Poverty and the tragedy at Ramadan charity

According to reports, while people in charge of the charity where packaging the items, the  people that gathered outside the gate for the charity  got impatient and broke into the gate, causing a stampede.In the blessed month of Ramadan, it is the ambition of every Muslim to give out some food items to others, even […]

According to reports, while people in charge of the charity where packaging the items, the  people that gathered outside the gate for the charity  got impatient and broke into the gate, causing a stampede.
In the blessed month of Ramadan, it is the ambition of every Muslim to give out some food items to others, even if it is a piece of date for breaking the fast, for the immense reward one gets from God.
So the good intention of Alhaji  Danfulani to help the needy in this month of Ramadan is to be emulated by those that are wealthy, but don’t help the needy. He is also said to give food items and money to the needy every Friday.
However, perhaps the problem arose from poor planning. With the benefit of hindsight, the food items should have been packaged ready for distribution before people are invited to go and collect to prevent rowdiness and fighting.
Now a good deed has turned into an unforgettable tragedy.
In any case, in such gatherings to collect charity, you are sure to see more women and children than men. In other words, mothers and their children are kind of on their own to fend for themselves. It is a pity.
Some of these women may be widows, divorcees and even married ones, but whose husbands cannot feed them. Therefore with the news of getting free food items, they will  definitely  go there with their children, to get more shares. If you go with your three children, and each of you gets a package, so much the better.
The level of poverty that led to the death of these women in the stampede questions the effectiveness of government programmes to address poverty over the years, such as National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) which was established in 2001 to eradicate poverty among Nigerians. This also includes state governments’ programmes that are supposed to address poverty.
This problem is beyond  Zamfara State, because  I dare say if such charity food items were to be given to the needy in every state, people would throng the venues.
Of course, this is not saying that there will never be poor people in Nigeria. There will always be the rich and the poor, but the level should be reduced by training them and giving them loans aggressively to empower them to be self reliant.
While there are indeed some of these empowerment programmes by some state governments, in some cases, the very people that need the training are sidelined while cronies of politicians that may not even need it are included.
Another point is that these trainings are always for women and youth, but what about the men with families; some have lost their jobs while some are not trained in any trade. So they will also benefit from trainings, after all they are the heads of the family and it is their responsibility to cater for their families.
By the way, because of the prevalence of poverty  in the country, in the 2011 general  election as in previous ones, women were given bars of soap,  detergents ,noodles among other items to vote for certain candidates.
Few lucky ones got wrappers.  Well,  some haven’t had a wrapper (new clothes)  bought by their husbands for years, not even for Sallah or Christmas , so all the preaching of not to sell their votes, as it is akin to selling their rights fell on deaf ears , so to say.
The death of those women in the stampede should be a pointer to our governments both at the federal and state levels that what they are doing to address poverty is not enough. They should do more. While the rich and the not so rich should also help in whatever way to uplift the poor from rung of the ladder.