Despite COVID-19 & #EndSARS Crises Club Owner Frank Papas Puts Smiles On Faces Of The Less-Privileged On His Birthday
Club Owner Fran Okamigbo better known by his brand Papas was a year older on Saturday, October 31, 2020.
But the back-to-back crisis rocking the country has imposed a low profile celebration on him.
But sticking to what has become a tradition, Frank Papas as he is popularly known identified with the less privileged on his special day.
“By the grace of God, I celebrated my birthday with the less privileged among us though I wasn’t there physically, as usual but sent them my regular stuff” Papas disclosed to societynow.ng.
The club owner has turned it into a duty to donate foodstuff and money to the old people’s home in Ebutte Metta as part of his birthday celebration for more than 10 years – and hosts friends later in the day.
He disclosed that as part of this year’s celebration he also had “a low key get-together with friends later in the day. Glory be to God.”
Sharing his best and saddest memories of what is turning out for many to be an extremely eventful year, Okamigbo disclosed “My best memory of the year is the cash and kind donations of well-meaning Nigerians and organizations to alleviate the harsh adverse effect of lockdown (Covid-19 induced) to mitigate the spread of the pandemic.
My saddest memory is the discovery of the reality of hunger and desperation for the basic things of life where the masses were struggling for food.”
The Club owner whose industry suffered a huge knock from the back to back crisis of fight against Covid-19 and police brutality that resulted in the #EndSars struggle shares his opinion on the year so far “in retrospect and considering the mood of the nation with covid19 and the recent unrest, I am grateful to God to be alive and healthy.
The impacts of the COVID 19 and the EndSars protests campaign have changed economics, economies, social life, governance, and humanity.”
Baring his thoughts on the lessons learned so far from the year and opinion on the way forward for all and sundry, Okamigbo who was working on something that would transform his industry before the advent of Covid-19 told societynow.ng “the country is divided along many lines and there’s an urgent need for discussion to restructure the country to douse tension and harmonize.
My advice is that the government needs to open its door for dialogue and persuasion which are the proven democratic way of conflict resolution”
