I recently wrote an article suggesting the scrapping of the scrap metal business, which some people vehemently objected to because they benefit from it in one way or another. This brings us to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), which may appear to have no connection with the topic under discussion.
But they do. Broadly divided, there are three types of NGOs. At the opposing ends are those founded and funded by governments at federal and state levels to always do their bidding and sing their praises. On the other end is the type founded and financed by the Western world to defend the guilty and find the Nigerian government at fault for actions it takes against criminals. Both types operate loudly to justify the funding they receive from their sponsors.
In between, there is the genuine type that operates quietly but achieves tangible results for all to see. It consists of both Nigerians and human-loving foreigners, including Westerners.
The first group, the local one, might not like this write-up, as many of their members may likely see it as a threat to a system they benefit from immensely. This has happened before.
In the article, I noted that the hardship, suffering, poverty, and hunger endured by most citizens in the country have forced many into unfortunately becoming beggars or criminals (not by choice). This, though, does not excuse their bad behavior.
Specifically, the article stated:
“Many of the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in Nigeria either serve the locality and the locals or serve the interests of their foreign sponsors, which are not always edifying.
Two events led me to write this piece. The first is the uncelebrated and unsung but helpful actions of an NGO, which recently demonstrated this by rendering assistance to a popular big mosque in Katsina town. The NGO silently built a borehole for the mosque free of charge, without making noise about it. The borehole remains the source of water for mosque users and some neighbors who need its services.
The second event is the insidious writing of a Western embassy in Abuja, which someone passed off as his opinion but was exposed by someone who had earlier seen the write-up as a statement from the embassy in question. I had not seen that statement to be judgmental about it, but I read the ‘opinion’ and thought it was more like a hate statement—a copy-and-paste job, in other words.
The ‘opinion’ in question tried to pitch Nigeria against a neighboring country it never had any cause to quarrel with while praising its hostile neighbors as her ‘friends.’ Some friends indeed—one of them dragged Nigeria to the International Court over a disputed territory, and the judgment went against Nigeria. Despite the fact that this matter is not a closely guarded secret, a Western power wants to tell Nigeria that country is its friend.
For the information of the Western country, Nigeria does not need it to tell her who her friends and enemies are. Both can be judged by their actions towards her.
There are NGOs and there are NGOs. Some NGOs serve useful purposes, while others the country would be better off without, because of their insidious utility. While the former category goes about their activities silently, without fanfare, the latter category ‘announces’ everything they do, which always happens to be against the government. They do this openly and with fanfare to attract the attention of their paymasters and justify the funding they receive for that particular assignment. Although the latter are in the majority, they are hardly heard, and when they are heard, it is to make a case for the offender and fight the government, no matter the circumstances of its actions.
Some vehicles, whether cars, motorcycles, or bicycles, are stolen and sold as scrap to scrap metal dealers. Regardless of the vehicle’s condition, the dealer quickly has them cannibalized into scraps and transported to where they are melted and exported to some parts of the world, where they are recycled into various products.
The thieves of metallic materials, as is happening in Abuja (with the rampant stealing of manhole covers), or polymer objects for sale to the ‘scrap metal’ dealer, do not advertise themselves on their foreheads. They may appear well-dressed and drive very good vehicles, like the ‘gentleman’ caught stealing a manhole cover in Abuja, or look very wretched, like the many beggars swarming the streets in the North. All of them may well be in the neighborhood looking for what to steal and sell to receivers of stolen articles or so-called scrap metal dealers.
At the best of times, Nigeria is teeming with drug addicts and drunks who would steal anything available around them to sell in order to afford their next ‘fix’ from dealers. Unfortunately, the country is not in the best of times at the moment, creating a field day for such individuals and even some otherwise sane people to become public nuisances whose major preoccupation is to lay their hands on anything ‘stealable.’
Such drugged and drunk individuals even steal at places of worship, like mosques and churches. Some crazies go to the length of arranging the Holy Quran, one on top of another, in mosques to steal out-of-reach items, like ceiling fans and loudspeakers. This has forced the introduction of burglar-proof measures to prevent theft in most places of worship in Nigeria.
Nigeria is in an unfamiliar, unstable, unfriendly, and unfavorable environment, where siblings living apart abandon one another. Acquaintances are scared to relate with each other. Friends fear to answer calls or reply to text messages. All fear that the caller or sender may request some kind of assistance.
May God get Nigeria out of the adversity it is currently facing and provide the country with lasting succor, so that most citizens may heave a sigh of relief and say, ‘Today is better than yesterday.’
Labaran wrote from Katsina.
