The South-West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) has distributed rice as palliatives to selected beneficiaries across the 16 local government areas of Kwara State.
The group said the palliatives were meant to help the people of the state during this hard time, saying that the beneficiaries cut across political party lines.
Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who flagged off the distribution of the palliatives in Ilorin, the state capital, expressed confidence that President Bola Tinubu will turn around Nigeria’s economy in the next four years.
Represented by his deputy, Mr Kayode Alabi, the governor, however, said that the president needed the prayers of all Nigerians.
AbdulRazaq added that, “by the grace of God in the next eight years, Asiwaju Tinubu would have turned around the economy of the country, but we need to support him with prayers.
“He cannot do it alone. I know he is a good administrator and a team player. In politics, some people will smile and laugh with you, but behind they will plot your downfall. There is time for everybody. This is Tinubu’s time. That is why the enemies could not bring him down. They tried to change the Naira, caused fuel scarcity and did every gang-up but could not bring him down.
“I have never seen a politician like President Bola Tinubu. Any day I meet him one on one I will tell him to write a book about his political journey. So that future politicians will draw a lesson from his experience. For a man that moved from the private sector into politics.”
Earlier, the national chairman of SWAGA, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said that President Tinubu inherited an economy that was at the bottomless pit.
“Things were really very bad, I must confess to you. But he is not a man given to excuses. The first step he took on the day of his inauguration as the president will go down in history as a courageous one by a born leader.
“If he had not announced subsidy removal on fuel, from available information to us, by now, Nigeria’s economy would have been grounded to a halt. The implication was that after four months of his inauguration, it would have been impossible to import fuel.
“A visionary leader takes creative decisions. We know that after very much pain there will be gain. In a matter of months, there will a turnaround for the better,” Adeyeye stated.
SWAGA convener, Hon Oyetunde Ojo, said that President Tinubu met a bastardised economy, urging Nigerians to exercise patient with the government, noting that “it was an economy that was bastardised for many years. ”
Ojo said that the association had planned its own palliatives as payback for Nigerians who voted Tinubu during the 2023 general elections, before the federal government came up with its own version to mitigate the pains of fuel subsidy removal.
He said they would extend the gesture to Nigerians across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
