Palliative: Why President Tinubu Distributed Rice To SUG Presidents Nationwide – Asefon

President Bola Tinubu has given out bags of rice as palliative to Student Union Government (SUG) Presidents across all 36 states of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory.

The rice palliative was given out on Tuesday by the office of the Special Adviser on Students Engagement to the President, Sunday Asefon.

Speaking on the reason behind the initiative, Asefon explained that the move is to further show the support of President Tinubu for the student community in Nigeria.

The Special Adviser added that President Tinubu understands the importance of students as leaders of tomorrow and appreciates them as stakeholders in governance.

He noted that the President provided palliative support to student leaders for Christmas and the New Year but the packages arrived late in December last year, so the SUG leaders were summoned to Abuja to personally receive the package.

“Today, the SUG Presidents across the Federation, by God’s grace, will also receive their rice from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a man who understands the importance of students as leaders not only of tomorrow but also of today.

“The President gave them the rice, but unfortunately, the rice arrived in Abuja very late, around December 28th last year. So, this year, we thought it wise to ask them to come to Abuja so that we could personally hand over the rice to them. We selected two SUG Presidents from each zone to represent them and manage the distribution of the palliative.

“It has never happened in the history of this country that the President will reach out to stakeholders and student leaders, particularly SUG Presidents, in December. This is the first time it’s happening,” Asefon stated.

One of the student representatives, the Student Union Government President of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Fahad Abdullahi, appreciated the President’s initiative.

He also disclosed their expectation of more of such gestures.

“We were informed that all SUG Presidents across the 36 states of the nation should come and receive rice, a gesture from the President.

“We are sincerely appreciative and commend him for these initiatives, starting with the Nigerian Education Loan Fund and now the Rice Initiative. We are looking forward to more,” he said.