Food security implications grave, Gowon warns

FORMER head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, has warned that food scarcity in the country will lead to social unrest and instability.

This was just as he decried that continued insurgency also dissuaded people from engaging in agriculture to produce food crops.

Gowon sounded these warnings in his remarks as chairman at the convocation lecture of McPherson University, Ogun State, entitled: “Food Security and Terrorism: Way Out for Nigeria,” at the weekend.

“If we cast our minds back to Biblical times, we realise that God purposefully created man and put him in the Garden of Eden. The word: ‘Garden’ is significant, for it connotes abundance, inner peace and security.   Eden was lush green, meaning that there was food security.

“As we have come to know, rebels without any cause, as we can rightly describe insurgents everywhere, deliberately create panic in the land so that there is no time to produce food crops. No nation is ever stable when there is food scarcity, which, more than power mongering, is one of the easiest ways to cause social unrest,” Gowon said.

Speaking further, he avowed belief that McPherson University would continue to showcase excellence and produce persons that were sound in character and learning.

Among guests at the event were the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who delivered the convocation lecture, while a former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Christopher Kolade, was installed Chancellor of the university.