Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said unemployment is the driving force behind the rising spate of banditry and kidnappings in Nigeria.
Obasanjo said this at the 9th International Trade Exhibition & Conference on Agrofood, Plastics, Printing, and Packaging in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said, “Of course, if we are able to achieve this, it will improve our security. Part of our insecurity are men and women that are not properly engaged.
“If we are able to give them employment, there will be less of them getting involved in banditry, in kidnapping, and in doing various other criminal activities that they get involved in,” he added.
The ex-president, identifying as ‘a fervent advocate for agriculture,’ emphasized the imperative of advancing agribusiness to bolster food security, ensure nutrition, foster employment, generate wealth, eradicate poverty, and enhance income, notably through foreign exchange earnings.
He stressed that the pursuit of food security in the nation must address the dimensions of food availability, affordability, and accessibility.
Obasanjo said, “A friend of mine said to me, you must be a madman. I asked him what he meant, and he said if I was not a madman I would not have gone into agriculture. So, I am a madman for agriculture. When it has to do with agriculture, you can be sure that when you call me, I will answer.
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“Food security starts with availability. We must be able to produce enough. Then there is affordability. We must be able to get everybody who needs food to be able to get the food that they need. Then there is accessibility. We must get food to where it is needed.
“Almost 40 per cent of our food go to waste after cultivation. So, food security and nutrition security makes agribusiness important.”
Obasanjo noted that encouraging more young people to pursue agriculture could serve as a powerful strategy for reducing youth emigration, unemployment, and insecurity.
He berated the tendency of Nigerian youths to gravitate towards the entertainment industry instead of agriculture, emphasizing the importance of glamorizing the latter.
Furthermore, the ex-president urged policymakers at every level to establish consistent policies that would enable farmers to set both short and long-term goals without fearing sudden policy changes that could disrupt their plans.
Obasanjo emphasized the necessity of providing single-digit loans to farmers, highlighting that agribusiness profitability is hindered by double-digit interest rates.
He said, “First is employment, with our teeming population and the problem we have with our youths going over the desert and risking their lives at the Mediterranean will stop. What can we do to give them enough employment at home?
“The area that is sure to provide employment for our teeming youth population is agriculture. When you talk about agriculture, not many of them will want to come to the farm, they will rather go into the music that they do now.
“We have to make agriculture glamorous because these youths, they make money that way (through music), and then you are asking them to come to the farm. They won’t want to,” he said.
(VANGUARD)
