Give the Poor Justice not Charity. By Oko Adakole Godwinmary

Justice is one of the most vital political and moral concepts. It comes from the Latin word ‘jus’ meaning right or law. The oxford English dictionary defines a just man as one who “typically does what is morally right, and is disposed to give everyone his or her due”. The Webster comprehensive dictionary also defines justice as adherence to the truth of fact: impartiality or the rendering of what is due or merited; that which is due or merited. Furthermore, we can also view this concept from the theological and philosophical perspective; according to Saint Augustine, the cardinal virtue justice requires that we try to give all people their due. For saint Thomas Aquinas the angelic doctor; justice is that rational means between opposites sort of injustice involving proportional distributions and reciprocal transaction. For Immanuel Kant it is a virtue whereby we respect others’ freedom, dependence or autonomy and dignity by not interfering with their voluntary actions, so long as they do not violate others’ right.

Charity on the other hand according to oxford dictionary is defined as the act of giving money, food, help etc. to people who are in need. In the word of Pope Pius xii  “charity will never be true charity unless it takes justice into account…..let no one attempts with small gifts of charity to exempt himself from the great duties imposed by justice.”

Charity is terrific at meeting immediate needs: charity can feed you, cloth you, and can even shelter you. But it cannot solve the issue or what led to you being hungry, naked or even without roof over your head. There will always be a time and place for charity, but we cannot be fooled into thinking that charity was ever designed or intended to be the same thing as justice.

However, ending homelessness, hunger, etc is a matter of justice. Justice is thoughtful deliberate iterative or repeated, it is intended to bring change that allows for opportunity. There is a proverb which is often glibly trotted out when people come to talk about poverty: “give a man fish you feed him for a day, teach him how to catch fish you feed him for life”. Often people prefer the former to the later.  In relation to the view of Pope Pius xii on the cardinal virtue ‘justice’ we see that many people mostly politicians falls victim of the assertion some people in power give gifts to people to exempt themselves from the enormous duties imposed on them by justice. Instead of increasing the standard of education so as to enlighten the citizens they use the money meant for this purpose for something else which is of personal or selfish interest, for instance, for sending their own children to school abroad for studies while the children of the poor are left to die as slaves because they were not educated. In the same vein instead of building hospitals and providing medical facilities they divert the money to their own pocket while the ordinary people who gave them the mandate of leadership are left to die of minor illness but then, if any member of their family is ill they will fly the person abroad immediately for treatment. Furthermore instead of providing the necessary and basic needs of the people which is also their rights the so called leaders divert the money to their own accounts while those who have worked are left unpaid. More worse are those who have served their country all through their life: the pensioners whose pensions and gratuity are not paid. On account of the non- payment, this retired workers are left to die of hunger. Finally after accumulating a lot of money for many years, these politicians will return back to the surviving pensioners and ordinary people with a new identity of being charitable. At this stage you see the person sharing foods, clothes, money, give some children scholarship and even share books for other students. However, experience shows that whenever a politician share gifts for people he does that because of what he wants from the people that is why after he gets what he wants you don’t see him again. (No wonder Hume says “man by nature is selfish and he does whatever he does because of what he will benefit from it”.)

What the poor needs is justice and not charity. The poor deserve not to be poor. However, justice demands that those who in charge of the running of nations or the elected leader of the country owes the poor the basic means necessary to secure quality of opportunity. Hence they should not be forced to feel grateful to their deliverers. For instance; it is common that most persons will want to be thanked or praised for doing their job which they may have not even done well. That is why we may see posters on our roads during constructions with the inscription of the picture, name and the assertion “governor A or B is working” it evident that the resource use for this advertisement of self to attract praise from people is enough to pay the salaries of some significant numbers of workers whose salaries are left unpaid.

Conclusively; to end homelessness, tattered clothes, malnutrition, lack of water and electricity and more worse less hope for the future we need to believe and promote an agenda that is firmly anchored in doing so,  Because the eradication of poverty depends on justice and not charity. Give the poor their due and charity.

Meet  Oko Adakole Godwinmary