The Candlelight Foundation Delights over 300 Lagosians at Yuletide

Rebecca Ejifoma

It was for these indigent citizens that the Candlelight Foundation exists. Both the young and the old filed out on three columns at the Ojuelegba underbridge to benefit from the benevolence of the Christmas bag pack.  

The ultimate quest was to alleviate their plights 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 toothpaste among others for over 300 families. 

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

“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 bemoaned.

Because Okeke foresaw their yearnings, her foundation decided to do this. “You know that our brothers and sisters, our neighbours, everybody is having a bit of a high time this Christmas so anything we can do to help.”

For the Candlelight Foundation, the most significant part is for them to do their bid in bringing succour to the indigents. 

“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 to hit a certain goal by 2030. If everybody can do a little, we will hit that goal,” the founder pointed out. 

And 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 that their power is more together, there’s nothing that the government will do.”

The people are angry, she cautioned. They are tired. 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.