Gowon, Abubakar, Aliyu, others harp on agriculture

Former Heads of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd); former Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu and his Adamawa counterpart, Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd), have called for serious attention to agriculture in Nigeria.

The former heads of state and governors spoke in Kaduna at the sixth yearly lecture of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in honour of the late Premier of Northern Nigeria.

Aliyu stressed the need to improve the nation’s food production by 70 per cent in view of the population projection, which is expected to double by 2050.

He said the North must quickly strategise its current efforts in food production to embrace integrated agricultural production and practices to catch up or be confined to live in squalor.

Abubakar said: “We need to pay serious attention to agriculture and other agriculture value-chains because there is nothing more important than food.

Gowon, who was represented by former Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulraham Dambazzau (rtd), said:
“Agriculture is very important because by 2050, our population will double to 410 million and what we will require in terms of food will be 10 times or more what we require today.”

Nyako, the guest speaker at the occasion, said that man must continually evolve improvement strategies to stem hunger or be doomed by starvation.