I will Align with You, Tinubu Tells Nigerian Farmers 

Emameh Gabriel in Abuja

Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has given assurances to farmers across the six geo political zones of the country that his administration would invest massively in the entire agricultural value chain if elected president next year.

Tinubu, gave the assurance yesterday when he received farmers at his campaign office in Abuja, noting that investment in the nation’s agricultural sector has been captured in his proposed road map to food security in Nigeria as the country was set to become a focal point for global food production.

 Tinubu who left his campaign office for an emergency engagement after a brief meeting with other farmers groups, was represented by his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, to address other group of farmers who came under the of umbrella of Asiwaju Farmers Forum, disclosed that there were already strategic plans by his team to fortify the nation’s agricultural sector through the adoption of intermediate partnership and enhanced agriculture practices that would guarantee increase in yields and better job opportunities for the youths.

He expressed concern over the poor outputs suffered by Nigerian farmers, resulting in huge annual losses, a situation he said was not favourable to the country’s economy when compared to what farmers in other parts of the world record during harvests. This is just as he noted that there were also plans to address marketing constraints to promote exports of agro products from Nigeria to part Europe.

He said: “The incoming Tinubu’s administration will invest massively in the entire agriculture value chain. The whole mantra is on increase in yield.

“The whole mantra is on increase in yield and we cannot achieve that without embracing or adopting intermediate and enhanced agriculture practice.

“I want to assure you on behalf of our principal, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that we will align with you.

“The future belongs to you. The trajectory of global food security is in Africa and it is Nigeria that will make or mar that trajectory.

“The future of Africa, I mean that of the black race, rests on the people of this country. By 2050, Nigeria would be the third most populous nation on earth, with a population of over 400,000,000 people. We have the window of transforming the anticipated demographic trajectory into demographic dividends or it would be a demographic disaster that will consume all of us.

“We are going to work for you by God’s grace. The future belongs to you. Go to the interior of the slums and meet with the common man, anger is glaring in their faces.

“We need to work as a people, as a family for the good of our people. We have a problem of poverty and inequality in Nigeria and Nigerians have no reason to be poor because ours is one the big oil and gas nation blessed with tremendous arable land and with tremendous solid minerals buried under the soil.

“Not only tin and columbite in Plateau. In Nasarawa where you are farming, they have plenty of mineral resources too. Most importantly, we have the human resources, we have the market to sell our products,” he said

He however appealed to Nigerians to look beyond statistics constantly reeled out by the opposition political parties to vote for people with proven records.

According to him, “This is why next year’s election will be different from all other elections. We have to emphasise on competence, capability, much more than any other yardstick.

“We will work for the enthronement of an enduring peace in this country. Most importantly, our focus will be grassroots social economy empowerment programme with agriculture as the centre piece.

“So we need to work on the people and there is no other better person with the skills to transform this nation greater than Asiwaju.”

Earlier in his presentation, leader of the team, Mr. Retson Tedheke, who also doubled as the National Coordinator, Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative Society (NFGCS), said the objective of his team was to “encourage more youths to involve in agriculture but government at all levels must be willing to commit more resources into the sector by providing better incentives for young farmers to make agriculture more attractive to them.”

He however promised to team up with his colleagues in the sector “to mobilise thousands of youths across rural communities in the country for the actualisation of the Tinubu-Shettima presidential project.”

“We have the strength, we have the energy, we have the capacity, age is on our side and we will do it,” said Tedheke.