The founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, has attributed the increasing hunger and level of poverty in the country to the failure of the government at all levels to live up to its responsibilities to the citizens.
The elder statesman disclosed that the recent nationwide protest by youths and other citizens over hunger is a testament to the degenerating state of the economy, saying the government must be alive and respond with policies and programmes that would guarantee the welfare and security of the people.
Babalola spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital while receiving in his office a delegation of an association named ‘Prestige Sisters Club’ who came to show appreciation for giving them N1,000 in 1989 to start a cooperative society, which they said helped to transform their lives in the last 35 years.
He stated that the growing hunger and poverty in the country are disturbing, adding that “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.”
According to him, “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; 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 on their farms, and everybody wants to stay where they are safe. The first responsibility of any government is the security of the people.
“When the President was addressing the protesters, he did not give any assurance that the country would be safe for people to move about. Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution says the responsibility of government is security and the welfare of the people. It is because the government has failed in this regard that we have hunger.
“It is wrong for the government to be sharing food palliatives with people in the name of ending hunger; they are turning the people into 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 the government is to provide the people with an enabling environment for people to work and feed themselves.”
The nonagenarian backed the recent visit of a group of renowned Nigerians called ‘The Patriots’ led by former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, to President Bola Tinubu, demanding a new people’s constitution.
He, however, disagreed with the call for a new conference towards producing a new acceptable constitution for the country, urging the president to send a bill to the National Assembly for the reenactment of the 1963 constitution as he did with the bringing back of the old national anthem.
“I read the publication from the group’s visit to the President, 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 to by the President.
“The 1963 constitution was the one made by all of us. By the same token, the parliament should bring back 1963 and reenact it. If the president can ask us to go back to the old anthem, there is also no reason why he can’t ask us to go back to the old anthem,” he said.
The president of the Prestige Sisters Club, Mrs. Olayinka Adeboyejo, appreciated the philanthropist gesture of Babalola, noting that the support he offered the group in 1989 has metamorphosed into greatness for the association.
She declared that the money received from the legal icon 35 years ago was used by members of the cooperative to grow their businesses and sponsor their children’s educational careers.
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