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By Vivian Onyebukwa
Supervisor for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) in Oriade Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos State, Sarah Ikubese, has distributed food items to about 200 widows and the underprivileged in the area. The event organized with the support of her husband, Chief Austin Ikubese, a community leader in Oriade LCDA, to ameliorate the suffering of the poor brought together beneficiaries from diverse backgrounds including churches, mosques, Navy Town, Satellite Town Forum (STF), artisans, and physically challenged persons across all seven wards of the LCDA, who received cash support, bags of rice, vegetable oil, and other valuable items.
•Chairman Oriade LCDA, Ramotalia Akinlola Hassan, and Sarah Ikubese, SA WAPA presenting the items to one of the beneficiaries
Speaking, Ikubese emphasized the importance of community support, urging Nigerians to extend love and kindness to the less privileged, as a way of giving them a sense of belonging, especially during the festive season.
She urged the Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Ministries at both federal and state levels to increase government initiatives for grassroot development in Lagos State, and stressed the need for targeted programmes that directly address the challenges faced by vulnerable individuals, acknowledging the role of government support in creating sustainable positive impact.
In his speech, Austine Ikubese, spouse to Sarah, stated that the thought to support his wife and extend the Christmas welfare palliative this year to churches, mosques, Navy town, and all the seven wards to vulnerable persons, including persons with disability, was because in occupying such an office, the general public believes that she probably would have been empowered financially by the government to empower the vulnerable persons in the community.
He used the occasion to appeal to Lagos State government to make the Commissioner of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation in the state to have a compulsory quarterly or at least bi-annual meetings with all the 57 WAPA’S from the 57 local government areas and LCDA in the state such that they can come up with programmes that can touch lives of the people directly in order to alleviate poverty, develop human capital and ultimately build capacity.
Ikubese advised that the issue of palliative should also be done without making it a party affair. “This has always been one mistake most political parties have been doing when they only concentrate in giving palliatives to members of their political parties each time palliatives are being distributed. They are indirectly saying they have got enough party members. But when you give palliatives to the general public irrespective of the party they belongs to, it is another way of opening doors for other party members to join our party. Hence our decision not to limit the Christmas welfare to party members alone”.
He expressed gratitude to sponsors and contributors, which included Joyce International Ventures Limited, Winning Concept Nigeria and others still being expected. “May I use this opportunity to thank very few of our friends who gave as low as N5,000, N10,000, N20,000, N50,000 etc., because of the harsh economic situation in the country to support this welfare project”, he added.
