YOV urges FG, Southwest governors to address acute hunger in region

• 2025 budget will focus on agric, Oyebanji restates
• Gov pledges to grow enough food to feed Ekiti people

A diaspora coalition group, Yoruba One Voice (YOV), yesterday, strongly advised the Federal Government and the six Southwest governors to urgently address the rising rate of hunger, poverty and youth unemployment across the region.

The group, which advised at its quarterly meeting entitled: “Rescuing Yoruba Nation from Hunger, Your Task, My Task,” attended by over 500 members spread across the globe, also urged the federal and state governments to devise a better strategy that would make agriculture more attractive to the people of the South West region.

In his remarks, the Convener of YOV, Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, said it has become a must for reasonable Southwest stakeholders to impress it on the government at all levels to work on the best approach to solving the problem of hunger in Yoruba land.

Adams also decried the rising spate of insecurity, killings and kidnapping of farmers, especially in Yorubaland, saying that it is one of the factors aggravating food security in the country.

He also blamed the situation on a lack of adequate support in terms of getting loan facilities for farmers.

In his lecture, the Guest Speaker, Adeyemi Omisakin, urged the government at all levels to focus more on giving necessary facilities and support to farmers.

RELATEDLY, Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has restated his administration’s commitment to food security in the state through various collaborations with investors in agribusiness and young farmers, adding that his target for 2025 is to record a significant increase in food production.

Oyebanji gave the promise, at the weekend, while inspecting the Bring Youth Back into Agriculture Project farms in Oke-Ako-Ekiti, Iyemero-Ekiti and Gede in the North Senatorial District.

The governor, who was accompanied on the visit by some top government officials, said that the state’s budget for 2025 would focus more on agriculture to ensure food sufficiency and make Ekiti the food basket of the country.

He promised that those whose farms were acquired would receive their compensation within two weeks.

Oyebanji also expressed appreciation to President Bola Tinubu for providing the necessary impetus for the state to thrive in agriculture and other sectors, saying that his administration will continue to provide economic opportunities for youths in the state and position them to be employers of labour.