The founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola, has expressed his support for the Patriots’ call for a new constitution. He made this known during a visit by the Prestige Sisters League to the ABUAD campus.
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 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 and reenact it.”
He also spoke on the recent protests across the country, saying: “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.”
Babalola criticized the Federal Government’s distribution of palliatives, saying: “It is wrong for government to be sharing garri, beans and rice as palliatives. 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, government must provide the people enabling environment for people to work and feed themselves.”
He praised the Prestige Sisters League for multiplying a token of N1000 he gave them 35 years ago into millions through a cooperative society.
He said, “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.”
