At the 80th birthday celebration of Satya Sai Baba at Lautoka's Girmit Center on 23 November 2005, Ganilau called for more religious programs to promote morality in private and public life. Most politicians were selfish and lacked moral values, he claimed. Teaching young people good values at home and at school would be "useless" if adults and political leaders were doing what children were taught not to do, he declared. He said that the country had strayed from spiritual values and had lost its way, with bribery, extortion, misuse of public funds, abuse of office, and racism having become common place at all levels of government. He claimed that the number of beggars and unschooled children was increasing while politicians were engaged in "egotistical pursuits."