Dennis Akpan: A man who feeds the poor

Without a doubt, Nigeria is a country people find it very hard to give others because they do not have enough for themselves, so how do they give?

Yet popular adages say ‘Givers never lack’ and ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ meaning that those who give willingly and happily always receive what they have given in return with additions.

But despite these adages, which many people have sworn are true, most Nigerians, who are actually struggling to fend for their own needs, still find it hard to give. They find it hard to give their own children and relatives and practically don’t even consider the needs of their non-relatives.

Yet there is one Nigerian who doesn’t have a lot but tries his best to give as much as he can to those who are less fortunate than he is. His name is Dennis Akpan and he is the founder of Natural Healing Foundation, a non-governmental organisation he set up to help poor people.

“I am not a rich man,” he confirmed to National Mirror. “But I’ve discovered over the years that I’m more fortunate than a lot of people. I walk along the streets and people are begging me for N20, N50 or transport money. I was eating at a restaurant one day and someone walked up to me and said he was hungry and I should buy him food. I gave him N200 and he bought four wraps of eba without meat. That told me that he was really hungry.”

After encountering more cases of people really in need of basic things, the trend began worrying Akpan. “It was very sad to me that people were in need of money just to feed. Some found it difficult to pay their school fees. I began to realise what the report that Nigerians live on below a dollar a day means.

“I started helping people as I could. If anyone approached me in need of assistance, I would help as I could. Doing that made me happy as I knew it was giving hope for another day to those who might lose hope totally otherwise.”

While his giving started with people around him who needed help and street beggars, it soon dawned on him that there was another set of needy people he could assist.

“I discovered a Home of Destitutes at Yaba. Some instinct made me visit it and I discovered that the people there were really in need of food. Again, I was moved and I decided to render them what assistance I could.”

After thinking about how to assist them, he concluded that the best way was to cook food and take it to them. “The Home had many people that it wouldn’t have made sense to go and start giving them money individually to relieve them. I knew I couldn’t take care of them permanently but I just felt let me do something for them that will relieve them and give them hope. When I shared my thoughts with friends, one of them said I should get people to cook food for them.”

Once he knew what to do, it was easy for him to implement it. “I didn’t get people to cook, though. I’m a good cook myself so I cooked it and took it to them and they really appreciated the gesture.”

His first experience of feeding the poor and needy was several years ago. “After cooking to feed the poor six times, I decided to start my own NGO in order to make more impact. I had to start the NGO because my vision was to feed the poor all over Nigeria.”

So far, he has been able to feed the poor and needy in Lagos and Calabar. “I feed them according to my financial buoyancy. Sometimes once a month, sometimes twice. I’ve concentrated on Calabar for some time now because I’ve had more cause to be in Calabar than Lagos nowadays.”

Being that he feeds those he’s not obliged to with his own resources that he admits are not in the millions, this reporter asked him how his wife feels about it especially as it must affect the homefront one way or the other.

“My wife has no problem with me feeding the poor,” he replied. “I make sure I take care of my home and children adequately and that makes me free to do whatever I want. Apart from that even, my wife is a good woman so she understands that feeding the poor is my vision and I just have to keep doing it.”