By Aare Afe Babalola

LAST week, I concluded my write-up on Leadership Challenges in the Sub-Sahara Africa. This week, I will begin my examination of the critically important issue of “Philanthropy and Sustainable Development”. However, I wish to thank the numberless readers for their comments through phone calls, emails and text messages. Due to lack of space I intend to publish two of the comments in this edition: 

(a) Ime Jonah writes: I just stumbled on Part 1 of your insightful contribution to the discourse on leadership in the newspaper and I am happy that an outstanding and highly revered personality like you have had to make out time to be a part of the discourse. 

When people like you speak up, things are bound to take a new shape. As you rightly pointed out, sir, the problem of Africa, first and foremost, is the problem of leadership. Most African leaders lack capacity and character. Our leadership culture is also largely predicated on sentiments, parochialism, narrow-mindedness and greed. No nation, treading this path, ever gets to its destination. 

Our country, Nigeria, for instance, has ignored and has stubbornly refused to embrace the principles of group success, which other successful countries have been exploiting to their greatest advantage. The earlier we understand this and do something about it, the better for us. There is hope. I run a leadership training centre where we train young people in the finest principles of leadership and group success and we are beginning to see very promising results. Like Abraham Lincoln, we strongly believe that “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. I hope I see the remaining parts of your discourse when they are published. More power to your elbow, sir.

(b) Deacon Dapo Omotosho writes: Nigeria should return to the basis of her greatness. Each time I look at the cartographical representation of Nigeria as a country, I marvel at the awesomeness of God. In my human thinking, I continue to ask myself the following question: Is Nigeria conceived initially by God to be a country? Having been familiar with the geography of the world, I have never known any part of it that is as uniquely created as Nigeria. The country is divided into three distinct parts by the Niger and Benue Rivers to form letter Y. 

Each of the three parts is endowed naturally with abundant resources. If such natural resources are tapped and managed by the people who inhabit the parts, each of the three parts could become an enviably prosperous country in the world. No wonder why people in different countries of the world refer to the First Republic in Nigeria as the country’s Golden Age. It was then we had four distinct Regions of the East, West, Mid-West and North. The regional governments then competed with one another to excel in their respective administrations. 

After the termination of the regional governments in a coup d’etat on January 15, 1966, all the other subsequent Republics could be wrapped up as anathema to the corporate existence of Nigeria. Having gambled from 1966 to date, we should now collectively, patriotically and expeditiously resolve to restructure our polity. 

The six geo-political Zones of East, West, South-South, North-East, North-Central and North-West should, with effect from 2023, perform the same statutory functions hitherto performed by the defunct four regions in the First Republic. The states in each zone should pool their resources together to make their respective zones attain greater heights in all aspects of governance. At the national level, let us revert to the status quo of the First Republic. The above suggested model will stimulate competition among the six zones and the entire country will return to the basis of her greatness. 

The word “philanthropy.”  Oxford English Dictionary defines the word “philanthropy” to mean the practice of helping the poor and those in need, especially by giving money. It is generally agreed that the word was coined 2500 years ago in ancient Greece by the playwright, Aeschylus. 

The author wrote about the primitive creatures that were first created. They were not human. At first, they had no knowledge, skills, or culture of any kind. They lived in caves, in the dark, in constant fear for their lives. Zeus, the tyrannical king of the gods, decided to destroy them, but Prometheus, a Titan whose name meant “forethought”, out of his “philanthropostropos” or “humanity-loving character” gave them two empowering, life-enhancing, gifts: FIRE, symbolising all knowledge, skills, technology, arts, and science; and “blind hope” or optimism. The two went together- with fire. Humans became optimistic; that they could use fire constructively to improve the human condition.

The new word philanthropos, combined two words: “philos”, meaning “loving” in the sense of benefitting, caring for, nourishing; while “anthropos” means” human being” in the sense of “humankind”, “humanity”, or “human-ness”. ‘Philanthropia’ – loving what it is to be human – was thought to be the key to civilization. Putting all this together in modern terms, there are four relatively authoritative definitions of “philanthropy” that come close to the Classical concept: John W. Gardner’s “private initiatives for the public good”; Robert Payton’s “voluntary action for the public good”, Lester Salamon’s “the private giving of time or valuables…. for public purposes” and Robert Bremner’s “the aim of philanthropy …is improvement in the quality of human life”.  Combining these to connect modern philanthropy with its entire previous history, “philanthropy” may best be defined as “private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life”.

Philantropy and religion: Most religious teachings, if not all, are founded on love and the need to be at one with one’s neighbour. The question as to whether as humans we have been able to inculcate and practise these teachings is best left for another day and forum. What cannot, however, be disputed is that Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and other religions have laid down guidelines which ordinarily should make their adherents live pious lives devoid of violence, envy, greed and on the contrary, make all humans exhibit the most admirable of qualities such as honesty, humility, generosity and love. 

Islamic religion and philantrophy: Philanthropy in Islam is a very wide term and is used in the Quran to cover all kinds of charity. Its scope is so vast that even the poor who can have nothing tangible to give can offer Sadaqa in the shape of a smile or a glass of water to a thirsty person, or they may even just utter a kind word.  Good conduct is frequently termed philanthropy in the Hadith. Planting something from which a person, bird or animal later eats also counts as an act of philanthropy in Islam. In this extended sense, acts of loving kindness, even greeting another with a cheerful face is regarded as act of philanthropy in Islam. In short, every good deed is act of philanthropy in Islam.

The concept (and practice) of philanthropy in Islam is the third pillar of the religion. The concept, known as “Zakat”, upon which the faith of Islam is built is the obligation to almsgiving. Popularly referred to as the “poor tax” or “poor-due” Zakat literally means giving back to Allah (God) a portion of His bounty as a means of avoiding the sufferings of the next life and as a method of “purification” of what the individual muslim retains of material possession for himself. No other world religion prior to Islam had required charity in the form of a positive norm of law. Islam alone made it a compulsory duty for each and every believer, man or woman. Zakat is the basis of Islamic social order. Deducting Zakat from one’s earnings is a material acknowledgement of the fact that the actual giver is God. Since the giver is God, the recipient is duty-bound to spend it in His cause. The law of Zakat is to take from those who have wealth and give it away to those who do not have.  This rotation of wealth is a way to balance social inequality.

This free-will charity is truly the test of a Muslim’s character and his willingness to share with the needy.  This is referred to by God as a “loan” which will be increased two-fold in the hereafter. 

This act of giving in Islam is primarily meant for building and maintenance of mosques, schools (religious and secular) and hospitals as well as giving to the poor, women, orphans and communities in distress. In all of the charity conditions of Islam, one thing is often emphasized: if the contribution to humanity, in whatever form, is given ostentatiously, it will not be acceptable as good work.

•Please send your comments and suggestions to my email: president@abuad.edu.ng.