“What have you done for your village?” This popular question, asked of successful professionals, public servants, or political leaders, signifies corruption as inverted philanthropy. I am not the Anambra State Government or Nnewi North LGA. A failure of government to perform

its functions should not be passed off to individuals - especially those who are or have been public servants and not wealthy entrepreneurs. This misplaced expectation is partly why public officers steal public funds so that they can “do things” for their community that honest

income can’t afford. We Nigerians should not allow our paradigm perceptions to be distorted by the collapse of values that has happened in our country.

Nevertheless, as a matter of record and speaking for myself, in December 2005, while still a senior #UN official, decently paid but not exactly swimming in cash, I took $20,000 out of my personal savings and established the Isaac Moghalu Foundation in memory of my later father.

Since then IMoF has given scholarships (secondary and tertiary) to underprivileged youth in rural communities, supported schools in rural areas and urban slums in different parts of the country (Southeast and Abuja FCT) with educational infrastructure such as classroom blocks and

sanitary toilet facilities, and trained thousands of women including in Kano State and Niger State, including disabled women in skills for small-scale business ventures. The foundation also holds periodic leadership lectures. @MaryanneMoghalu is the Executive Director of IMoF