Friday Sermon: The Forgotten Remain Forgotten

The Prophet (SAW) said, “Any man who Allah has given the authority of ruling some people and he does not look after them in honest manner, will never feel even the smell of Paradise.” Sahih al-Bukhari; Book of Judgments (Ahkam)

They are the unaccounted for; forsaken and ditched by society, consigned to the dustbin of poverty, hewers of wood and drawers of water; ‘the wretched of the earth’; they are the forgotten who have remained forgotten.

They seek a living, not from the leftovers but from the waste dumps and dustbins of life. They are dirty, unkempt; spiritually and physically naked. They are perpetually sick and diseased. Without means of livelihood and unemployable, sometimes even as common labourers. The dredge of societies, who merely exist but are not living, exist on the periphery of death; they are ‘the forgotten’.

They live and die in obscurity: Many are not even deserving of decent burial but dumped in unmarked graves or left to decompose in sewers and ‘evil forests; meat for the clarions and vultures.

To placate them, we promise them hope; the elixir of the poor. We tell them ‘ogadimma’, ‘ego better’. And where that fails, we sell them ‘renewed hope’. We raise their expectations of a better tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the forgotten have seen through all our shenanigans. They are only waiting for the propitious hour to strike at our underbelly. The quote you are looking for is attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln 1858

Their plight leads to a revisit of the thorny issue of Theodicy; an attempt to answer the question, why God allows suffering, why a supposedly Benevolent and Omnipotent God allows their plight which is capable of shaking the foundation of their faith. In desperation they would cry out as David did in Psalm 22:1 or as Jesus did in Matthew 27:46 :“Eli Eli Lama  Sabachthani.” My God my God why has Thou forsaken me.

On the contrary, others in similar fates have not waxed spiritual but have decided to take their fate in their hands instead of waiting for God. They have concluded that God is in collusion with their oppressors. Therefore, we learn recently that the masses in Madagascar have opened Holy Ghost fire on their leaders and their president has run away after the soldiers joined the protestors. This will not be a new development.

They know they exist but are not living. The concept of a benevolent God is becoming  alien to them. What manner of preaching can you make to people who are perpetually in hunger, want and deprivation? What scripture can fill their empty stomach? Their women give birth to unwanted children who eventually become a nuisance to society; swelling the army of the forgotten.

Their lives are not captured by statistical data being peddled by economic agencies such as the World Bank and IMF. They are not worth the pen and ink we use in chalking up these data on poverty. Of what meaning is the dollar a day to people who cannot comprehend a Naira a day? They are not part of the national economy. They exist on the periphery of the economic system. They are victims and collateral damage of a corrupt, unkind and evil society.

Poverty is a ruthless and relentless enemy with an arsenal of weapons: infant mortality, hunger, disease, illiteracy and child labor, among other things. The list of obstacles the poor must overcome seems endless, insurmountable and insuperable.

Facts highlight the devastating effect poverty has on its victims, especially the most vulnerable. How does health impact poverty? Does a lack of education cause poverty, or does poverty create a lack of access to education? And can poor health impact education, too? It gets complicated. Cause and effect can be difficult to pin down. In reality, all of these challenges are intertwined.

Everyone knows that education is important, and its role in giving kids a ticket out of poverty is huge! But, who gives education to the children of the ‘forgotten’? 23 million children out of school and still counting!

“Get a job!” If only it were that easy. Stable employment is key for escaping poverty. But where are the jobs? Significant barriers to finding jobs stand in the way.

Not enough of the right vitamins and minerals to be healthy. What is the meaning of vitamins to the forgotten that have nothing to eat and no hope of any food on the table? They do not even have a table to put food on. The how, what, when and where of food disparity is a difficult nut to crack – and even more so when dealing with poverty.

Child poverty is a problem of the developing world. Think again. Even wealthier nations like the United States struggle with kids in poverty, and it has huge consequences for their futures. Africa, where half of the populations are children, is home to the world’s poorest people and least prosperous countries. Conditions there make it hard to escape poverty.

