Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has suggested that creation of middle-class level through keying into President Muhammadu Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution (BUGREV) for the economic prosperity of Nigerians is the antidote to the recurring crisis in the party.
The Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), who spoke at a media parley at the party’s national headquarters Abuja, also called on states and local governments to key into President Buhari Agrarian Revolution.
Okechukwu also argued that the missing gap between the rich and the poor is too wide, hence the need to quickly build a middle class.
He maintained that the crisis in the ruling party across the country will not stop unless the party keyed into the Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution through the middle class.
“Permit me to use this forum to appeal to all Nigerians to buy into the Buhari Agrarian Revolution – #BUGREV, as a Road Map to Nigeria’s Risorgimento. Our people, especially the teeming youths and women, are yet to embrace this milestone as expected; hence one sincerely appeal to the fourth estate of the realm to join the enlightenment crusade and spread the good news.
#BUGREV (Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution), which was launched on November 17, 2015, in the early stages of President Buhari’s administration, is a policy dear to Mr President’s heart and indeed his initiative touches on our common heritage and our uncommon Almighty God’s endowment.
To be exact, it follows the truism that every square meter of land in our fatherland, from north to south, east to west is fertile and provides luxuriant life to any specie of flora and fauna found on earth,” he noted.
Speaking further, the VON DG said: “Accordingly, in my candid opinion, #BUGREV is the Utility Bolt, to upgrade not only the 70 per cent of Nigerians who are already in subsistence farming but to motivate and mobilise more people, especially youths and women into agriculture. We need media support to achieve mass appeal.
“Even the membership and leadership of my great party that initiated the program more or less ignored or didn’t accord it the import and urgency required. This is why I am making this passionate appeal to all Nigerians.
“For the records, there are many programs defining the #BUGREV to mention a few – big-time commercial farmers, cooperative farmers and the beneficiaries of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
“ABP attracts my interest more than other variants of #BUGREV, in expanding the frontiers of agriculture, for it is an epitome of communal farming, more or less devoid of prohibited interest rates, the bane of our Shylock Banks.
“In sum, it goes thus: the community maps out hectares of land, and each farmer owns one hectare, high yield seedlings, fertilizer and other inputs are supplied by Central Bank of Nigeria (the managers of ABP). The products are picked up or bought by designated overtakers, who via the bank remits the farmers due share, until he becomes self-sufficient.
“Finally, lets buy-in into #BUGREV, for with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Green Imperative Programme (GIP), a blitz mechanisation scheme meant to site over 600 Tractors Servicing Centers and over 100 Agro-Processing Plants nationwide, we are on a good ride.
“GIP will plug the missing gap of the middle class, by building faster the rural middle cadre, with effective linkage with the grass root. With one stone we kill two birds – the middle class and renews our rural areas,” he quipped.