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The Association of Agricultural Commodity Presidents, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu, to appoint one of their members as minister of agriculture.
Some members of the association, made the appeal in a joint statement in Abuja.
According to Dr Bello Annoor, the National President of the Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN), one of its members, since doctors and lawyers head their various ministries, it will not be out of place if an experienced agriculturist is appointed to head the agricultural sector.
Annor said it would equally take an experienced farmer to identify the challenges farmers faced and make efforts to address them.
“Whatever you are doing, if you don’t have the knowledge of what you want to do, it will definitely fail. The reason why we want one of our members picked as the minister of agriculture is because an agriculturist knows the problems of farmers and has an experience in the agricultural value chain.
“You cannot take somebody who is an engineer to head the health sector or a doctor to head the judiciary; it is good for the agriculture sector to be managed by an agriculturist,” Annoor maintained.
Mr John Aderibigbe, National President, Carrot Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, said the association wanted representation since they were grassroots farmers, and so were in tune with the pains of farmers.
“As farmers, we do so much, lose so much, sometimes we sell a basket of okra for N500, what else does the government want us to do that we have not done? Now we are asking for inclusion because this was a promise,” Aderibigbe said.
On her part, the National President, Spices Association of Nigeria, Jummai Tabak, said the association came together to seek for the ministerial slot because “only he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches”.
Dr Florence Edward, the National President of Ginger Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, regretted that a lot of injustice had been done to Nigerian farmers in the past.
“We are calling on the new government to address the injustice being done to us by looking inward and picking one of us as minister of agriculture. If a commodity association president is appointed minister, if there is any problem in any corner, he will solve that problem with just one phone call.
“But if you pick a politician as a minister of agriculture, we will go back to the same pit that we are coming out from,” Edward said.
NAN / Foluke Ibitomi