Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, promised yesterday that if elected in 2023, he would turn around the country’s agricultural sector.
Tinubu stated during a town hall meeting with Farmers and Northern Agro Commodity Groups held at the Idris Legbo Kutigi Conference Hall in Minna, Niger State, that this would be realized through the provision of modern farm implements at subsidized rates to farmers throughout the country.
The presidential candidate promised that a National Agricultural Commodity Directorate would be established under his leadership to ensure the success of his agricultural policy, which aims to improve food security and export.
“Commodity trading will begin immediately,” he says. If I am elected President, I will make every effort to protect farmers and their products. You can rest assured that you will be adequately protected in the market and on farms. That is why, if you elect me as President of Nigeria, we guarantee that commodity exchange will begin immediately. Farmers can rest assured that protection and assistance are on the way. The future is certain. We guarantee that the resources you need to protect your farm produce will be made available to you without your asking.
“We will cease destroying our export potential in order to create value.” We will work to provide you with exportable items that will assist you in producing in such a way that other people will want to buy your produce rather than reject it. We guarantee that nothing you create will be destroyed again. We will reduce the impact of climate change and flooding. “I sympathize with everyone affected by the floods across the country.”
Several agricultural groups supported the Asiwaju/Shetimma Presidency, expressing hope that Tinubu would lift them out of poverty and improve farming practices across the country.
While endorsing his candidacy, the National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Kabir Ibrahi, stated, “All the farmers in Nigeria have thrown their weight behind the Presidency of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Ksahim Shetimma.”
“We, as farmers, support Tinubu’s candidacy,” he says. The average Nigerian farmer should treat agriculture as a business, and we should go to our farms without fear, but many factors prevent us from doing what we do best. President Buhari has done his best, but we expect more from the incoming administration. We ask that you appoint people who understand agriculture to your cabinet, and to that end, all of the country’s farmers support your candidacy, and we know you will do what you say you will do for us.”
Similarly, Abdullahi Bodejo, President of Myetti Allah, urged Tinubu to investigate the numerous issues affecting herders across the country, saying, “Our contribution to the economic survival of Nigeria is enormous, and thus we need a solution to insecurity, relief assistance, education, livestock development, federal and state budgetary provisions, national livestock transformation program, and an end to ethnic profiling and media bias.”
In his welcome address, Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State stated, among other things, that “in Niger state, we have reactivated some of the 19 moribund irrigation schemes in the state as well as the rehabilitation of over 300km rural access roads through the implementation of the Rural Access and Mobility Project, RAMP II.”
“The state has attracted five international investors for the production of dairy and other associated livestock products, and more than 1,300 hectares of pasture plots have been fully developed, with basic facilities provided to improve agriculture in the state.”
The National Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, the Director General of the Presidential Campaign Council, Simon Lalong, Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu, the Party’s Vice Presidential Candidate, Kashim Shettima, Niger State, APC Governorship Candidate, Umar Bago, and a host of Party stalwarts attended the event.
