Need to return to agriculture

AFTER all we have experienced with oil, I believe that we can still retrace our steps and return to agriculture; in fact, we have no choice than to return to agriculture. It is often said that agriculture is the largest employer of labour in Nigeria, and it can still absorb all our unemployed youths; so if this is the case, why don’t we reorganise this sector to our advantage.

We can begin to work towards overcoming Ivory Coast and Ghana as the world’s largest exporter of cocoa; we can develop our cashew industry, thereby becoming the biggest cashew exporting country in the world. The same thing goes for other agricultural produce, and we can imagine how many jobs would be created when we focus only on agriculture. What we just need are visionary leaders who are ready to direct the country and her people on the right path.

Therefore, we should not lose hope, but we should believe that with more hard work, we can achieve our dream for a better Nigeria. We should see the opportunities in the challenges we are facing at the moment to re-strategise on the right path to follow, and to me, that right path is agriculture. We cannot compete with the Asians in vehicle production, or with the Germans in machinery, or with the Indians in services, but we can become the leader in agriculture, and through that, we can achieve a prosperous Nigeria.

• Edwin Onome,

onomeone@gmail.com