Chairman of the national assembly and President of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan has called on stakeholders in the agricultural sector to design policy frameworks and mechanisms that will provide job opportunities for Nigerian youths or be ready to face a second wave of protest that will see political leaders across party lines as major targets.
Ahmad Lawan made the call on Monday in his opening remarks when the Honourable Minister of Agriculture appeared before a joint committee on Agricultural and Rural Development for 2020 budget performance and 2021 budget defense.
He said without prejudice to any other sector of the Nigerian economy, the agriculture sector is enough to turn around the fortunes of Nigeria.
“This sector can do something that oil has not been able to do. But why hasn’t it been able to do so? We need to be very practical and radical.
“I believe that the way we are going, will not take us to the El-dorado but there is every potential, every possibility and there are so many experts here and that other countries have made it through the sector. Every time we talk about diversification of the Nigerian economy, the first sector they mention is the agricultural sector.
“So it means this sector needs to be given all the support that is possible. Oil cannot give jobs to the youths that we have, only few people and mostly white collar jobs but we know that this sector can give everybody a job.
“And it has all the potentials to create the wealth that we need to have a fairly meaningful life for everyone. So we need to apply ourselves fully to operating this sector.
“And of course, like we all know, government alone cannot make it happen. It is not possible. Government can come up with the necessary and desired policies but those that will make it happen are the private sector, he said.
While he called on private sectors to also invest in the sector as government alone cannot fund the sector 100%, he said we need to come up with better strategy of engaging everybody and stakeholder.
“I would like to at this point advise that whatever programme we have in this sector, we need to bring everybody to the table to avoid possible duplication of resources and working at cross purposes.
“There are a lot of efforts everywhere but maybe they are done in disparate and uncoordinated manner. Do we need to bring everybody to the table. I believe that we need to not only look at what we did in 2020 but approach the 2021 in a ver practical way.
Recently, we had some of our youths protesting genuinely. They were seeking the attention of leaders and they got the attention of leaders. So our budget especially for 2021 should be mindful of what we do to provide employment opportunities for these youths.
“They protested because they could do so, there are so many other people who may not be youthful but are also in the same need and they didn’t protest. Let’s meet them where they are. We font have to wait until they also start to grumble or protest.
“We should be proactive, we should reach them and most of them are in the rural areas and give them what we can and what they need to some extent within the purview of our resources and keep them there to lead a productive life and that is the only way that we can make a difference in the lives of the people.
“And for us, elected people, we are going to be accountable. If we escape this one, the other one is inescapable and I am sure people will know what I am saying”, he warned.
