(Modest Thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha, Jan. 12, 2023; 08116181263; loisayuba420@gmail.com)*
When you mirror through the world we live in, it is common to see those who have and those who have not. This dualism and inequality has created a situation where some ended up becoming beggars and others helping out as benefactors. The main thesis of this exposition is that in any functional society, it is natural to have individual needs but becoming beggars to meet such needs of life on daily basis is an unacceptable indictment on our collective humanity.
Whoever has means of helping others but declined is stingy. However, those who need help but will not consider that those they seek help from can also lack are damn selfish. The latter hardly comes under public scrutiny and most often picked offence with those that might have helped out in the past but constrained in the present. Such unreasonable picking of offence is, to say the least, a form of witchcraft, one that seeks to compel someone to help out of duress and from nothing. What is your take folks when someone transfers anger of his unmet needs on an innocent former benefactor?
It was Mathew Arnold who stated that, "We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I do not know." This means that to help is virtuous but to criticise others for not providing your needs even as adults is not and unacceptable. If you are within the active work age bracket, the right thing to do is to work to earn decent means of livelihood, that is, your meal ticket.
It is not a sin to be in need but a crime to blame your poor socio-economic conditions on others. This is because God has given us all that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Availing equal time, equal intellect and opportunity to live healthy lives are primarily part of those provisions. Therefore, when anyone missappriopriate his or hers, then, he/she should have himself to blame. We cannot afford to misused or misappropriated God's holistic resources and not take the blame ourselves except for system and leadership which is common in most developing economies like Nigeria.
Understood, some needs are quite genuine but often come with unsettling pressures. However, we must not be irrational to think that our benefactors are self-sufficient and lacking nothing at all times in this life. Amaechi Nzekwe in his celebrated novel, "The Rich Also Cry" published in 1996 said it all about the possibility of the rich have issues and unmet needs like the poor also do but how many beggars believe this narrative?
Despite the huge resources the rich have, their needs and appetites might be as well big too. In practical terms, people hardly make concessions to the rich in any market transaction except for lobbying purposes which is very rare. On a normal day, what can be sold to the poor for N1,000.00 (One Thousand Naira) only could possibly be sold to the rich at double the price. The mentality is that the latter have it all but that is not always the case. The rich also lack; the only difference is that they are credit worthy due to the collaterals they have at their disposal, interms of the assets they have acquired over time.
There is another mentality that is also worrisome with poor beggers. Apart from picking offence for not getting help from benefactors, sometime the complain is that the support they got is small or too small and might even return it under the guise they are too big and so it is insulting to accept such intervention. This mentality is the main thrust of another Aminata Sow Fall's novel "Beggers' Strike" which was published in 1981.
The question here is: How can a man not be too big to ask but suddenly become so big to accept a free gesture(s)? It is important to know at this point that to be assisted is not a right but a privilege. The fact is that beggars have no choice but this hard fact does not exist in the dictionary of witchcrafting beggars.
For a fact, all benefactors deserve deep appreciation, if not for anything at least, for the audience they usually give those in need. Only ingrats will not appreciate those that had helped or are willing to help but constrained at sometimes. Unfortunately, the world is full of them who picked offence or made their anger visible when things do not go their way in the process of begging.
Experience have shown that most, if not all, ingrats are fantastically stingy people. They found it easy to beg when they have needs but get offended when blessed and others come seeking their help. In other words, stingy people love support but cannot extend same to others when they are in the position to do so.
Beggers hardly realise there is getting in giving. This does not change the fact that there is blessing in giving, especially, when extended with sincerity of purpose and not the Greek type. In other words, to give genuinely and cheerfully is a kingdom recipe for personal blessings and rewards. That is why the scriptures say, 'it is more blessed to give than to receive.' It also assures whoever cares to know that when you give generously, you will find favour ahead (Ecclesiastes 11:1).
Suffice here to state categorically that there is no known gain in receiving not to talk of begging as a way of life. Therefore, there is need to deconstruct the culture of begging with the promptness it deserves and best way to do this and turn beggers into brokers of blessing is to teach the formally or informally to learn how to create wealth cultivate the art of giving themselves. Nobody becomes a benefactor by learning how to beg. The art of begging is a defeatist art and a profile in culture of dependency.
It should be understood that no one is self-sufficient and independent in this world. The world and its people are increasingly becoming interrelated and interdependent in this post-modern (present) world. This implies that no one is an isolated island and that even literal islands have neighbours - the water bodies that surrounds them. However, you do not come to a world so globalised empty handed.The ideal thing is to have a need with something to offer from your end.
Human needs are basic not perpetually supplied to adults. Adulthood means the capacity to take personal responsilities. Only toddlers need sustained interventions until they become adults themselves. This means that even the supply of needs of toddlers is not perpetual but limited by their subsequent graduation into adulthood over time.
As toddlers grow into teenage age, they ought to learn how to begin to contribute to the common wealth of nations from where their meal tickets or sources of livehood come. This is because it is unacceptable liability when one grow to be a free ridder in society. The fact is that responsible adults contribute to the wealth creation and there is no better trademark than this by which they are known!
The capacity of individuals, firms and government and their right to exist is dependent on how much they contribute to the well being and welfare of all in the world of value. This is why economic agents (individual, firms and governments) which cannot substantially contribute to the welfare index of their societies are despised and treated with disdain or disrespect.
It is an incontestable fact that one point or another, all humans beg but begging makes sense only when it is targetted at meeting shortfalls that occur in a time too short to make adjustments through personal effort. Therefore, begging is not and cannot be a profession.
In capitalist nations, beggars are the most miserable of all creatures. This is because in such climes, it is believed there is no free lunch even in free town. That is why the Father of Economics, Adam Smith in his book "The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" which was published in 1776 succintly observed that it is not the benovelence of capitalist oriented baker that brings food or bread to our tables but the pursuit of their self interest which is profit maximisation. In other words, food comes to your table when you have the capacity to produce or pay for it from your hard earnings. That is the reality in capitalist climes!
It is important to note that capitalists can extend help through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and charities but at their own convenience and timing not at the convenience of any beggar or needy persons. Therefore, to be angry with a capitalist for not helping at your beg and call is to be angry to death because your anger cannot change them one inch. What moves a capitalist is the opportunity to make profit not the need of a beggar.
There is nothing as demeaning as becoming a witchcraft in begging. As humans, we all need each other and if possible, no help should be withheld from those with genuine needs but certainly not 'professional' beggars. This is because professional begging is an artificial creation of lazy folks who are lacking in shame and doing nothing to redeem themselves from the shackles and dynasties of poverty.
Beggars have no right to be angry with those they need help from. Also, no helper is under any moral obligation to help those who perceived themselves as professional beggars. Whatever anybody gets in the form of help in this life is a privilege and not a right. May God forever bless all human benefactors and help those who want to be sources of blessing to others to have the means to do so. May God also change the witchcraft (anger) mentality of professional beggars into productive anger for our collective benefit.
In the world of valids, habitual begging is a postponed culture. Whoever picks a lazy adventure as demeaning as begging in this life will have a date with ridiculing and truamatising experiences. No one should be so fated to think that his life is destined for begging as means for survival. With time and effort, the poor can be rich and with laxity and wild passion for pleasure, the rich can be poor. Do not conclude yet, as long as we are alive, there is no such thing as fate sealing in the journey of life!
