13/12/2024
ROLL-CALL AT YULETIDE: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PUBLIC BAGS AND PRIVATE WALLETS
©Prince Udeme Akpabio, JP
In every festive season in Africa, especially the Yuletide, different types of goalposts either change positions or get repositioned. Either ways, the same spectators that were left to their fates from January to November, all of a sudden, become the necessity used in scoring public goals.
The goalposts vary from political, social, to family. On one hand, during festive seasons, political leaders tend to shift their goalposts from their secluded empires and tight security networks to where the masses are, in order to attract one more feather to their shoulders. The very point of concern is when they do so as if boots they wear in kicking the ball doesn't belong to the same masses. They look more like 'Father Christmas'.
All of these are to gain social approval and acceptability. Some of them, especially during Christmas before 2023 general elections, were seen hawking banana, bread, groundnuts, and the likes, just to explain that they themselves feel what the people feel. But after the elections, "to your tent o Israel". In families also, there are some good-standing individuals who only remember that their people have need of them, during major festive periods, even those trusted with commonwealth of the people.
Moreover, there is a big difference between those (Political leaders) who dish out relief materials from the bags owned by the people (constituency budgets) and those who do same solely from their pockets. So, before that ovation becomes loud, let every benefactor count their teeth with their tongues.
Yuletide is here again, and in a matter of few days, so many goalposts will emerge. Questions in the mind are; Is your goalpost stationary or seasonal? Are you sure that what you are branding to give out is not really the people's? If it belongs to the people, are you sure there is no hole in their public bag? If you are not a political office holder, what is the intention behind what you are planning to do during this Christmas season? Do you just want to answer a "Philanthropist" or that you have passion for people?
Talking about Passion for people reminds me of a young entrepreneur, political leader, and philanthropist in Cross River State, Engr. Ben Akak aka King of Impacts, who is better known for having unrepentant and undying passion for people of all classes, especially those in dire needs. His unwavering and heartfelt passion for people gave birth to the formation of *Ben Akak Foundation*, on which auspices he has touched so many lives, beyond ethnic boundaries.
The past five years have been like the case of a good Samaritan and the helpless Man on the roadside, as the Otuekong Ukwa Eburutu, Ben Akak, via his Ben Akak Foundation has stretched his hands of benevolence and impacts to thousands of people from every part of the Country, hence his nick name, "King of Impacts(KOI)". In a fair rating, Akak's Foundation has scored reasonably, having lived up to most of its objectives, especially in the area of "Promoting Access to Essential Resources". The interesting part about the activities of the young philanthropist is that he gives in season and out of season.
The consistent and all - weather benevolence of Otiekong Engr. Ben Akak, KOI, therefore, has become an undeniable parameter of comparison between those who give only at festive period from constituency budgets and those who give from their hard earned resources, whether during Christmas or not.
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I am;
Prince Udeme Akpabio, JP,
•Pencil in the hands of the Creator.
[email protected]
08135905617
