By Christian Agadigbe

The Candlelight Foundation, a Lagos-based charity organisation, during the yuletide, paid a visit to the indigent residents around the Ojuelegba underbridge area and distributed Christmas packs to them. 

The ultimate quest was to alleviate their plight with a generous distribution of foodstuff and toiletries including rice, cassava flakes, vegetable oil, sachets of tomato paste, cooking condiments, skincare and hair products, hygiene packs, juice packs, toothbrushes and toothpastes, among others. Over 300 families benefitted from the effort.

Speaking at the occasion, the Executive Director of Candlelight Foundation, Uzoamaka Okeke, blamed the current skyrocketing food prices, inflation and dollar exchange rate as major drivers of hardship incountry.

Related News

“Rice is a staple food in Nigeria. A bag of rice now is almost N40,000. That’s one thing that the poor and the less advantaged can access during Christmas. But now they cannot access it,” she lamented.

Okeke said for Candlelight Foundation, “the most significant part is for us to do our bid in bringing succour to the indigents. You know that our brothers and sisters, our neighbours, everybody is having a bit of a high time this Christmas and so anything we can do to help. We can keep moving forward and try to hit a goal. We will do all we can. This is a country of about 200 million people trying to hit a certain goal by 2030. If everybody can do a little, we will hit that goal,” the founder pointed out. 

To attain this pivotal feat by 2030, Okeke implored the Nigerian government to give way to people who “know what to do, the people that have our best interest at heart to do what they need to do. We are in a very dangerous position in Nigeria. Any little thing like this now, the people who have been quiet, who the government has been sitting on will rise and when they realise the power at their disposal, there’s nothing that the government will do.”

The people are angry, they are tired, she cautioned. While lamenting that the people are starving and desperate, the Candlelight boss enjoined the government to address the anguish of the people now while they can.