one of the most ridiculous sights ever,  was when I visited the office of the electric company  to file a complaint; only  to find that even the Power Holding Company of Nigeria is using a generator to run its  daily  affairs!

 So all the firms  in my office block had to run their  individual generators all day.  Multiply this with the millions of businesses in the country, small, medium and large, and you  can imagine that we have an awful amount of  fossil-fuel run generators all spewing their deadly gas endlessly.  I was told that some of the big  industries simply depend on  their generators twenty-four hours a day because their production processes are very  sensitive and cannot be interrupted by unpredictable power outages. 

Over here, we are so used to the  generator noise that you can almost guess correctly when PHCN does supply power – maybe for a few minutes, an hour or  maybe for longer.  Suddenly, the generators start going  off, one after the other. An eerie and unusual calm  settles over the land.   On a good day when the power  comes  on for a few hours,  in my  subconscious, I dread so totally the thought that the power supply will most certainly go off suddenly and without warning;   I jump inwardly if someone suddenly switches off the light  in the room; I imagine that  the inevitable  has happened.

So, having  been without electricity supply all day at work; I dread what would happen at night. I need to cook dinner and to do some work; do some reading.  My heart sinks.  My daughter probably has homework from school too.  Do I have any  petrol left after last night’s use? I may have to run my mini generator at home  all night too.  What an awful amount of pollution!  So I am dreading the thought of  a noisy night abuzz with generator  noises  of different  levels – the newer ones are kinder emitting a steady purring sound. But not so the old, overused and dying generators – they emit such an unkind guttural sound – like any overtired and overused engine.

Does anyone care? Have policy makers concerned tried to compute the damage to the environment  that our generator –run economy is causing? What of the danger to our health and the several fire accidents and deaths  that these have caused?  Sometimes, whole families are wiped out. Who cares, really?  On some evenings when I visit the local gas station to buy my own supply of petrol, I  am always amazed at the sight of long queues of people – men, women and even children,  all carrying different  sizes of jerry cans  and bottles, getting ready for the long night with no electricity.

I glance at my watch. I am getting a bit fidgety. My colleagues  have left already. I was busy preparing  a presentation for the next  day for a meeting with a prospective client. It’s getting quite late. I decide to shut down and go home.  After I switch the generator off, its pitch dark and I  need to use the light from my mobile phone to lock up and descend  the winding staircase…. All around me I am engulfed by generator sounds as I proceed to my parked car.

As I round the bend to my  home, my heart sinks! The noise is there all around me… like  a national emblem. I  wonder, soon the politicians seeking  elective offices will get on the campaign trail again promising uninterrupted and steady power and water supply, good transportation system, good roads, free education – the very same promises they have made since Nigeria’s Independence in  1960.

I think to myself, it is such a shame that with all the sunlight we have, we are still dependent  on petrol or  diesel - fueled  generators.  A larger percentage of the population still depends on kerosene or firewood as fuel gas; whatever happened  to the new emerging solar powered stoves and lanterns?  Why are they not available or accessible to the Nigerian populations?  Why have various governments over the years failed totally to solve Nigeria’s gnawing power problem? Why?

Sadly, the few  solar-powered flashlights and lanterns   seeping into the market are of such poor quality that those who buy them find they hardly last more than a few  days or weeks.  Many of these are locally fabricated  or poor quality imports from the  lower end of the Asian markets. Nigeria is a dumping ground for a lot of garbage. The poor  and already over-stretched have become skeptical about solar technologies because their experience of  using these gadgets has not been pleasant at all.

Unknowingly, a deep sigh escapes from deep inside me. As I let myself in, I find my daughter bent over her homework, the lantern that is providing some illumination,  casts a huge giant  shadow of her across half of the sitting room wall. The huge shadow really bears no resemblance to her  real form bent over her books.  

I turn on my battery run radio to catch the evening news : “Fellow Nigerians, I am here to bring change;   vote me as your presidential candidate and let us bid farewell to power failure…”   My daughter looks at me,  a cynical smile  cast on her young pretty  face as she lets out  a chuckle that says it all, “Liar, liar”.