From John Adams, Minna
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu, met on Monday with a group of farmers in Minna, the state capital, where he assured them of his administration’s support for agriculture if he is elected president in 2023.
The presidential flag bearer also promised to revive Nigeria’s agriculture sector and give farmers adequate protection amidst the growing security challenges in the country in other to boost local food production.
The former Lagos governor told the northern agro commodity groups from the 19 northern states, which converged at the Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi International Conference Centre, Minna that the Bank of Agriculture would be restructured to enable farmers easy access to loans while animal husbandry would also be enhanced to ensure food sufficiency.
According to him, a Tinubu administration would do everything possible to curb the importation of food and encourage local production and exportation through improved farming activities as well as curbing the phenomenon of climate change that is causing flooding and destroying several farms across the country.
“I sympathise with you who have been victims of the flood ravages throughout the country. We will be on your side to implement all our programmes and keep our promises to you farmers. You are the lifeblood of the nation and we guarantee you to be our brother’s keeper,” he said.
Tinubu used the occasion to appoint the Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu as the Chairman of the Committee that would fashion out a blueprint for the revival of the agriculture sector in the country.
He pointed out that he understood the challenges facing the agriculture sector and farmers in the country and therefore has a plan towards achieving a complete overhauling of the sector for the survival of the country.
Earlier, the Director General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council and Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, said that the council targets 25 Million votes from farmers across the country for the 2023 presidential election.
Lalong, who urged heads of cooperatives and farmers’ associations to rally their members to vote for the APC, said that Tinubu plans to develop the country’s agriculture sector from subsistence to commercial to achieve food sufficiency.
“These farmers who have engaged in subsistence farming have saved this nation from hunger. And the presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu has a lot of respect for farmers,” he said.
He said the meeting was one of the critical engagements to enable the presidential candidate to understand the challenges facing farmers and farming activities in order to achieve food sufficiency through mechanised agriculture and improved value chain.
Lalong said the new APC that would be formed would tackle the banditry that has become a threat to food security, adding that the Presidential Campaign Council had already created Agro-Commodities Directorate to address challenges facing Nigeria’s agriculture sector.
Also speaking, the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, emphasised the need to invest in all sectors of agriculture to create jobs and improve the living conditions of farmers.
Niger Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, earlier in his welcome address, said the state government had invested in the agriculture value chain to enhance food production.