My husband does not eat outside, I prepare his meals —Hajia Saratu Iya Aliyu, NACCIMA boss

Hajia Saratu Iya Aliyu is the first Deputy National President of the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Vice President, Kaduna Chambers of Commerce and the Chairperson of the of the Northernzone of the association. In this interview by TAYO GESINDE, the lecturer-turned-farmer speaks on the plight of farmers in the hands of cattle rustlers, the need for government intervention and agriculture as a way out of Nigeria’s present economic situation.

How I got married after leaving secondary school
I got married immediately after I finished my secondary school. My father was a sergeant in the army, so he was able to pay for my secondary school education. When I finished from secondary school, he told me that though he knew that I would love to further my education, he can’t afford to send me to a tertiary institution because of my other siblings whom he also had to send to school but promised that he would speak to the man I was to marry to allow me to continue my education. So, I got married barely two weeks after I finished my West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination. My husband took over my education; I went to Advanced Teachers College, Zaria. I had my first and second child while in Zaria. When I finished, I taught at Command Primary School, Ikeja, Lagos State. I later went to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, where I graduated with B.ED Language Art. I had a child at ABU and another one while doing my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). After my NYSC, I started lecturing at Kaduna State Polytechnic.

Combining home front with education and career
I make sure I cook different types of food and put them in the freezer up to the bread we eat; I buy them on Saturday and put them in the fridge. If we are going to eat bread in the morning, I will take one loaf of bread from the fridge the day before. In the morning, I will wake up early, bring out my pepper, meat, and other things I need and cook whatever we want to eat. My husband does not eat outside, so I always prepare his meal before I go to work in the morning and will come back to prepare his lunch. That was how I was combining the home front with my career until I quit lecturing and went into business.

Foray into farming
Actually, when we were very young, my father used to take us to his farm. We used to go with a hoe that we used to till the ground then. I graduated to cooking the food. I will cook the food and take it to them at the farm when we are on holidays. That was why I took interest in farming. I planted all sorts of things round our house. When I was a lecturer and somebody wanted to sell his farm, my father told me about it and that was how we bought our first farm. I got some villagers and we were doing it together. When I was about to give birth to my fifth child, my husband said if I did not give him a girl (we had one girl and three boys), he won’t name the child. He even told everybody, his colleagues, the traditional ruler and our neighbours about it. He was on leave when I gave birth to another boy. Before my husband came back from leave, I had received 11 cows and 20 rams from people, which was how I started my animal farming. We slaughtered the ones we wanted to slaughter and took the rest to my farm. And that was how the farm grew to what it is today.

Challenges faced
Now, the challenges have multiplied. We used to have only the challenge of feeding our animals before but now, the cattle rustlers have added to our problem. For instance, they have carted away all my cattle so, I don’t have any cattle left. We have been looking for the cattles but we have not been able to trace them. Another great challenge is power, there are a lot of things that one wants to do on the farm but cannot do because there is no electricity and when you use generator to power your farm, it costs more. For instance, I spend over N50, 000 naira on diesel in a week. Insecurity is another great challenge; the cattle rustlers that should have been dealt with a long time ago are now the ones dealing with us farmers. Every farmer you meet will tell you the problems he is encountering from cattle rustlers. In Kaduna State now, some of us have abandoned our farms because of kidnappers. One farmer near my farm was kidnapped, another one was robbed and beaten, she was lucky that she was not abducted.

On how government can support Nigerian farmers
We need the government to provide adequate security; we want them to provide fertilisers for us and also good roads, because we need good roads to bring our farm produce to town. We also need farm instruments like tractors, combined harvesters and so on. Using only hoes like we used to do in the 60s and 70s is not going to work these days due to our large population and the fact that we need to cultivate the food that we will all eat. Farming is the only thing that can save us in Nigeria; look at the oil that we used to depend on is failing us now. It is agriculture that we have been running away from that we need to face now, that is where we can get money from. Before oil came, we were making money from agriculture, we used to have farm pyramids in Kano, Cocoa House in Ibadan and so on from agriculture and we were also feeding ourselves and we were also exporting them to other countries. If government can put necessary structures and policy in place, Nigeria will be able to feed her citizens and also earn foreign exchange from agriculture. If you go to Jigawa State for instance, you will see the rice mills. Jigawa is producing rice but it is not enough, we need more of such rice mills in other parts of the country like Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Niger and even the south. So government should provide rice mills for farmers. We have vast land in Nigeria which we should put to good use. If we have adequate implement, fertilisers and security, we will cultivate what we need.

On having a woman at the helm of affairs in NACCIMA
I am so elated and overwhelmed that we now have a woman as the president of NACCIMA because we never thought that men, would ever allow us to go beyond may be, vice presidency and they will stop us when we get to certain age. But it happened that at a time we had a president who had foresight, Alhaji Umaru Ndanusa who said we needed to push our ladies; three of us, Iyalode Alaba Lawson, myself and Mrs Iyasere, who is the current Commissioner for Industry in Delta State. Today, he is a proud man that Iyalode Lawson is the national president and I am her first deputy which means I will take over from her when her tenure ends. We are praying to God that we will make our women proud of what we are going to do. Iyalode is powerful, pushful and never leaves any stone unturned in her bid to make things work and I am going to follow her footstep. I am going to watch her closely and learn the qualities she has that I don’t have and add it to my own.

Advice for young women
Don’t see yourself as inferior to men. These men keep telling us that we can’t do this or that yet we are educated and we have our brains. I keep telling people that there is nothing I can’t do except if it is boxing. If it is fighting and kicking, I will not go near the place but if it is to use my brain and hands, I will try and see where it gets me to. So, women should always believe in themselves that they can do whatever men are doing. We can do anything except fighting because women are peaceful people; who don’t like harassing people or inflicting pains with our muscles, rather, we can inflict pains by our words.