Afe Babalola provides N16.5m succour to indigent Ekiti residents

Chief Afe Babalola, educationist and legal luminary, has empowered 1,000 indigent persons in Ekiti State with a palliative of N16.5 million.
The donor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and proprietor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, distributed the cash donation on Tuesday in Ado Ekiti through his foundation, the AB Foundation Poverty Alleviation Programme.
A breakdown of the financial assistance showed that 20 beneficiaries received N100,000 each, 180 others N50,000 each, another batch of 300 persons got N10,000 each, while 500 others collected N5,000 each.
Babalola explained that he initiated the programme to cushion the plight of the poor in the society.
He urged privileged Nigerians to assist needy persons around them, noting that government alone could not cater for the needs of every needy citizen.
He said such partnership was capable of reducing the high rate of poverty and unemployment currently ravaging the country.
Babalola said: “You don’t need to be the richest person in the world to help your neighbour.
“I urge the various levels of government and the wealthy in the society to go down to the ordinary man, people in the grassroots and do something to assist them.
“I am a grassroots man, the only time I am happy is when somebody beside me is happy.
“To me, giving is an act which I borrowed from my parents; giving is very important if we want this country to develop, the various governments alone cannot do it.
“We should change our attitude of wanting to leave everything for the government to do for us. Today, it has got to the ludicrous extent that many Nigerians want to bear children and want government not only to train them but to provide the children school meals.
“We cannot abdicate our responsibilities for government, not in the face of compelling and competing duties of the government.
“I therefore call on the rich and the more comfortable members of the
Nigerian society to come to the assistance of the less privileged with the overall aim of engendering growth and development.
“What I am doing today is a token of my humble concern and love for the people generally, and I will like the rich among us to take a cue from this because riches don’t become wealth until they are invested in humanity.”
Babalola advised the beneficiaries to invest the cash received wisely and judiciously to give themselves economic empowerment through investment in small scale businesses.
The Chairman of the occasion and Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim, noted that the gesture would reduce the rate of poverty in the country.
Ibrahim described poverty as a very impatient illness needing immediate attention.
The Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe, also commended Babalola for citing his university in the town alongside its subsidiaries like his farm, hotel, bakery and other businesses, which had generated thousands of employment for the people.
While expressing concern over the huge number of indigent people who turned out for the programme, the traditional ruler advised the people to embrace agriculture to ensure food security and be gainfully employed.