Nigerians are not lazy. I meet enough people everyday, I interact with some, I
watch others closely and I befriend a few. In nearly all cases, I see only
people who are willing to work their way out of poverty.
You just have to show them how.
You just have to show them how.
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| Audu Ogbeh, Minister for Agriculture |
This is where I think the government has failed.
The FG is screaming itself hoarse on national radio/television, the pages of
newspapers and the likes to convince people to return to the farms. But it's
been all noise no substance. The results have been pathetic. There are still
more unemployed Nigerians than the employed and the situation continues to
worsen.
Elected leaders may go about recruiting more men and women into the police, military, civil service and such state and federal agencies but the obvious truth is that no government can effectively employ its entire citizenry.
It's not possible in tiny Togo how much more the most populous black nation on the face of the earth!
Elected leaders may go about recruiting more men and women into the police, military, civil service and such state and federal agencies but the obvious truth is that no government can effectively employ its entire citizenry.
It's not possible in tiny Togo how much more the most populous black nation on the face of the earth!
A wise government recognizes this and channel majority of its efforts towards
inspiring its populace towards fending for and feeding itself.
This is where I commend the Ethiopian Farm Model. Needless to say, there are so many lessons we can pick from our eastern brothers.
This is where I commend the Ethiopian Farm Model. Needless to say, there are so many lessons we can pick from our eastern brothers.
Ethiopia is the second most populous nation on the black continent with almost
100million people, yet she's able to grow enough to feed her people and even
have some more for export.
The Horn of Africa is one of the largest producers and exporters of coffee, maize and cereals in Africa.
The government of the East Africa nation commits about 15% of the budget yearly to support agriculture and aggressively attracts international organizations like the Bill & Belinda Gates Foundation to help drive its farming policies and empower its mostly smallholder farmers.
As gigantic as the Nigerian budget is constructed annually, never have we devoted 5% to the agricultural sector. In fact, recently, it has mostly hover around the 1.5% mark. That's paying lip service to the Transformation Agenda in that sector.
We can fool no one but ourselves. If this regime is serious about providing jobs for the majority of its educated and uneducated folks, the answer is not in trading blames, importing goods, establishing more federal agencies, recruiting more into the civil service, or providing free daily breakfast for all unemployed youths. The answer lies in investing smartly in agriculture .
The Horn of Africa is one of the largest producers and exporters of coffee, maize and cereals in Africa.
The government of the East Africa nation commits about 15% of the budget yearly to support agriculture and aggressively attracts international organizations like the Bill & Belinda Gates Foundation to help drive its farming policies and empower its mostly smallholder farmers.
As gigantic as the Nigerian budget is constructed annually, never have we devoted 5% to the agricultural sector. In fact, recently, it has mostly hover around the 1.5% mark. That's paying lip service to the Transformation Agenda in that sector.
We can fool no one but ourselves. If this regime is serious about providing jobs for the majority of its educated and uneducated folks, the answer is not in trading blames, importing goods, establishing more federal agencies, recruiting more into the civil service, or providing free daily breakfast for all unemployed youths. The answer lies in investing smartly in agriculture .
And it all starts with the 2016 budget!
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