Obasanjo tasks Soludo on oil palm production in Nigeria

The former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has encouraged Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra to make the State become the leading Oil Palm producer in Nigeria with his palm economy agenda.

He told the governor to carry out all his plans for the next three years to make Anambra a livable and prosperous homeland.

He advised him also to make the state the country’s largest drug manufacturing hub, as he has the potential to make the State greater.

Chief Obasanjo made the remark over the weekend, in Awka, while commending Governor Soludo’s giant strides within one year in office.

The former head of state, was at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Awka, to witness a town hall meeting, organized by Governor Soludo to present his scorecard and road map to people of the State, after his first year in office.

On their part, some stakeholders, including the President General of Anambra State Market Traders Association (ASMATA), Chief Humphrey Anhuri, who also attended, noted that Governor Soludo’s performance in one year is satisfying and assured to always support his administration to make Onitsha, the commercial city and the entire Anambra great.

He said Governor Soludo’s performance did not come as a surprise going by his antecedents and past records.

The ASMATA boss appealed to the governor to provide more fire preventive equipment to Onitsha market in order to curtail the spread whenever there is a fire incident.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr.Foster Ihejiofor, while commending Chief Obasanjo for his encouragement, disclosed that Soludo’s Agro-Economic Transformation Agenda is aimed at building a secure economic future for the citizens by re-enacting Dr M. I Okpala’s Oil Palm Revolution, Creation of the Anambra Coconut Economy and Valorization of our redundant vegetative ecosystem.

According to him, we have completed the first phase of the oil palm Revolution and Coconut economy by distributing 220,000 oil palm seedlings and 150,000 Coconut seedlings to Ndi-Anambra for Agricultural development.

“This is just the first phase of the project, as the state government intends to plant 1 million oil palm and Coconut seedlings annually.

“Indeed, the state Ministry of Agriculture under my watch is assiduously working to actualise the governor’s vision of a liveable, prosperous and smart mega city with food security, food as medicine, food safety and abundant local content for industrial raw materials and local content for commercial activities.

More importantly, most of our farmers have made a swift transition from season farming to all-year-round farming with increasing use of irrigation and the adoption of global best practices in agriculture.

“Our partnerships with major agro investors, have been hugely successful, drawing the attention of the entire agricultural establishment in Nigeria to Anambra State, he added.

He unveiled that the state government has set the stage for integrating composting centres to host the production unit for black soldier fly, mosh room and effective microorganisms.

The Commissioner, use the Anniversary to also appeal to well-to-do Nigerians to continue to render assistance to the 2022 flood victims, particularly, the farmers to enable them boost back their farming.

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