I’ve always advocated for a social welfare system for the Nigerian people. However, some people have persisted in countering it for several reasons.
Some will say Nigeria doesn’t have a good database. That has been interesting to me simply because Nigeria does have at least four ways in which a willing administration could get data if it really wanted to.
The first is the registration of deaths and births. The second is the Bureau of Census. The third is the National Identification Program. The fourth is the passport issuance office. There are others, like the electoral commission and the bank verification number.
However, for reasons best known to the government, the issue of no data persists.
Apart from that, as much as I applaud the Lagos state government for trying to feed its populace at these trying times, I tend to disagree with the manner of distribution of relief materials.
Someone reported a lorry of Lagos state relief materials surfacing in Abeokuta, Ogun state. Some residents of Lagos are not happy with the manner of distribution either.
Now, the cookies have come home to crumble. People are hungry, and some have resorted to savage self-preservation.
Stealing!
I learned that some have been carting away food items from the distribution centres, and others have been attacking homes and stores to steal whatever they can find.
While it may be fashionable for the developed world to order its citizens to stay home, people in developing countries may find it hard to do so.
People will always go out to seek their daily bread except in cases where the government shows it cares!
040820
