By Polycarp Onwubiko
Tinubu stated, "The Federal Government will step up the administration's plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country to grow maize, rice, wheat, millet, and other staple crops."
How shameful indeed that a
federal government talks about cultivating food crops. Do other federations in
the world cultivate food crops? Of course not.
Agriculture falls within the
purview of state governments (in the First Republic in Nigeria, the constituent
units were called regional governments). What business has the federal government
in agriculture?
So, the age-long clarion calls
of well-meaning Nigerians for restructuring governance (some ignorantly call it
devolution of powers) mean nothing to Tinubu, who was an uncompromising
federalist when he was governor of Lagos State?
In other words, does the
federal government have farmlands in the 36 states of the federation? Oh,
indeed, Nigeria has expired. If President Tinubu is as clear-headed as
Nigerians would believe, if he wants food security, he should drive away the
Islamic terrorists occupying the ancestral homelands of people in South Kaduna
and Middle Belt states. This way, the people dying in droves in the refugee
resettlements can return to their villages and pick up the remaining pieces of
their lives ravaged by the Islamic militia terrorists masquerading as herders,
allegedly given protection by the security agencies.
State governments are in the
position to cultivate food crops by providing incentives to farmers, not the
federal government. For the federal government to embark on nebulous farming is
a leeway to mindless corruption and financial malfeasance, as seen with the
federal government's so-called school feeding program. In sane and sanitized
federations, this responsibility falls within the constitutional mandate of
state governments. Sorry for Nigeria.
Polycarp Onwubiko Public Policy
Analyst.
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