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From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
The Southern Nigerian People’s Mandate ( SNPM) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently address the issue of hunger and hardship in the country.
The group said that if the president failed to address the issues steering at him, it will lead Nigeria to disaster that it can never recover.
In a statement by the President of SNPM Mr. Augustine Chukwudum and it’s Secretary Mr. Segun Diya said that any country that neglects agriculture will always end up in ruins.
“That is why we are calling on Mr president to do something meaningful to eradicate hunger because you don’t expect someone who cannot afford three square meals a day to be happy while the people who are entrusted with our natural resources to manage are busy stealing billions of naira daily.
“The problem with Nigeria rulers/leaders for the past 60 years is that they surrounded themselves with people who are singing the praises and not professional who will do the right thing. Few days ago the minister of agriculture lied to the world that his ministry has cultivated three hundred thousand hectares of farm land across the country.
“Do you know the size of land mentioned by this minister is more than one state in southern part of Nigeria that’s the kind of people president Tinubu appointed as minister, someone who will not be ashamed to lie in a country where we are not visitors but residents and origin this is a county where terrorist have chased away farmers from the farm lands and kidnapped farmers, killed majority while those who remain are paying taxes to terrorist in other to access their farm lands and yet our minister will not be ashamed to lie today in Nigeria.
“More than fifty percent of farmers in northern part of the country which produces more than 85 percent of the food we consume cannot go to farm anymore because of terrorists.
“SNPM hereby makes the following suggestions on the way forward: President Tinubu must strength our local currency naira by reducing one dollar to two hundred naira and further reduce one hundred naira by end of September 2024. This will go a long way in reducing the cost agriculture equipment, transportation, President Tinubu must involve technology in flushing out terrorists in the country because that is one of his major campaign promises he made before the 2023 general election.
“President Tinubu said ‘I will use drone to flush out terrorists’, we are yet to see it fulfilled that is why we are calling on him to start immediately to end insecurity in the country, Federal government must purchase tractors to farmers to enable them operate mechanized system because Nigeria has excess arable land for farming with this our farmers will produce excess food to feed our country at affordable price while the remaining will be processed and export thereby creating more jobs and money to the people.
“It is shameful that today farmers are still using hoe to farm while smaller countries are using tractors, that’s why we are calling on federal government to make tractors available to farmers” the group stated.
