Nigerians Are Rudderless, Poverty Stricken – Chief Olanipekun

Legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) has said that majority of Nigerians currently live in poverty, stressing that over 70 per cent of the citizens were living below the poverty level.

Olanipekun spoke in Ikere Ekiti, his country home during the Wole Olanipekun Foundation (WOF) 27th Scholarship Award Scheme and 4th Empowerment Programme at the weekend.

The senior lawyer said the situation then beckons to those who have received God’s benevolence to also tap from God’s attribute of compassion by lending helping hands to their fellow human beings, pointing out that there is tension, unrest, anxiety, pressure, confusion, hatred, anguish, pain, distress and transferred aggression among many people.

According to him, the situation in Nigeria is much more challenging, coupled with the burden of insecurity that it had faced for over a decade.

“Let us do what will benefit the ordinary man, how to lift souls. The essence of today centers around how do we add value to humanity and to me  that is the essence of living. And I said it, to those of us who may think they have made it and so they felt they are okay, but we are not okay, because anger, noise and distress of our hungry neighbours who can’t sleep will not allow you to sleep.

“There is transferred aggression by the common people in Nigeria and that is what the nation has to address. We are in a situation where almost 70 percent of people who are rudderless and poverty stricken.

“Another 20 percent out of the remaining 30 percent are losing their jobs, the remaining, 

10 percent felt they were okay but that they were not. That is why we have to show sympathy, empathy, care, love, kindness to one another and lift up people.” The legal icon stated