The lawmaker representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, James Faleke, has supported his constituents with food palliatives.
About 10,000 beneficiaries each got 5kg rice and 2kg Semovita.
The palliatives were shared at the Blue Roof Pavilion, in the Lagos Television (LTV) Premises, Ikeja.
Beneficiaries were full of praises to Faleke, who they described as ‘God-sent’.
On why he decided on the food palliative, Faleke said: “This is a way of continuously saying thank you for voting for me. Ikeja being the centre of excellence is known to always set good examples. The people who sent me to Abuja are those who have voters’ card and I am answerable to them, they are my constituents. Others who have no voters’ card are encouraged to register so they can benefit next time.
“Of course there are people here who are not from Ikeja constituency but still benefitted from the initiative because we are for everybody. But the point is if we don’t encourage those who voted for us, they won’t come out to vote for us again.
“The essence is to support families to stabilise and cushion the hard times. People have been eating in their homes before now, but it is our own way of intervening and supporting them more, especially the less-privileged.
“This is not the only thing we do. About last week, we gave cash grants to 2,166 persons; another 2,100 persons will get theirs in one week and we will continue on this trajectory.”
The lawmaker also admonished Nigerians to look at the brighter side as the hard times would soon end.
“I think we are lucky and I keep saying it because as a four-term member of the House of Representatives, and chairman of the finance committee, I have been opportune to understand the country’s financial standing before President Bola Tinubu got to office. We were borrowing to pay salaries and that led to the Ways and Means thing with CBN. “We were using about 97 per cent of our little income to service debt and there was nothing left. And now this regime is tightening lose ends and blocking loopholes, we are getting more revenue. I can bet you with the plans on ground, Nigeria will be better financially by next year. And when the country has money, we’ll be able to do so many other things.
“Today we are rich in crude but the crude is already pre-sold. So we should give kudos to the president for taking the hard decisions without which the country could have collapsed by now.
“I will admonish us to keep hope alive, especially with our medium enterprises. Government alone cannot do everything, especially seeing that countries develop through the efforts of medium enterprises doing their thing and contributing to the economy. It is also good that government has said no more taxes for small and medium enterprises from January 2025; it’s a welcome development.”
A party leader, Hon. Oluwatoyin Obaseki, described Faleke as ‘God-sent’ to Ikeja constituency. She praised him for keeping in touch with the people and always delivering democracy dividends to them.
She said: “This is not the first time Hon. Abiodun Faleke will be doing this, so we are not surprised. He does this regularly, from January to December. Not only food palliative, but skills development and training in all fields, cash grants to artisans, infrastructural development and all manner of empowerment.
“We are delighted with his efforts. And it is worthy of note that his initiatives are not for party members alone, as far as you are a bonafide resident of Ikeja Federal Constituency, with your voters’ card as proof, you automatically qualify to benefit from the largesse. How magnanimous can someone be?”
Former Vice Chairman of Ojodu LCDA, Abiodun Ayileka, also hailed the lawmaker for always giving back to the people.
“Our representative, Abiodun Faleke, is as usual giving back to his constituents and this is for 10,000 people. You can see the masses and this is not the first time he is doing this, he has been doing this, food palliative for the poorest of the poor, cash grants, work tool empowerment for people, we are blessed in Ikeja and we thank God for giving us Faleke.
