Buhari’s agric revolution, roadmap to Nigeria’s economy regeneration — VON DG

By Tunde Opalana

A member of the All People’s Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has urged Nigerians to buy into the agricultural revolution of the Buhari administration which he said is a roadmap to the nation’s economy regeneration, Daily Times gathered.

He noted that most Nigerians, especially the teeming youths and women, are yet to embrace the milestone recorded by the administration in the agriculture sector.

Okechukwu, who is the Director General, Voice of Nigeria (VON) made this plea on Monday at an interactive session with members of the APC Press Corps in Abuja.

He said the programme tagged ‘BUGREV’ which was launched on 17th November 2015, in the early stages of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, is a policy dear to Mr President’s heart and indeed an  initiative that  touches on Nigeria’s common heritage.

The party chieftain stressed that the programme, ‘BUGREV’, without prejudice to Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves, the innovation of the youths in the tech ecosystem, and small and medium scale entrepreneurial skills, is the main beacon to actualisation of the nation’s giant status in Africa.

He added  that  the quest to lift 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years, the urgent need to halt all manner of insecurity bedevilling the country and the imperative to reduce the stark economic inequality rests squarely on back to land.

He proudly said that Nigeria’s subsistence farmers have  migrated to commercial farmers, and from potential giant to substantive giant of Africa with the help of the bottom-top model of revival of agriculture, with the untold story of back to land, redistribution of income and construction of egalitarian society seamlessly.

Okechukwu assured that with massive mobilization, ‘BUGREV’  will “balance the country’s external trade deficit, assist in no small measure in offsetting our foreign loans and enhance our economic diplomacy.

“Accordingly, in my candid opinion, ‘BUGREV’ is the utility bolt, to upgrade not only the 70% of Nigerians who are already in subsistence farming, but to motivate and mobilise more people, especially youths and women into agriculture”.

He was of the opinion that the desire for devolution of powers or restructuring will make better sense, and be more meaningful, for without economic prosperity, resurgence of the middle class; restructuring no matter how well designed will only reinforce the Emperorship of state governors.

Speaking on President Buhari’s achievements in the sector, he said “the truism is that in the five decades post 1970 Nigeria, almost two generations in sociological terms, no military Head of State or civilian President has deeply thought of pragmatically shifting our attention back to agriculture, mobilised men and material nor committed so much homogenous amount of money in the transformation and modernisation of agriculture in Nigeria than President  Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.

“The agrarian revolution is, in other words, the solution and indeed panacea to palpable discontent, despair, gross unemployment and gross inequality in the country. We are among the top ten most populous countries of the world and we have the single honour of median age advantage of youths making over 60%. China, India and even USA do not have that median youth advantage, only Brazil and Indonesia approximate our ranking. However, this advantage also has disadvantages, this is what #BUGREV is set to correct.

“After observing the 2020 Eid ul Fitr prayers at Aso Villa alongside members of his family Mr President lamented, “ I hope the rainy season will be bountiful so that we get a lot of food. I wish the farmers will go to farms and save the lives so that we can produce what we need in sufficient quantity so that we don’t have to import food. In any case we don’t have any money to import food. So we must produce what we are going to eat.”

Analysing rice production since ‘BUGREV’s inception when compared by government administrations in the last two decades, he said rice paddy production has so far averaged at about 7 millio metric tonnes under the Buhari administration — the highest.

He said this  averaged at 4.1million metric tonnes,  5.4million metric tonnes  and 3.3 million metric tonnes  during presidencies of Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo respectively.

“Rice paddy production in Nigeria increased from 325,000 tonnes in 1969 to 5.1 million metric tonnes in 2019, growing at an average annual rate of 8.76 per cent, the data show. The president of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Aminu Goronyo, attributed the increase seen in rice production to the Anchor Borrower’s Programme and ban on forex for food importation, coupled with land border closure.

“That alone is a sign, an indication and a true testimony that this administration has achieved near self sufficiency in rice production for Nigerians,” Okechukwu said.

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