Palliatives: Government turning Nigerians to beggars, says Afe Babalola

Declares support for The Patriots on new constitution

The Founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Afe Babalola, yesterday, said that the palliatives being distributed to Nigerians by the Federal Government is turning the people to beggars and leading them to poverty.

This was just as he declared support for The Patriots, led by former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, which recently pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, consider the enactment of a new constitution.

The legal icon, who spoke when the Prestige Sisters League visited him at the ABUAD campus, said that those protesting against hunger are doing so genuinely because 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 government should listen to them.

“The duty of 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.

“It is wrong for government to be sharing garri, beans and rice as palliatives. They are turning the people to beggars. 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 government is to provide the people enabling environment for people to work and feed themselves.

“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.

He, however, described the Prestige Sisters as prestigious, for multiplying a token of N1,000 he gave them 35 years ago into millions through cooperative societies.

“You have not failed yourselves; you have not failed your family. You are able to send your children to school. May God preserve them? I am very happy when you said you have trained your children in school.”

Meanwhile, the Prestige Sisters League, led by its President, Adeboyejo B.O., described Babalola’s kind gesture to them over three and half decades ago as an intervention that transformed their lives.