Peter Obi
Former Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Peter Obi says Nigeria is currently among the top 20 most hungry countries in the world. This follows its ranking as 109 out of 125 countries in the global index of hungry nations in the world.
Obi made this known in Kebbi State while on private ramadan visit where he was received at Government House by Secretary to the State Government, Yakubu Bala Tafida. He insists that Nigeria is poor and hungry because the Federal Government refused to holistically invest in agriculture saying such investments must be directed to the North that possesses vast arable land for peasant and mechanised farming.
He noted that, with agriculture, Nigeria will have no business with foreign exchange, forex crisis, insecurity, poor education and unaffordable healthcare delivery because exports of farm produce will bring forex hence the importance of productive economy.
Speaking further, Obi lamented that Nigeria has the highest number of uncultivated land in the world, accompanying mass able bodied unemployed youth that could have been used to drive the mass agricultural investment to produce millions of direct and indirect jobs in the country.
At the palace of the Emir of Gwandu, where he was received by the royal father, Muhammadu Illiyasu Bashar, the former LP Presidential candidate announced direct ramadan feeding of 100 indigent persons as well as the commissioning of borehole at Kahuta village behind Dukku Army Barracks in Birnin Kebbi. “We are here to support with water and some little financial assistance because this is a private visit, not political”.
He stated that he is not desperate to become Nigeria’s president but desperate to see the country working and desperate to see that the poor man’s children become somebody without anybody.
Responding, the Emir of Gwandu thanked him for the visit, describing him as a long term friend. He therefore called on Nigerian leaders to take note of the advice by Peter Obi on investing in the agricultural sector in the North to drive away poverty in the region and country.
