Founder of Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), Afe Babalola, yesterday, urged President Bola Tinubu to do all he could to let the 774 councils get their funds directly and not through state governors as it is currently done.
He lamented that councils have remained stagnated because the fund allocated to them from the Federation account don’t get to them.
The legal icon made the appeal, yesterday, while declaring open the eighth edition of Afe Babalola Agricultural Expo (ABAEX 2023) at ABUAD campus in Ado Ekiti.
Babalola also urged Nigeria to always pay attention to agriculture, lamenting that the sector has been neglected.
“I am suggesting that councils should be empowered. Each council 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, council 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 council allocation gets to them directly and not through the governors because they steal a lot.”
To revive agriculture, he advised government to buy modern implements to encourage people to farm, saying that if councils get their funds directly, they will be able to buy tractors for the people to rent.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Local organising Committee, Prof. Abiodun Ojo, said the vision of ABAEX is to encourage excellence and sustainable performance among the farmers in Ekiti State, while at the same time increasing value addition across all agricultural products. (Guardian)
