Okorocha: Nigeria is losing billions of Dollars from cattle Business
Nigeria, according to Okorocha, is losing billions of dollars in the cattle industry.
Senator Rochas Okorocha, the lawmaker representing Imo West in the National Assembly, has claimed that the cattle market costs Nigeria billions of dollars, urging the federal government to invest in the industry.
He said this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, noting that if the cattle industry is properly exploited, it could generate one million jobs for Nigerians.
“Do you know how many billions of dollars this nation is missing by doing not this business of cattle in the Federal Republic of Nigeria?” he asked.
“This business of cattle can create one million jobs for Nigerians if well managed.
I wish Nigerians can call me or the governor will call me and say ‘look Rochas, the N76billion we want to give to youths and share, take it and fix the cattle business.’”
“If I don’t create one million jobs within the shortest possible time, then know I am not Rochas. This is business. Poor people will say ‘see money and people are just joking with it.’”
When asked whether President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has disappointed Nigerians by failing to resolve the worsening insecurity, the economy, and other sectors, Okorocha remained silent.
While stressing that if President Buhari has failed, then the failure is collective, Okorocha advised that the nation’s challenges should not be politicised.
He also commended the 17 southern governors for meeting in Asaba, the Delta State capital to discuss sensitive issues that concern their region, describing the meeting as the first in the nation’s history.
Okorocha, who is the former governor of Imo State, said the call for a dialogue by the regional governors is a call for peace rather than war.
“What I understand from this whole meeting is that things are not well and I like the term they used – National Dialogue.
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“Dialogue means there is something you are doing that I don’t like and there is something you are doing I don’t like, can we come under a round table and discuss it?
“That is a call for peace and not a call for war. So that should not be taken out of context and does not look like polarisation. I don’t think that is the intention.”
Okorocha’s remarks come five days after the southern governors agreed on restructuring, open grazing ban, among other issues.
The governors also asked President Muhammadu Buhari to convoke a national dialogue to address widespread agitations amongst various groups in the region.
