Follow Us on Google
Peter Anosike
Members of the Electrical Dealers Association of Nigeria (EDAN) have donated bags of rice and cash to truck pushers, food vendors, cleaners and other less privileged people who usually earn their livelihood at the market.
Explaining the reason for the corporate gesture, executive chairman of Electrical Dealers Association of Nigeria, Ichie Fabian Ezeorjika, said, since the lockdown, truck pushers, food vendors, cleaners and others who do petty jobs in the market had been thrown into hunger and misery.
Ezeorjika who is also the president of Alaba Amalgamated Association Council of Sectional Heads, said that the gesture became necessary due to the level of hardship that is biting those who earn their living on a daily basis.
He said the group decided to join hands with the government of Lagos State and Hon. Ursula, Olusola Onowu, the chairman of Ojo Local Government Area, in bringing palliatives to the suffering masses.
He said when the association came up with the idea to help the poor in their midst, two notable philanthropists in the market, Cyril Oghaego of C Divine Answers Nigeria Limited and Emeka Ugwu Nathaniel of Emenent Star Limited, supported the gesture with cash.
He stated that: “The lamentations and suffering were quite loud. These are people who earn their living on a daily basis. Most of them have families and it is the little that they are making in the market on a daily basis that they are using to fend for them.
“Things are also not rosy with us the leaders because our businesses are also locked down. But we have to tax one another to ameliorate their suffering. These are indeed challenging times. This COVID-19 pandemic is testing our culture of being our brother’s keeper and we have to rise to the challenge. We have to prove that being our brothers and sisters keeper is not a mere slogan but a reality.
General secretary of the association, Ihionu Chukwudi, said the palliative would not be a one-off gesture. He urged those blessed with wealth to remember the poor in the land.
He said over 500 people benefitted from the association’s gesture, adding that the more donations they get from wealthy traders in the market, the more they would be sharing to the less privileged and other vulnerable people in their midst.
Ihionu appealed to the Federal Government to come to the aid of suffering Nigerians.
