BY AKINWALE ABOLUWADE, IBADAN
To address the increasing spate of injustices, and the social and developmental challenges besetting Nigeria and Africa as a whole, there is need for all to embrace the tenets of love, a non-Governmental Organisation, the LG Rhythms Foundation, has said.
The group spoke in Ibadan on Saturday, at the end of its 2021 retreat of ‘A decade of impacting lives and relief to the people.
According to the Guest Speaker at the event, Dele Farotimi, how each member of the society hasn’t spent time productively impacts negatively on the society.
Dwelling on the issue of ‘Time,’ Farotimi made reference to the books of Titus, chapter one, and Acts of Apostle, chapter 17 verse 23 of the Holy Bible, as well as the Yoruba ‘Odu Ifa.’
Farotimi said, “I sought to tie this to how we failed to spend our time consciously well. If you came to Ibadan from Lagos today, you would have spent a minimum of three to four hours in the traffic to be here. Is there a judicious use of time in that?” But sadly, he said, “we have normalised it. It has become normal to spend a whole day travelling on that road.
“How does that impart on your capacity to parent your child as a father or mother, to be a provider or to be a citizen? These are the kinds of questions we should be asking ourselves as Nigerians, not all these superficial questions we sometimes ask ourselves.”
The President and Founder of LG Rhythms Foundation, Titus Adeniyi Ale, stressed the need to reinvent love into Nigerian society.
“At LG Rhythms Foundation, we are trying to project the fact that application of love will solve any problem in human society. The injustice, inequality and bitterness in the world could be settled in an atmosphere of love.
“If neighbouring countries offend each other, taking into consideration the fact that the people have blood flowing in their veins, why should I exterminate them with bullets? Let it go; be at peace with your brother. It is when we don’t allow love to reign in our hearts that somebody would seek to hurt the other. People would have millions or billions in their account without thinking of others. That is wrong.”
The Chairman, Foundation Committee, Michael Adelusi, said that “We are a group of ladies and gentlemen. The word rhythm is to show the bond of love and living. We are 10 years old by this convention. Dr Ale saw, some years back, that the world is drifting apart. He came with the conviction that love could bring us together. It started in Ibadan.
“He expressed that fact with the group and through the group, we began to send the message to the entire world using our model to bring people of all classes, races and religions together without minding the varying backgrounds.”
As part of its 10th anniversary, the NGO held an old school night party, visited the School for the Deaf in Ibadan to pay the students’ NECO examination fees, and distributed exercise books at Saint John’s School, Akanran.
