LUFLI: Lifting Hands; Not Giving Hand Out!

Dr. Jarlath Uche Opara
Jarlathuche@gmail.com

Since I came back from my village shortly before Christmas and the various video clips of many Igbo billionaires showing massive wealth display in an enviroment that is replete with poverty, insecurity, hunger and basic infrastructural deficit my heart aches and rejoices.

It aches because our people are by day dying, diminishing and losing values in an enviroment that is potent enough to give all sustainable and decent livelihood.

Our challenge is lack of waste mangement of the massive individual resources often times redudant in many individual pockets, deployed oftetimes to pick walnuts from the stoking fire of projects that may not be development forsighted and sustainably crafted.

The challenge of an average Nigerian who lives in joblessness, paled by hunger and devalued by the clobering of pennilessness isn’t hand out. Hand out may be an emergency intervention , if it continues without a delibrate move to lift up hands through empowerment, would lead to such a person’ gradual dehumanization.

This sadly has been the ugly and most unfortunate reality of many . Many of them have come to the lowest ebb of their dignity as humans. Nothing is left for them to be seen and be dignified as humans. They have fallen, so low and flat to the crumps, which they relish from the table of those who find joy doing such, most times in an over dramatized social media spaces.

LUFLI (Let Us Fix Life Initiative) This is an intiative that should thrive on lifting hands not doling out hand out. An initiative that will temporary give relief to move one out of EICU( Economic Intensive Care Unit) To lifting ones hand for self reliance. When Ken Wytsma in his book Pursuing Justice said never give a handout when you can give a hand up and never do for others what they can do for themselves he captures the difference between temporary triage and lasting health.

If all our Nigerian billionairs, politicitians, bussiness moguls etc who have been quite generous in giving yearly hand out to the poor and the hungry in their community decide to lift hands up instead, Nigeria will be fixed by Nigerians Insecurity, local stealing etc will stop, a busy hand and a positively preocupied mind has no evil to think about.

LUFLI(Let Us Fix Life Initiative) should be the new bull’ eye where every arrow of goodwill should hit. Hand out is good, the truth is, it is not sustainable. No amount of fish given on gratis can make one self reliant. Teach them instead, if one would want them grow with diginity , honor and self esteem.

If you are interested in this as a patrotic Nigerian , come on board. Let us make this happen. Distributing more nets and hooks is more empowering and sustainable than giving out an already caught fish . Sea and the abundance of fish to be caught isnt a challenge. Just give out nets and hooks and watch the surge of better and decent life in our country Nigeria .

Ubuntu! I am because we are. Until majority of Nigerians become sustainably engaged, no matter the trillion flowing in and out of few individual pockets and their yearly give aways and relief, large numbers of poor Nigerians will still be abjectly poor. Hand out no matter how massive is mere temporary triage. Nigerians need lasting health of intentional empowerment.

Come over ! Let us make it happen!! “Money football” as played by most money bags is nothing if it doesn’t score goals of lifting up hands

LUFLI! Our 2025 slogan!