In a world full of misery, injustice, inequality, starvation, violence and crime, poverty and lack, it sounds ironical to hear that there is enough: enough resources, enough food, enough talents, enough knowledge, enough laws, enough technology to make our world a just and fair place without hunger, disease and lack.

There is indeed enough food for everyone! According to the World Food Programme, we are living “In a world where we produce enough food to feed everyone, (yet) 795 million people – one in nine – still go to bed on an empty stomach each night”.

And why won’t the world remain a dangerous place when the bulk of the world’s resources and wealth is concentrated in a few hands while billions of people are in a daily battle for survival. Indeed the wealth of the world is in a few hands.

In a recent report on inequality, Oxfam says that the equivalent of the wealth of half of the worlds population in the hands of world’s eight richest billionaires. “That’s right eight men own the same as the poorest 3.6 billion people”. Back home in Nigeria Oxfam estimates that the combined wealth of Nigeria’s five richest persons is worth over $29billion and this is enough to end extreme poverty in the country. It also projects that if our one and only richest man spends $1million a day, he will not exhausted his current wealth in 33 years yet over 100miliion Nigerians are living in poverty.

This wealth and income gap continues to widen as the world’s economic structures and systems remained skewed in favour of the rich. Inequality of access to information, knowledge, technology and livelihood opportunities helps in widening this gap. Gladly and increasingly, voices against this wealth inequality have intensified their advocacy for a more inclusive and humane economic world order that offers equally opportunity for everyone to enjoy the abundance of the world’s resources and wealth.

As Pope Francis puts it “A way has to be found to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth, and not simply to close the gap between the affluent and those who must be satisfied with the crumbs falling from the table, but above all to satisfy the demands of justice, fairness and respect for every human being”.

While most will agree with the position of the Holy Father and indeed many support the call for a more humane economic system yet some believe that the innate abilities play a part in determining the wealth of an individual and that people can rise above the restricted and even unjust systems to overcome poverty and live a life of abundance. They believe that there is need to also ignite this innate capacity of man and motivate individuals not to see themselves as helpless victims of an unjust system but as co-creative beings that can overcome limitations and achieve their God-given potentials. A viewpoint reflected in the writings of Akinsola Abiodun Solanke, one of Nigerias contemporary thinkers, modern day philosopher and freelance writer who writes thus:

There is Enough …!

 1.  Everybody, I mean, everybody (the ruler and the ruled, needy and the rich and all alike) has to believe that within and without there is enough to go round. Abundance is everywhere present. That is the way God created the universe.

 2. Nobody is exempted from having access to the rich abundance of the universe. Everybody has equal access to this.

 3. We are all created with the power to attract. Each of us can attract whatever we want into our world. We can choose to attract either poverty or plenty. By unleashing the creative potential within to make the world a better place, we are attracting abundance into our world. Your contributions to the world, by way of creativity, work, selfless service and expression of love are all parts of the power of attraction to remain in the flow of abundance.

 4, Nobody, not even Government and the people who make it up as leaders can cut us off from our good. This is why even when austerity measures and economic hardship are in place, some still express abundance without stealing.

 5. We have to disconnect from the rather universal belief that there is widespread poverty, that we have to look up to somebody to make it and that government has to do it for us.

 6.   Know that if we sincerely teach and practice the above with the attitude of gratitude, there would be food on everybody’s table.

 

Abundance everywhere

Trust

Attract

Change attitude and mindset

Expand awareness/consciousness

Think outside the box

Flow against the tide of lack and poverty

Do and contribute

Give

Co-Create

Believe and faith in self

Gratitude.”

@Akinsola Abiodun Solanke (AAS)

 

There is truly enough sense in AAS write up that no one can argue about the potential of man to develop from within and conquer his world but there is equally more than enough greed for man to acquire much more than he needs and deprive others of the collective wealth of the world.

 

So is innate ability enough? I guess that not even AAS would say that it is Enough!!!

 

Therefore “Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labour is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation..”-Pope Francis