The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibajo (SAN), governors Babatunde Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Dr. Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Alhaji Abdullahi Gaduje (Kano) and Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Ruaf Aregbesola have praise a former governor of Oyo state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi for his contributions to the development of the state and Nigeria as a whole.
Speaking at the 70 birthday celebration of the former governor at the international conference centre of the university of Ibadan, Professor Osibajo described the social investment programmes, particularly the school feeding programme which the government embarked upon, as the first in Africa, endorsed by the World Bank.
Professor Osibajo, who congratulated the celebrant on his achievements, said the school feeding programme is currently taking care of over 9.9million children daily and has provided jobs for over 500,000 people.
Though, he admitted the challenges of unemployment and poverty despite the intervention, Professor Osibajo said the federal government is not relenting on its target as it is investing heavily on infrastructural development, especially the massive investment on rail transport and provision of enabling business environment.
The theme of the paper presented by Dr. Ayo Olukotun from the Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, is entitled “Managing the dynamics of Nigeria’s advancement: The social-economic perspectives”.
Speaking on the paper, the former governor of the State of Osun, and now Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who was one of the discussants, declared that one of the best ways to addressing the challenges confronting the country is to tax the privileged rich Nigerians and use the money to create wealth to help the poor.
“We must mercilessly tax the rich, if we are to cure the problem of poverty. We have two contending forces, the poor and the privileged rich. The rich have no problem, they are comfortable. The problem is the poor and they are in the majority. And the point is if the rich failed to address this problem, the comfort of the rich will be taken away, so they must release much of their money to help the poor,” he said.
