Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has promised to turn around the country’s agricultural industry if elected in 2023.
The candidate stated this during a town hall meeting with farmers and the Northern Agro Commodity Groups held yesterday at the Idris Legbo Kutigi Conference Hall in Minna, Niger state, adding that this would be realized through the provision of modern farm implements at subsidized rates to farmers across the country.
Tinubu stated that agriculture has been identified as the hope and only path to the prosperity of farmers and the Nigerian economy, thus the need to prioritize the sector for easy access to agricultural facilities and to increase the country’s GDP (GDP).
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The former Lagos state governor announced that a National Agriculture Commodity Directorate would be built under his supervision to ensure the success of his agricultural program targeted at improving food security and export.
According to him, “Commodity exchange will begin immediately I become President and every resources to protect the farmers and their produces will be provided.
“Be assured that you will have the necessary protection in the market and farms. That is why we promise you that commodity exchange will start immediately if you elect me as President of Nigeria. Be assured farmers that the protection is here and the help has arrived. The future is assured. We promise that the resources to protect your farming produce will be made available for you without you asking for it.”
Tinubu declared that the Bank of Agriculture will be rebuilt and restructured to prioritize farmers while committing to prevent the effects of climate change.
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“We will stop destroying our export potential to create value. We will work to give you the exportable items that will help you produce in a manner that other people will want to buy your produce and not reject them.
“We promise you that nothing you produce will be destroyed again. We will mitigate the effect of climate change and floods. I sympathise with all of you affected by flood throughout the country,” he remarked.
The presidential candidate promised to establish an Agricultural and Commodities Directorate in the APC Presidential Campaign Council, which he said would be chaired by Alhaji Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, and that the Directorate would focus on orienting rural Nigerian farmers, Agro processors, food/feed industries, and others.
Several agricultural groups supported the Asiwaju/Shettima Presidency, expressing hope that Tinubu would lift them out of poverty and improve farming techniques across the country.
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While endorsing the candidate, the National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Architect Kabir Ibrahim, stated, “All the farmers in Nigeria have thrown their weight behind the presidency of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima.”
According to him, “We, as farmers, endorse the candidacy of Tinubu. The average farmer in Nigeria should do agriculture as a business, we should go to our farms without fear but we have many factors preventing us from doing what we know how to do best.
“President Buhari has done his best but we ask this incoming government to do more. We ask that you appoint people who know how to do agriculture in your cabinet and to this end, all the farmers in the country endorse your candidature and we know you will do what you say you will do for us,” he declared.
Similarly, the President of Miyetti Allah, Abdullahi Bodejo called on Tinubu to look into the numerous problems affecting the Herders across the country.
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“Our contribution to the economic survival of Nigeria is enormous and we, therefore, need a solution to insecurity, relief assistance, education, livestock development, federal and state budgetary provisions, national livestock transformation programme and end to ethnic profiling and media bias,” he declared.
In his welcome statement, Niger state Governor Abubakar Sani Bello stated that the Forum is proof that Northern Nigeria, and specifically Niger state, is Nigeria’s unquestioned food lifeline.
He stated that his administration has continued to encourage agricultural development in crop, livestock, and fisheries output over the years.
“In Niger state, we have reactivated some out of the 19 moribund irrigation schemes in the state as well the rehabilitation of over 300km rural access roads through the implementation of the Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP II) programme.
“The state has attracted five International Investors for the production Diary and other associated livestock products and over 1,300 hectares of pasture plots have been fully developed and basic facilities provided towards improving Agriculture in the state,” he remarked.
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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.
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