From John Adeleye Ado Ekiti
The founder of the Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola has asked President Bola Tinubu to prevail on the state governors to stop misappropriating the local governments funds.
The legal luminary who lamented the horrible state of local councils because the fund allocated to them from the federation account don’t get to them, said that Tinubu must do all within his power to stop the menace.
The legal icon stated this on Thursday while declaring open the 8th edition of Afe Babalola Agricultural Expo (ABAEX 2023) at the ABUAD campus in Ado Ekiti.
“I am suggesting that local government should be empowered. Each local government should set up farming equipment for farmers to hire. They should also earmark large hectares of land for the farmers to farm.
“When I was a councilor in those days, local government funds used to come directly to them. We all know what has been happening to their money.
“I think the current president should do all he can to ensure that local government allocation gets to them directly and not through the governors because they steal a lot.
“There is no parent that will send their children to school, some to masters and PHD level, only to come back and be asked to use cutlass to farm.
“The best the government can do now to revive agriculture is to buy modern implements to encourage people to farm. If local government funds get to them they will be able to buy tractors for the people to rent it.
“Some people ask me the secret of my health, I tell them it is not drugs but the food I eat. All the food that I eat is harvested from my farm, so I don’t buy any food. Agriculture is the most reliable industry and no government can invest in it and fail.
“I don’t like the idea of sharing money with people. They should use the money to buy farm implements for people to farm and produce what they will eat. If I come back again, I will pray to God to be a farmer. I was born and bred on the farm.”
In his opening remark, the chairman of the Local organizing Committee, Professor Abiodun Ojosaid that the vision of ABAEX is essentially to encourage excellence and sustainable performance among the farmers in Ekiti State, while at the same time increasing value addition across all agricultural products.
“To prosecute this ABAEX 2023 successfully, including logistics and the award for five winners from each local governments, and overall winner from all the local governments in Ekiti plus the empowerment programme for youths and girls , a total of N32,478,400 has been expended.”
