Look beyond statistics reeled by opposition; vote people with proven records — Tinubu tells Nigerians

 

Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu has assured Nigerian farmers of massive investments in the entire agricultural value chain if elected president next year.

 

 

Tinubu gave the assurance on Friday when he received farmers at his campaign office in Abuja.

 

While noting that investment in the nation’s agricultural sector has been captured in his proposed road map to food security in Nigeria, he said the country is set to become a focal point for global food security.

 

 

Tinubu who left his campaign office for an emergency engagement after a brief meeting with the farmers’ groups, was then represented by his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, to address other group of farmers who came under the umbrella of Asiwaju Farmers Forum.

 

He disclosed that there were already strategic plans in the road map of his incoming administration to fortify the nation’s agricultural sector through the adoption of intermediate partnership and enhanced agriculture practices that would guarantee increased yields and better job opportunities for the youths.

 

 

He said; “The incoming Tinubu’s administration will invest massively in the entire agriculture value chain. The whole mantra is on increase in yield”.

 

Tinubu expressed concern over the poor output suffered by Nigerian farmers, resulting in huge annual loses, a situation he said was not favourable to the country’s economy when compared to what farmers in other parts of the world record during harvest.

 

 

According to him, there are also plans to address marketing constraints to promote exports of agro products from Nigeria to part Europe.

 

“The whole mantra is on increase in yield and we cannot achieve that without embracing or adopting intermediate and enhanced agriculture practice

 

“I want to assure you on behalf of our principal, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that we will align with you.

 

“The future belongs to you. The trajectory of global food security is in Africa and it is Nigeria that will make or mar that trajectory. The future of Africa, I mean that of the black race, rests on the people of this country. By 2050, Nigeria would be the third most populous nation on earth, with a population of over 400 million people. We have the window of transforming the anticipated demographic trajectory into demographic dividends or it would be a demographic disaster that will consume all of us.

 

“We are going to work for you by God’s grace. The future belongs to you. Go to the interior of the slums and meet with the common man, anger is glaring in their faces.

 

“We need to work as a people, as a family for the good of our people. We have a problem of poverty and inequality in Nigeria and Nigerians have no reason to be poor because ours is one big oil and gas nation blessed with tremendous arable land and with tremendous solid minerals buried under the soil”, he said.

 

He however appealed to Nigerians to look beyond statistics constantly reeled out by the opposition but to vote for people with proven records.

 

“This is why next year’s election will be different from all other elections. We have to emphasize on competence, capability, much more than any other yardstick”, he stated.

 

Earlier in his presentation, leader of the team, Mr. Retson Tedheke, who also doubles as the National Coordinator, Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative Society (NFGCS) said the objective of his team was to “encourage more youth involvement in agriculture”.

 

He said government at all levels must be willing to commit more resources into the sector by providing better incentives for young farmers to make agriculture more attractive to them.

 

Tedheke however promised to team up with his colleagues in the sector “to mobilize thousands of youths across rural communities in the country for the actualization of the Tinubu-Shettima presidential project.

 

“We have the strength, we have the energy, we have the capacity, age is on our side and we will do just that”, he stated.