Read in
Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja
Ahead of his inauguration next Monday, Nigerian farmers on Thursday converged on the nation’s capital, Abuja, with a call on the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to walk his pre-election talk regarding the use of Agriculture, specifically Maize (Agbado) and Cassava to drive national development.
A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC and Secretary of the Directorate of Agro and Commodities at the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC, Retson Tedheke gave the charge alongside other farmers at a pre-inauguration get-together organized by the BATKASH National Farmers Forum at the Unity Fountain in Abuja.
According to Tedheke, it has become very urgent to focus on Agriculture.
He said; “Farmers all over the country are here to celebrate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and to prepare for the inauguration on Monday. The BATKASH National Farmers’ Forum and Agro Commodities Directorate organized the programme
“We want prove that Agriculture is how we work and this is the Agbado revolution. This is the beginning of greatness for rural Nigeria and all Nigerian farmers.
“The reality is this: we should not expect miracles over night but the farming community is going to feel this president very strongly because before he became president he spoke to how we can use Agbado and Cassava to solve our national crisis and that is a possibility because if we focus on maize, if we focus on Cassava, Soy beans, Sesame, Poultry and livestock, we can become a nation of greatness. We can employ our people, develop our rural communities and then generate that revenue that we need to develop our country”.
Sani Bulama, a farmer from Yobe state said Nigerian farmers are very expectant, having campaigned vigorously for Tinubu.
“There is a lot of expectations. We want him to support the farmers just as we campaigned and mobilized for him”, he stated.
Another farmer from Ekiti State, Francis Oshayomi, urged Tinubu to make rural Nigeria more productive in concrete terms.
He said; “We are expecting the best from Asiwaju. We are expecting him to use agriculture to develop rural communities. Make rural Nigeria productive, using agriculture”.