The actions of renowned Nigerian musician Davido has reminded me of the presidential speech given by John F Kennedy during his 1961 inauguration when he said
Think not what America can do for the people but what you can do for America.
Davido is a very successful music artist in this part of the world and probably makes more than 200 million Naira a year, also not forgetting that his father Adedeji Adeleke is a multi-millionaire in dollars. All of these would make normal people believe that Davido didn't need to come out publicly to ask people to gift him money, but on Wednesday 17th November Davido came out on social media and asked all his friends to gift him money for his forthcoming birthday. After all, he too has given his friends and family money and hit tunes in the past.
The response from his folks was amazing and in the first hour, he had already gotten close to 40 million Naira and as of Saturday 20th November it was a whopping 200 million Naira. After the gifts have been received by Davido, the next line of action was how he will spend his newfound fortune. Many ideas came to mind like the kind of party he could throw, the new whips he could buy, some even advised he invests it all into cryptocurrency. All these were ideas if he listened to would not have been considered bad as the money was given to him as a gift.
Davido decided to give it all away
Yes, all of the 200 million Naira given to Davido as a gift to do whatever he pleases with was given away to the less privileged, he even added 50 million Naira of his own money and set up a 5 man committee filled with reputable Nigerians (hopefully not thieving politicians) to properly disburse the money amongst orphanage homes around Nigeria where the money would be put to better use.
What excites me the most about this decision is the fact that Davido is inadvertently given the ruling class a lesson. Many have been responsible for public funds less than this amount and carted away with most of it, many have been responsible for amounts that dwarf this amount by a whole lot and embezzlement is still the story we hear at the end of the day. It is refreshing to see a Nigerian being selfless with a responsibility not directly given to him and I believe Davido is one individual in Nigeria that we wouldn't forget in a hurry. The best part is that he is just 29.
So, instead of always thinking of what our country can do for us (because at this moment it's obvious they don't care) we should begin thinking of the little we can do for our country like John F Kennedy rightly said. I'm not saying it must be monetary, but it should be something that helps us see our country in a better light.