The World Bank recently expressed concern that despite Nigeria’s ongoing reforms and  economic stabilization efforts, about 139 million citizens are now living in poverty, warning that the country risks losing reform gains if they fail to translate into tangible improvements in people’s welfare. This has been the bane of our economy: Growth without development and development without improvement in the lives of the people. Statistics and figures without appreciable change in the lives of the people.

New skyscrapers are springing up in Abuja and Lagos, new bridges and flyovers dot the landscape but these macroeconomic improvements had yet to translate into improved living conditions for ordinary Nigerians. At best, they are symbols of elite development. They do not translate to ameliorating the poverty of the people.

“Despite the so-called economic reforms, many households are still struggling with eroded purchasing power. Poverty, which began to rise in 2019 due to policy missteps and external shocks, has continued to increase even after the reforms”; says the World Bank.

As we write, inflation still bites hard; even as they claim that it is going down; making nonsense of the wages of the people. Living standards remain stagnant and in many cases in reverse gear. And social protection coverage for the poor and vulnerable is only on paper.

The data on poverty in Africa remains chilling. Extreme poverty remains a major challenge across parts of Africa, with new data showing that millions continue to live on less than three dollars a day.

According to the data, Africa accounts for 20 of the 30 countries with the highest levels of extreme poverty worldwide, underscoring ongoing challenges including slow industrial growth, weak infrastructure, and limited access to essential social services.

Poverty remains heavily concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture and informal trade continue to dominate local economies.

In many countries, the slow pace of industrial growth and limited access to modern services have constrained income opportunities and living standards.

Even in relatively diversified economies such as Kenya and Uganda, nearly half of the population still lives in extreme poverty.

The situation has been affected by inflationary pressures and institutional challenges; weak job creation, and limited access to education, healthcare, and infrastructure deficit.

In resource-rich nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, strong mining revenues have yet to deliver widespread economic improvement, with public investment constrained by governance issues and persistent infrastructure gaps.

As Africa continues to pursue its long-term development goals, there is an urgency of addressing inequality and improving access to essential services to ensure that economic progress benefits a broader share of the population.

Almost three-fifths of the world’s extreme poor are concentrated in just five countries: Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, and Nigeria. Eighty percent of the worldwide poor live in rural areas; 64 percent work in agriculture; 44 percent are 14 years old or younger; and 39 percent have no formal education at all.

Eleven children under age 5 die every minute, and 35 mothers die during childbirth every hour. Every year nearly 45 percent of all under 5 child deaths are among new-born infants, babies in their first 28 days of life or the neonatal period. Three quarters of all new-born deaths occur in the first week of life. Chilling statistics indeed!

In developing countries nearly half of all mothers and newborns do not receive skilled care during and immediately after birth. Up to two thirds of newborn deaths can be prevented if known, effective health measures are provided at birth and during the first week of life. Every day, 800 women die from causes related to pregnancy, childbirth, or postpartum. Most maternal deaths occurred in developing countries. An estimated 62% of maternal deaths are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ending extreme poverty by 2030 is the first of the World Bank Group’s goals. But, is it realizable? Wahala lies ahead for the poor and not so poor. With the rapid march of technology jobs are being lost and will continue to be lost on a daily, monthly and yearly basis; swelling the army of dispossessed and impoverished. They are the collateral damage of a technological and computer age.

Let it be remembered that numbers alone don’t count for much in history. History is often shaped by small groups of forward-looking innovators rather than by the backward-looking masses. Can our leaders provide the answers? No Sir! These are people who cannot make projections into the future; 25 to 50 years. All they think about is the NOW. The future is therefore bleak not only for the Forgotten, but also for the not so forgotten.

Then when the (Jumu’ah) Salat (prayer) is finished, you may disperse through the land, and seek the Bounty of Allah (by working, etc.), and remember Allah much, that you may be successful. (Quran 62:10)

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend