WE ARE ALL VERY SELFISH PEOPLE

On Monday, April 1, 2013, in the spirit of the celebration of Easter, and as an annual tradition, the church I attend, The Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) decided to organize an outreach visitation to a remote community where we would go bearing good tidings in form of items of clothing, foodstuff, a mobile clinic and generally share love with a people who ordinarily would not have had anything to celebrate.

So it was that for this year’s Easter outreach programme, we chose a community by the name Dobi in Gwagwalada Area Council of Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory. Gwagwalada is about 80 kilometers away from the Abuja City Centre while Dobi is a further 50 kilometers from Gwagwalada main town inside the recesses of the council.

We set out from Abuja at about 10am and there were more that 200 cars with an average 3 people inside every car. On our way, we soon ran out of tarred roads and had to do about half the journey from Gwagwalada on dirt roads. It was ironic that such a rustic community existed a mere 130 kilometers from the razzmatazz, affluence and scenic splendour that is Nigeria’s capital city.

Upon arrival at Dobi, we headed to the community centre which is essentially the open play field of the local, government-run primary school in the community. Upon sighting the obvious strangers, the people of the community started coming out – cautiously at first and later, upon ascertaining that we meant no harm, they trouped out enmasse to welcome their august visitors.

We soon organized them and started off with medical attention for kids (immunization, de-worming, essential vitamins and other preventive medications against sundry ailments). We had enough doctors on the team and they soon set up on-site consultations and issued prescriptions which were dispensed by the on-site pharmacy – all free of charge.

From medicals, we moved them to the section where they got clothings, footwares, foodstuff, mosquito nets and other essential necessities. It was a scene of joy, of gratitude and of appreciation.

The church had earlier sunk a borehole for the community as the closest water source hitherto was kilometers away – and the water was of suspect hygienic condition.

At some point, we decided to go into the houses to attend to those who were too ill, too old or too weak to come to the field. We took the goodies to them into their houses. Those whose medical conditions we could not handle onsite, we referred them to the Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital with whom we had made an arrangement for free treatment of those we would be referring to them.

One thing struck me as we were engaged in that outreach at Dobi on April 1, 2013; we are really all very selfish people!

Here we were in a community without electricity. The only water they have being the one we sunk for them. Life in this community consists of joining the community engagement of farming as soon as you can put one step in front of the other.

We saw kids that were content to wear faded and worn out clothes, footwares were a luxury, kids of indeterminate futures, kids that have obviously started out in life with a handicap. A handicap of location, a handicap of backwardness, a handicap of no access to essential necessities of life. Yet we live in jaded oblivion an hour’s drive away from them. We whine about irregular power supply, we raise a mighty ruckus when we can’t get the toys we want (adults have toys too) and we generally carry on in a huff whenever we are subjected to the slightest discomfort.

The children of Dobi did not choose where they were born. The children of other locations where they experience strife and turmoil making it impossible to have what you and I consider a normal upbringing did not choose where they were born either. We were fortunate to be born into the families and communities that we were born into which afforded us a head start of education, civilization and a promise that if you follow a certain path, fair chances are that your life will be guaranteed a progressively positive outcome.

So what do we do with all that privilege, we whine, we eat and throw away the leftovers. We keep clothes in our wardrobes that we do not wear in years, we crumple our nose and contort our faces at the slightest discomfiture. We have grown to believe that so long as we and our immediate family are comfortable, then it’s all good.

We are simply put, very selfish people!

The people of Dobi thought me a lesson. It’s not just enough to perfunctorily stop by at a motherless babies home on your birthday every year, it’s not just enough to selectively give to the needy, it’s not just enough to be nice to your neighbour. It’s a good place to start but it’s not the destination. The decision we must all take is to remember those who were not as fortunate as we were. As God blesses you and you advance in life, do not think of yourself alone. Spare a thought for those who did not choose where they were born. A borehole, a new class room block, books, clothes, a community skills centre, an irrigation project, whatever your income bracket, there is a project that you can execute at a community like Dobi near to you.

If we all make a conscious decision to spare a thought for those who are not as fortunate as we are, then perhaps, we will stop being as selfish as we all apparently and incidentally are.