6 days ago
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By Chinyere Anyanwu
Nigeria’s agricultural sector has a received a major boost via the Federal Government’s approval of multi-billion naira grants for two federal universities of agriculture as part of efforts towards revolutionising the country’s agriculture.
The benefitting institutions include the Federal University of Agriculture, Bayelsa State, and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, which got N7 billion.
This was revealed at the weekend by the Governing and Council member of the Federal University of Agriculture, Bayelsa State, Doyin Johnson, during the swearing-in ceremony of the 2025 Honour of State Icons and presentation of certificates of return to three zonal executive councils, 33 state executive councils and 57 local government chairmen by the Intellectual Elite Youth Association of Nigeria (IEYAN) in Lagos.
The grants, according to him, were part of President Tinubu’s efforts to boost food production and empower smallholder farmers across the country, in line with the administration’s goal of reducing the country’s reliance on imported food products and oil.
Johnson, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in his lecture, also called on Nigerians to support President Tinubu’s drive to rescue the country from the damages of past administrations as well as to be patient with the process, noting that the president was facing numerous challenges which are being addressed one after the other.
He said, “President Tinubu is not the type of president who wasn’t prepared to run for an election. Nobody handpicked him to run for election. He has prepared for it for a long time. As a master strategist, he knows what to do to reform the country.
“He started by dealing with oil subsidy scam and it did not go down well with the cabals that were reaping where they did not sow. It was too sad that past administrations did not do anything about the scam in oil subsidy. It was President Tinubu who intervened. Did you know that past administrations used our crude oil as a loan? The loan was just paid last August, so better things are coming.”
According to him, the President “is revolutionising agriculture. President Tinubu appointed me as a governing and council member of the Federal University of Agriculture, Bayelsa. He approved N2.64 billion for agriculture and food surplus, not to spend. The same as that in Mubi while the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta for N7billion grant for farming. So, when you are saying you want to sell your bag of rice for N50,000 and somebody from Abeokuta is selling for N25,000, your price will crash.
“You know, we rely on oil. They took a loan with our crude oil but they cannot sell agricultural produce like oil because they cannot steal from agriculture; they are not investing in it. They can steal from mining. They were just mining the gold and other bitumen and exporting them free of charge, without paying any dime to the government. Now, President Tinubu has withdrawn all the mining licenses; they are just renewing them now.
“Many Chinese just extracted gold in connivance with some powerful people in Nigeria. They transport them by jet and fly them outside the country. But that has stopped. In few months to come, Nigeria will be benefiting from the mineral resources which unscrupulous people were mining,” he said.
He highlighted some of the achievements of the Tinubu-led administration to include the introduction of student loans, which he described as the first of its kind in Nigerian history.
He stated that “next year will be better than this year. I, therefore, urge Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora to rally round Tinubu and support him so that he can accomplish his good dreams for the country.”
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