Farming can tackle insecurity, cybercrime, lawmaker tells FG
A member the House of Representatives, Rep. Olubunmi Ogunlola, has called for huge investment in agriculture to attract the productive population and reduce the scourge of insecurity and cybercrime being perpetrated by Nigerian youths.
The House of Representatives member called on the federal government to as a matter of urgency declare a state of emergency in the agricultural sector to allow for more funding that will banish unemployment and poverty among youths.
Rep. Ogunlola, who represents Ekiti West Federal Constituency 11, stated that the present agricultural practice, which relies on traditional implements and annual rainfall is not profitable and cannot encourage the youths to engage in farming.
The lawmaker spoke in Aramoko Ekiti at the weekend while empowering farmers from the 33 wards of Ekiti West, Efon and Ijero Local Governments.
She said: “If the federal government is serious about creating employment through agriculture, then it must make farming attractive to the youths. The government should increase budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector and then encourage modern mechanised farming.
“We cannot expect our youths to embrace farming if, they are going to use the same tools that were used by their grandfathers. These are the people whose parents went to school because they wanted to escape farming.”
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The benefitting farmers were empowered with cash and various farm tools like, spraying machines, bags of fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides.
Rep. Ogunlola called on all stakeholders to make farming attractive for the youths, adding that “as a representative of the people, I am very concerned about this situation.
Let’s face it, there is hunger in the land and there is unemployment, which is not acceptable to me as a leader, as a mother and as a member of the society.”
Apart from empowering the farmers, Rep. Ogulola also organized a capacity building programme on ICT for 45 youths across the 33 wards in her constituency.
The lawmaker’s special assistant on Media, Femi Kasali, said participants at the ICT training programme were trained on the importance of ICT and the dangers of its excessive usage.
