The founder of the Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Professor Afe Babalola, has frowned at the palliatives policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The erudite scholar and legal luminary, disclosed this on Thursday, when he declared that the Federal Government palliatives have reduced the people to beggars. He bemoaned that policy is also leading many Nigerians to poverty.
Babalola stated this when the Prestige Sisters League paid him a ‘Thank You’ visit at the ABUAD campus.
Speaking on the recent nationwide hunger protest, the founder of ABUAD, noted that those protesting against hunger were doing so genuinely. He pointed that everyone knows there is hunger in the country.
He said, “Those who are complaining about hunger are doing so sincerely. They are hungry. A hungry man can go to any length to show his anger. We do not need anybody to tell us that there is hunger in the country. The protest was genuine and the government should listen to them.
“The duty of the government is the welfare of the people. The problem we have now is that people cannot move freely. They have abandoned the farms. People are being killed in their farms and everybody wants to stay where they are safe. It is because the government has failed in this regard that we have hunger.”
On the palliatives measure, which the government has adopted, Babalola said that it was wrong. He warned against the Government sharing garri, beans and rice as palliatives. “They were turning the people to beggars,” he said.
“The Government that is giving the people rice and beans is leading us to poverty. The Government is discouraging people from working. Whereas, the duty of the Government is to provide the people with an enabling environment to work and feed themselves,” he added.
Speaking on the recent call by The Patriots for a new Constitution for the country, Babalola said he is in support of the call.
Recall that The Patriots, led by the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, has asked President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, consider enactment of a new Constitution for the country.
Babalola said, “I read the publication of The Patriots visiting President Tinubu and I am in full agreement with them. We need a new Constitution. But I do not agree that we should go through any Constitutional Conference.
“Recently, you are aware that President Bola Tinubu asked us to go back to the old National Anthem. There was no conference for it before it was passed by the National Assembly and assented by the President. The 1963 Constitution was the one made by all of us. By the same token, the parliament should bring back the 1963 Constitution and reenact it,” he advised.
Speaking on behalf of the Prestige Sisters, the President, Adeboyejo B. O., described Babalola’s kind gesture to them over three and half decades ago as an intervention that transformed their lives.
She said, “Thirty-five years ago, the Prestige Sisters League with forty members then, wrote a letter to you to be our Life Patron. And you gladly accepted and hosted us in your residence.
“You gave us fatherly advice, prayed for us and then gave us One Thousand (N1,000) Naira. You told us we should not share the money. That we should use the money to start a Cooperative Society. And that was the beginning of the success, elevation, unity and love in the Prestige Sisters League! We are here today to share the success story,” she said.
source: Premium Times
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