Obasanjo’s Philanthropy as Building Blocks of Sustainable Development

To mark the 85th birthday of one of Africa’s foremost statesman and Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, 85 beneficiaries became owners of tricycles through their participation in ‘OBJ @85 Free Keke Programme’. James Sowole in Abeokuta reports that this act of philanthropy went a long way in empowering the winners

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, world-renowned economist, likens development as a ladder, and on this ladder, individuals climb each rung one step at a time. In his illustration in his book, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of our Time, he declares that the basic steps in ending extreme poverty is to get the poor to put their feet unto the ladder of development.
Every other action in the development process would involve actions aimed at keeping such persons stayed on that ladder.
He argues that this development ladder hovers above the heads of the poor while they are stuck beneath it, principally because they lack access to the basic capital they need to get a foothold on the ladder. He classifies this capital that the poor lack into six categories: human capital; business capital; infrastructure, natural capital, public administration, and knowledge capital.

The lack of these forms of capital or their existence in very low quantities per person leads to what Sachs, the Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York, calls the trap of poverty. This explains why the poor can be stuck at very low levels of development over long periods of time because they lack the lever that can lift them from one level of activity to the other. Or, on the analogy of the ladder, they are not able to lift their legs to the first rung of the ladder.
“They lack the minimum amount of capital necessary to get a foothold, and therefore need a boost up to the first rung,” Sachs wrote in his book.

Every little addition of capital to the production process, whether business capital, human capital, natural capital or knowledge capital is an elixir to the individual that lifts him or her to the next rung. It is through such incremental accumulation of capital that individuals, and therefore the society collectively climbs on the path of sustainable development.
This is the process by which nations’ capital stocks grow and by that, the productive capacity grows. The result of that process is usually the attainment of stable development that can stand the fluctuations that economies often go through.
This is what happened with 85 “lucky” Nigerians recently. Each of them became the owner of brand new tricycles (known as keke in local parlance) has become part of the rhythm and colour of most of Nigerian cities where they facilitate the movement of people, goods and services.
They became the owners of the Kekes through their participation in the “Obasanjo @85” event, ‘OBJ @85 Free Keke Programme’ The event took place on Saturday, June 11, 2022, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta to mark the 85th birthday of one a foremost African statesman and Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Each of the beneficiaries participated in a transparent online competition that invited Nigerian youths from across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to apply for the tricycles.
Since its introduction into the Nigerian transportation scene in the 1990s by Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (hence the name, Keke Marwa), who was the Military Administrator of Lagos State then, Keke has become synonymous with the people’s city wagon, giving Nigerians at the base of the economic pyramid a shot at economic empowerment.
Across the nation, Kekes have become a platform that empowers individuals to climb unto the first rung of the development ladder, bidding poverty goodbye. Possession of one Keke can thus set an individual on the path of economic and financial independence, if it is operated well and professionally.
The OBJ@85 Free Keke Programme will work with beneficiaries to avail them platforms for receiving health, safety and financial advisory.
Beneficiaries include men and women in line with encouraging diversity and inclusion, ideals that remain entrenched in President Obasanjo’s life philosophy.
In addition to generating income to meet immediate needs, with good planning, beneficiaries can save part of the income for future investments.
By facilitating the transportation of goods and people, this little automobile has become an enabler to businesses, both big and small. Its small size is an advantage since it can reach many places with ease.
Each of the winners has a robust plan on how to deploy this piece of capital into an already existing business or a new one entirely, in anticipation of generating revenue and possibly multiplying it.
One of the beneficiaries, Bashir Ali Modu, from Borno State is a 29-year-old final year student of pure and applied chemistry in the University of Maiduguri.
“I am excited about this award,” he said at the award-giving ceremony in Abeokuta. “I will use this Keke to make more profit. I will not sell it. I will help people and possibly buy more to boost my Keke business,” said Modu.
His plan is in sync with the words of the Nigerian statesman, OBJ, as he has come to be known. Like the Biblical talents, what matters is what a beneficiary does with the Keke. “It is not the opportunity that matters most; it is the use that you make of the opportunity,” the former president told the beneficiaries.
Modu said he sees big opportunities for his Keke business back home in Borno State where the government has banned the operation of motorcycles popularly known as Okada.
For Kusimo Omotoyosi, a 20-year-old female factory attendant at a water bottling company in Abeokuta, winning the tricycle has opened a new vista for her life. Her emergence as a winner is peculiar in the sense that she won hers at the venue of the ceremony.
Kusimo said she will initially drive it and later employ a driver, when she gains admission into a university to study Banking and Finance.
“The Keke will reduce her stress from walking,” she said.
With such plans already being nursed by the recipient, it’s clear that they may be on their way out of poverty, by taking one step at a time.