Former governor of Ogun State and Senator representing the state’s Central Senatorial district, Ibikunle Amosun, has urged well-meaning Nigerians to always identify with the plight of prison inmates, orphans, and other less privileged members of society, stating that governments alone cannot shoulder all responsibilities.
Amosun declared that it is only by identifying with the course of prison inmates and the less privileged that Nigerians can help humanity and jointly achieve a crime-free society that every citizen can be proud of.
The former governor spoke at the Nigerian Correctional Service center in Ibara, Abeokuta, the state capital, where he had gone to donate some welfare materials as part of the activities marking his 64th birthday celebration.
Represented by his media aide, Alhaji Bola Adeyemi, the Ogun former governor, who donated a total of 75 bags of made-in-Nigeria rice with 60 kegs of vegetable oil to the Nigerian Correctional Service centers and Stellar Obasanjo Orphanage Home in Abeokuta, declared that identifying with the less privileged to mark his birthday remains one of the obligations he can offer to uplift humanity, notwithstanding the challenges and mistakes of the inmates.
Amosun, who noted that the annual celebration of his birthday in the midst of the needy in society uplifts his heart, also stressed that such goes a long way to instructing that all is not lost, but there is still hope for a better tomorrow.
“Whatever little you can do for humanity, do it irrespective of the season. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your birthday, housewarming, or whatever. The inmates are Nigerians; they are human beings like everyone else. When they are there at the correctional centers, the idea is to correct them, and if there is anything anybody can do to effectively ensure that the correction is made, we should not hesitate to do it.
It is good to be our neighbors’ keepers. Let us extend to other people whatever God has given to us. Let us try and see how far we can help others.