THE BELATED CONCERN: EGURIASE S.M OKAKA

THE BELATED CONCERN BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA A PUBLICATION OF SIR DAVID OSUNDE FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER MAGAZINE (2002:16)

How would you feel when a disabled person dies? Let us put that question at the back of our minds as we consider this piece. Last year it was the story of ‘The Dead Sea’ and this year it is the story of ‘A Belated Concern’ by the same author.

Lately, I stumbled on this poem written by Henry Barlow a Ugandan poet. In his poem ‘Building the Nation’ he told us a story of a greedy Permanent Secretary (PS) and his driver (a Common man). Let us consider this excerpt from the poem and learn from it what he teaches.

                                                Today I did my share

                                                In building the Nation

                                                I drove a permanent secretary

                                                To an important urgent function

                                                In fact to a luncheon at the Vic

                                                The menu reflected its importance

                                                Cold Bell beer with small talk

                                                The fried chicken with niceties

                                                Wine to fill the hollowness of the laughs

                                                Ice-cream to cover the stereotype jokes

                                                Coffee to keep the PS awake in return journey

                                                I drove the permanent secretary back

                                                He yawned many times in the back of the car.

                                                Then to keep him awake, he suddenly asked,

                                                Did you have any lunch, friend?

                                                I replied looking straight ahead

                                                And secretly smiling at his ‘Belated Concern’

                                                That I had not, but was slimming.

Well many of us are still behaving like that permanent secretary while feeling sumptuously in the party, he never remember his driver who drove him there. Without his driver he would not have gotten there let alone having a nice meal. But sad to note, he forgot the benevolence of his driver. Do we still remember that poor man next door to us? Or that physically challenged person close by? If we don’t than it is too bad.

 

In one of Nigeria’s home videos titled, ‘Dead Wretched”. Chris a millionaire refused to help his poor Uncle Oga Lukas who previously sold his landed property and his business assets to exonerate him (Chris) from a court case.  Soon after he was freed and he became wealthy once again but he forgot his Uncle’s benevolence. Oga Lukas now lives in penury while Chris in affluence. He kept postponing helping Oga Lukas till the poor man died of hypertension orchestrated his poverty.

 

After Lukas death,   Chris bought a casket worth 2.3 million naira to bury his late Uncle Oga Lukas whom he never helped till death. That is a befitting coffin he said, but it was another belated concern showed to a dead man. If he had given Oga Lukas that amount of money in his life time to resuscitated his business, his Uncle Lukas would have not died but lived as long as the biblical ‘Methuselah’.

 

In this sub-region, we find that people love the dead more than the living. A burial ceremony I attended before now showed that as much as twenty-five cows was slaughtered. Why is this so? I still can’t figure out. Some said it is just a show of affluence. While others said, seven of the deceased sons lived and work in the United States of America. Is that why they should be licensed to spend such money recklessly? What did they do for their father or mother when they were alive? Some of these parents died of hunger while alive. When their children come from abroad in the name of affluence to waste exaggeratedly for the dead that is medicine after death. 

 

They may not have had enough to eat in their life time yet they are spending a lot for their burial. Just ask yourself, what have you done for the living? There are many in our midst that cannot eat good meals for days not because they are not working hard but because the economic is biting hard on them. Help these days is so scare but you need to show that kindness in you. Remember, ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’. Put smiles on someone’s face today. Look around, you will find reasons to help that less-privileged man or woman near you. Any help you render have a way of repayment by the Almighty God that may be responsible for that unspeakable joy in you. Any good you do is never wasted. ‘Be not weary in well doing for in due time you shall ripe the reward’.

 

Let us come back to our topical question again, how would you feel when a disabled person dies, guilty or not? Will you feel guilty for not helping him when he cried for help or relief for helping him?  Would you say thank God I helped when he or she cried for help? Think on these things they are important.

 

So let us be part of the efforts to alleviate the human sufferings in the land. Join hands with charitable organizations such as Sir David Osunde Foundation who is one of those championing the cause of the down-trodden in our midst. 

 

Helping the poor lays a great treasure for you in heaven. Do not be late with your concern for a person!

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka.