Issues
Increasing Food Production Through Learning Centres
Agriculture represents the aggregate of occupations concerning cultivation of crops, raising of livestocks and poultry for food production for the benefit of man. It involves the occupation and business as well as the science of cultivating land to produce crops and rearing livestock or birds for food and income generation.
This explanation does not undermine aquatic agriculture aimed at fish production for the overall consumption by man to sustain existence and remain healthy too.
Across the globe, agriculture remains a common denominator in the quest to attain self sufficiency in food production. It provides employment to a substantial proportion of the labour force thereby contributing immensely to gross domestic product (GDP) of any given economy.
Nigeria is not left out in the invaluable contribution of agriculture to the overall development of the country, be it food production or the provision of raw material for industries. In fact, before the oil boom of the middle nineteen seventies, agriculture was the mainstay of the nation.
For instance, the Western Region of Nigeria was identified as cocoa producer, Northern Region was famous for its groundnut pyramid while the Eastern Region was run by wealth from palm oil and palm fruit and revenue from coal particularly in Enugu.
The cocoa tower in Ibadan, Oyo State, is the legacy of the cocoa era in Western Nigeria and the revenue from cocoa among others was used to finance the free education during the reign of the Great Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of Western Nigeria.
What cocoa, groundnut and palm fruit represented to the economy of Nigeria could be compared to what peanuts meant to the American agricultural scientist, George Washington Carver who lived between 1864 and 1943.
This is because when George Washington Carver looked at peanuts, he saw more than a nut in a shell after discovering more than three hundred uses for the peanut and other plants.
For instance, from peanuts Carver made soap, ink, flour, axle grease and other products and this represented great opportunity for farmers in Southern United States of America at the time. Interestingly, George Washington Carver showed farmers in the South how to improve the soil too.
Similarly, cocoa, groundnut, palm fruit, cassava and maize among others are goldmine elsewhere. Despite the wealth accruable from oil and gas subsector, agriculture remains strategic to the attainment of sustainable development and self sufficiency in food production.
In spite of neglect of the agricultural subsector of the economy, it is estimated that about fourteen million families engage in agriculture in Nigeria. The estimate further proposes that if an average of four persons per family actually practice agriculture, it would amount to fifty six million farmers out of the fourteen million families in agriculture. Unfortunately, these farmers are largely in subsistent agriculture, providing for their immediate families with little or no commercial intent. Worse still, these farmers use local and traditional implements, lack improved seeds and therefore the output is low which translate into abject poverty.
Already, the 2010 MDG report states that the proportion of the Nigerian population living below hunger threshold increased from 29% to 33% implying little prospect of achieving 2015 target.
It is pertinent to identify lack of appropriate fertilizer input, ignorance, illiteracy and unwillingness to practice improved agriculture as the bane of modern agriculture in the country.
It has been observed that while a farmer in Nigeria produces about one point two tones of maize per hectre, a farmer in Kenya who practices improved agriculture produces about eight tones per hectare.
Similarly, in rice production, while about one point five tone is produced per hectre in Nigeria, about seven tones of rice per hectre is actually possible with improved agriculture.
Improved agriculture involves adoption of modern technique, use of improved seeds, modern tools and quality fertilizer types as well as knowledge of soil and application to plant, against primitive farming tools such as cutlass and hoe.
On the use of fertilizer, an agronomist and head of Agricultural Services Notore Chemical Industries says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommends about two hundred kilogramme of fertilizer per hectare but an average use of fertilizer by most farmers in Nigeria is less than ten kilogramme per hectare which is grossly inadequate.
Since cultural practices such use of local and traditional implements as well as negative belief against use of fertilizers remain the challenges to improved agriculture, the panacea would be the use of demonstration farms as Learning Centres to increase food production in Nigeria.
Learning centres demand that extension workers in the field of agriculture would meet with farmers in the rural areas and appeal to them to use a small part of their farm for demonstration alongside their cultivated land.
The demonstration farm which would be very small in size would be used for the best practices in agriculture where the right quantity of fertilizers, improved seeds to bring about better output.
The advantage of demonstration farms is that it will serve as learning centres for rural farmers who will see the difference between improved agriculture and traditional farming method in terms of increased food production and better yield simultaneously and in turn change for the better.
This module is being practised Notore Chemical Industries manufacturer of Notore Chemical Industries and reports say it is yielding positive returns.
Perhaps, what would be the challenge associated with the use of fertilizer would be to conduct soil test in all the geo-political zones to ascertain the type and quality of fertilizers to use as there exists disparity in nutrients required by various crops and soil where they grow. The use of one type of fertilizer for instance, NPK 15:15:15 for every crop anywhere in the country could be counter-productive.
In a third world economy in which Nigeria belongs, poverty eradication might be achievable with a warm embrace of improved agriculture resulting in increased food production.
And to attain this enviable height, the estimated fifty six million farmers must embrace the module of Learning Centres which will precipitate the relegation of traditional method of farming which hitherto was difficult to abandon.
There is also the need to resuscitate the Rivers State School to Land Scheme as a deliberate policy to return to agriculture which will not only increase food production but generate employment.
Baridon Sika
Issues
Wike: Destroying Rivers State And PDP
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
Issues
Investing In Nyesom Wike: A Story Of Dedication, Sacrifice And Ultimate Loss
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru