Pega and Friends foundation, a charity non-profit organisation passionately driven by the need to enable and facilitate a better life for the less-privileged, will be a decade by December, 2024. In this interview with Stella Odueme, foundation’s founder and director, Prince Ekunola Gbenga Abraham spoke about how it started and how the government can alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians
Excerpts
PEGA Foundation is clocking 10 years, how did it start?
As the name implies, PEGA means Prince Ekunola Gbenga Abraham. So it is the initials
of my names. It started in 2010, and I called it Pega Foundation because it was only me.
And I came with the idea because of my background, what I faced when I lost my mom in
- And you know, a child from a polygamous family faced a lot of challenges. So, then I used to tell myself and
God that if I am able to pass through this stage and I overcome, I will remember those
that are going through the same experience. And again, I will be using it to remember my mom. To God be the glory, I finished my school and I got employed. So after my service year, I started working.
Later, I got another job at the federal level. The first money that I got, I divided it into three.
My dad and the remaining that I was supposed to give to my mom, I gave it to the less- privileged, and to old women that were supposed to be same age with my late mom. I started like that. I did not stop.
In 2012, I had the opportunity that God helped me to assist a lot of my friends and those closed to me
in securing jobs. So they wanted to pay me
back. They would be disturbing me.
Why would you do all these kind of things for people and
cannot collect a dime?
I have made a vow with God that I won’t take anything in return for any help
that God used me for humanity.
If you want to help me in any way, it’s fine, but
it must not be attached to whatever God has used me to do for you.
So how did the Pega and Friends come in?
After I lost my dad in 2014, my friends came
together and supported me.
I appreciated them. Later they came back to me that I have a foundation, Pega
Foundation. Can’t they join it so that we can poll our resources together to support the less- privileged that I have chosen to go with?
And I immediately accepted and that was how we registered the foundation with the CAC and changed the name to Pega and Friends Foundation.
Okay, how do you select those to assist?
I have friends in every geopolitical zone of the country.
So anywhere, anyone or maybe you have the request for help from anybody, we will go there after investigation that the person is truly in need and incapacitated
to take care of themselves, we will help, even in the prison. We have been to several prisons in Nigeria. Those that need water. We drilled borehole for them. In the hospital.
Even some hospitals that don’t have water
running, we drilled borehole for them.
We have done that in several places. We pay for WAEC, NECO fees as well as hospital bills for the less-privileged. So, that is how we started doing this. And God has been merciful. By the special grace of God, this year will be 10 years of our coming together. That is our journey so far.
Alright, so
looking forward, which specific message will you want to pass across?
My
message is in two ways.
The first one is to the government. The government should please look inward.
We have a lot of people that need little help. That is even much in the rural area.
They should stop focusing in the urban area alone. There are a lot of people suffering there. Because the
journey of this foundation has taken me to many villages.
In the north, in the west, in the south and east. I know that a little help can change their life for good.
We complain about people are not ready to do work. But they are ready. Only that they
need little resources.
We have been able to give N50,000 to some people before. And they turned it to become
something today.
Many people like that. So if they can go to those areas. Or partner with a
foundation like ours to go to the villages and the rural areas to empower people, it will assist our people the more.
What about the wealthy people in the society?
My message to the wealthy elite is to see to the welfare of the poor. They should
remember these people that are in needs.
If you go to prison today. The criminality continues to spread in the country because
those who have been taken in custody, are not really seeing the kind of love they are supposed to see inside there. They
are not being empowered like is being done in the advanced country.
Some of these little things government and the well-to-do should do to empower them. Show them love. Even in those rural communities, go there.
A lot of children.that don’t even have shoes and school bags to go to schools, I am talking about real experience.
That is what we do in our own little way. Yes.
I must give the kudos to the current administration. They are trying their possible best.
I have seen their hands in a little way. Only that the managers of all those things are the major problem. You know Mr. President cannot be everywhere.
I am not saying this to defend any government.
Because my foundation is non-governmental. We have not received any help from
the government ever since we started, it has been a personal input.
What about the Humanitarian Ministry?
The Humanitarian Ministry needs to do more and change their managers.
You can see what we have heard about how they mismanaged money there.
Major part of the money is being taken by greedy politicians. So, they should
make sure that the ordinary people in the society benefit from projects and the programmes of the humanitarian ministry. They can partner with some foundations that are grounded for years doing the work. And not the ones that just
come together to siphon the government’s money.
What about lawmakers?
I would advise the lawmakers under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio to reach out to the grassroots.
They have been trying. But I want them to look at the law that has to do with the less– privileged.
They should think
about how to reduce hunger because a lot of people cannot even afford one square meal in a day. There are villages where is hard for them to wear clothes because they don’t have it.
Sometimes we contribute our used clothes. We take to those
areas. So, they should make laws to better the lives of the people., their constituencies that they are representing.
What is your take about the school feeding programme?
They should think about a meal. At least a meal for every child in Nigeria, not just school children. They should make it a law that local government chairmen, councilors must implement.
They should engage the traditional rulers, they are the real people with the community. Because we have children in a number of places and not all of them go
to school.
Even when the programme was on, they could not even reach everywhere.
On the cost of running the Nigerian government
The National Assembly should look at it critically. The cost of governance in this country is too much, is enormous. They are wasting money on things that are not relevant while the people suffer. One legislative chamber is okay.
360 Representative,
109 senators are too many. It’s part of where the money is being wasted.
The number of ministers in Nigeria is much.
And they should make sure that anybody that is going to be in position of authority, pass
the integrity test. Because a lot of them did not pass the integrity test that is why if the president is trying to do a lot of things, these people will drag him back.
Even in agencies, let all of them come together and face the
reality.
And see how to cut the cost of governance and use the money on projects that will impact the lives of the citizenry positively.
How can we reduce crime in the society?
You know a lot of
crimes are being perpetrated by poor people. Because when they think that there is no way
again, they turn to crime. Some of them are ready to die because they are already fed up. So if the government can look at it and create
certain things for them to do, many will focus on productive activities.
I am talking about the experience I have been able to gather in the six geopolitical
zones of the country.
What about the Ministry of Youth Development?
There is a lot for them to do and that is why the last time I met a friend of mine that is now a commissioner of sport in my state,
I told him there’s a lot of things you can do about this ministry to lift people up. Now come to the federal
level.
We have a lot of potentials in Nigeria. But they are not being utilized. If you don’t know anybody, you cannot even participate in sports whether you have the
talent or not. In football, basketball, badminton, or swimming.
If you don’t know somebody that knows someone, you can never achieve it. If we
continue this way, Nigeria cannot make any progress.
Until we consider the children of nobody to become somebody, we will not get it right in Nigeria.
So what the ministry has to do is to get their machinery in place. They should first of all
reach out to the governor of the state.
And the commissioners of sport to go to the grassroots. They should be sincere and go to
their rural area to get the talents.
If you go to some places, you see some guys, musicians singing. The talent is there. But nobody to assist them.
Some told me that if you can give us little money, we are ready to do farming.
So in our little capacity, we help out. We have given them land to some young people.
Give them small, small money to start something. The government can engage the real farmers through their associations.
We have bought fertilizer for some farmers in some villages before. But insurgency did not allow them to strive. Our youth are ready to work if government can assist them.
In each local government, there are supposed to be vocational centres where they will be teaching them tailoring, shoemaking and the rest. A friend and myself are working to get a vocational center to train people free and set them up when they are through.
Government can also make learning a trade mandatory after school.
