USA Africa Dialogue Series - Donate your salary to your poor villagers, Bayelsa youth tells Ben Bruce

[EKITIPANUPO] Donate your salary to your poor villagers, Bayelsa youth tells Senator Ben Bruce

By Akeen Olabode

Youths in Bayelsa State have asked Senator Ben Bruce to donate his entire salary to poor people in his Akasa village instead of donating a paltry half of his wardrobe allowance to widows in his community.

In a statement made available to our correspondent this morning, the Bayelsa Youth Alliance, (BAYA) said the statement credited to Senator Bruce that he would donate half of his wardrobe alliance to workers in Osun State does not reflect the agelong African proverb that charity begins at home.

"In Osun, there over about forty thousand workers. In your home state, there are about 800,000 unemployed youths and in Akasa, where you were born, there is 90 percent youth unemployment. Osun workers are waiting for salary, there is hope for them, but in Akasa, thousands have no jobs and there is no home for them, " the statement signed by Werenipre Akobo, the group's Chairman stated.

According to the Bayelsa Youth Alliance, (BAYA), Akasa, where Ben Bruce comes from has no drinkable water, no adequate electricity and no toilet facilities for most of the homes. "In Akasa, people drink from the same water they urinate and bath. There are no jobs. People cannot farm in Akasa. The land is polluted due to the impact of oil spillage. People die daily here and hope is far-fetched. What Ben Bruce said is like Congo Republic offering to give loan to Britain."

Akobo said that instead of offering half of his wardrobe allowance to Osun workers, Senator Bruce should rise up to the agonizing poverty, diseases, want, hunger and starvation that is the lot of his backwater community.

"We call on you, Senator Ben Bruce to stop seeing the real issue of underdevelopment as entertainment. If you are so kind, what efforts have you made to alleviate the sufferings of our people in Akasa? You have a TV station that 99 percent of your own people cannot watch because of poverty. If you are serious, please come home and donate your entire one year salary to your long suffering community where hunger, starvation and hopelessness are etched on the faces of thousands of people in Akasa,' Akobo stated

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