Egunjobi Calls for Subsidized Farming, Encourages Youth Participation

By Yomi Durojaye 

The Executive Chairman of Agege Local Government, High Chief (Alh) Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi (JP), has called on the government at all level to subsidize farming, and encouraged the youths to embrace farming as the panacea for food security.

Egunjobi 

The council chairman stated this in his welcome address at the Lagos State House of Assembly Stakeholders meeting held on Friday, 11 October, 2024, at the council's newly built event centre in the Secretariat.

"May I welcome you all to this year's edition of Constituency Stakeholders' Meeting, an event put in place by the Lagos State House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Mudasiru Ajayi Obasa  to gather together stakeholders across all the 57 council areas to deliberate on specific issues.

The purpose of the programme is to enable the state lawmakers to make informed decisions as regards governance.

This year's theme is: Ensuring Food For a Sustainable Future: Youth Participation And Home Grown Farming.

The idea of deliberating on the need for Nigerian youths to go into farming could not come at a better time.

Food insecurity remains one of  the country's challenges.

The problems responsible for this are many. 

Among them are: insecurity that has to do with too many ungoverned areas in the country, which makes farmers target of kidnaps and ritual killings. 

The list which cannot be exhausted also includes the fact that most farmers in Nigeria are into subsistence farming rather than mechanised farming, and the near absence of infrastructure most especially in matters of agricultural value chain.

Farming in Nigeria is equally not attractive to the teeming youths.

My suggestion that would get us out of the woods is for government at all levels to subsidize farming hugely.

Access to credit to farmers should not only be as easy as pie, it should also be given at a very low-interest rate.

Government should also  improve on existing physical infrastructures in farming communities that would discourage urban migration and encourage youths to embrace farming.

By taking those steps, Nigeria would attain food security while joblessness that is currently afflicting the country's youths would be a thing of the past.

To me, the issue of farming and youth unemployment is a burning issue, which requires all stakeholders' contributions.

Please, you are all welcome to have the floor."

Aare Gani Adams calls for proper investigation on Arotile's deaths says death suspicious

AgegePulse Magazine

Gani Adams, Tolulope Arotile

Aareonakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Abiodun Ige Adams,has urged  the Federal Government to properly investigate the gruesome murder of Nigeria's first female combat Helicopter Pilot,Totulope Arotile, saying the death was suspicious.

Adams, in a statement on Thursday, by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Aderemi, described the late Arotile's death as a personal loss, especially, to the Yorubas.

While condoling with the family of the deceased, Iba Gani Adams also urged the International Community, the United Nation,European Union, United States and Britain to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the young and promising girl.

 "Nigeria has lost one of  its best brains in the military in such a suspicious circumstances. The late Tolulope Arotile's short span in life was remarkable with a track record of being the first female combat helicopter pilot. The best we can do as a nation is to get to the root of the circumstances culminating in her death"

"As far as I am concerned, reports of her death still remained suspicious to me because her death has raised many questions"

"How would such a promising, young girl be killed by a reversing car within the premises of the barrack? Who drove the car? What was his or her name? Where was the suspected killer at the moment? And what is the present situation? We will like to know, and that is why I am charging the International Community to investigate and look into the circumstances surrounding her death"

Adams, however,said the death of such a promising, young girl has exposed the nation as a country that never values the lives of its citizens, especially, the best and exceptional citizens"

"I take an exception to believe the story surrounding her gruesome murder. Her achievements speak volumes and many in the system may see her rising profile as a threat to the establishment,mostly with her passion towards ending the threats of the dreaded Boko Haram and bandits terrorising the North-west and the rest of the country"

" I feel the pain of a father whose daughter's shining light went dim unexpectedly.The sadness of losing a promising girl like Totulope was eternal to her family, because of her talents and dedication to duty, so it should not go the usual way, where our best brains died without any investigation being carried out"

"Tolu's father said he spoke with his daughter, by 1pm and by 5pm, a  few hours later she was reportedly killed by a reversing car and was in the mortuary.That story needs to be investigated because her case is one out of the many deaths of great Nigerians that made positive impacts toward making Nigeria great, and that is one of the reasons people of excellent and exceptional brains find it difficult to serve the country,and they are all over the world doing great"

" I have traveled across the world,and I see many  Nigerians doing wonderfully well in their respective disciplines, but they always feel reluctant to come back home,because of the way we treat our best brains, I think this is too bad for the development of our nation. More so, I share in the grief of the family as I pray God to give the family the fortitude to bear the loss". He said.

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