Oluwo Of Iwo land in Osun State, Oba Adewale Akanbi, on Monday distributed foodstuffs worth thousands of naira to less privileged, widows, widowers and aged among others in the town, pledging to always ensure their welfares are adequately taken care of.
The monarch who personally moved round Iwo, handled the distribution of rice by himself across family compounds in the town by visiting different homes one by one to carry out the humanitarian services.
In the entourage of the king were some of his palace aides who equally went through different compounds to distribute the bags of rice to the needy.
The exercise, which took about three hours before it ended, attracted the presence of a massive crowd who also benefited from the items on the main roads and later followed the traditional ruler from one end of the town to the town.
Speaking on the exercise, Oba Adewale Akanbi said what he did was a necessity, stating that “though I am their king, I see myself as their servant that must serve them diligently well to ensure their welfare improved”.
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While promising to do the more for his subjects irrespective of their religion, political, age and gender differences, the monarch affirmed that President Ahmed Bola Tinubu shouldn’t be left alone proffering solutions to the present economic hardship. According to him, individuals too should extend God’s grace to those in need.
“I am also doing this to compliment the efforts of the new government. It is a new rebirth of Nigeria, we saw it, when the government of President Bola Tinubu came to power, we didn’t really know what was going on, people started lamenting hardship but after that, we can see that their is sincerity of purpose,
“I was in Aso Villa to listen to the President, he has a good plan and that is why we are imploring Nigerians in this time of rebirth, in this time of digging new foundation, it is always hard, so this new time people should help their neighbours, people…the rich should help the poor so that we can all grow together and fight the corruption in the land to reach out to people during this hard time. We are complimenting the efforts of the government and those who have should do the same.
“This is not the time to hoard riches or food items, we should give to others and let joy go round the society. In fact, any elected political office holders hoarding palliative are inviting God’s wrath upon themselves.
“If any government or political officer holder is hoarding palliative, I believe that it is a curse. People should not incur the wrath of God in this period of Ramadan and Easter. You can’t finish all the food by yourself, it will only kill you.
“Instead, they should distribute it like I am doing to those who need it. This is leadership! King is the servant and the people, you treat them as kings because I want to raise kings.
“Traditional rulers are the link between government and the people, you can see that I went to my people one-on-one and I met them, I did not send emissaries to them, this is how we want the government to know that the traditional rulers can go as far as meeting their people in their respective houses.”
“Government can also extend palliative to the masses by reaching them through the traditional rulers, there are sincere monarchs across the country whose major interest is the welfare of their people, together we scale through the present hardship and make the country great again”, he submitted
and then