Hassan Ibrahim
Borno State Governor and Chairman of North East Governors Forum Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has tasked his counterparts in five Northeast states to invest in food and agricultural raw materials to tackle the economic hardship in the subregion saying, palliatives are not a permanent solution.
The governor who stated this Friday during the opening ceremony of the 10th Northeast Governor’ Forum meeting held at Government House Bauchi, said, "As we all know, the rising cost of food in the country has worsen, we need to put more effort in revamping the economic condition in our sub-region in arresting this situation because palliative is not a permanent solution."
Zulum explained, "We need to commit our self-sufficiency in food and agricultural raw materials and the social transformation of the sector will remain unshaken. We need to modernize and raise the productivity of the agricultural sector through the provision or acquisition of appropriate technologies.
The chairman said, "Your Excellencies, we need not to lose sight of the need to encourage domestic production of such commodities in line with our policies and programmes to tackle the rising cost of food in our sub-region. We need to have focus in making our sub-region self-reliant to such occasional problems, we must always seek to maintain a healthy balance between short-term relief and the medium and long goals of our policy.
Zulum said, "We need to modernize and raise the productivity of the agricultural sector through the provision or acquisition of appropriate technologies. Your Excellencies, we need not to lose sight of the need to encourage domestic production of such commodities in line with our policies and programmes to tackle the rising cost of food in our sub-region.
"Our economy needs resuscitation and this is a task that requires collective and concerted efforts from all and sundry. Our intention and desire not only to expose the economic potentials of our sub-region but also to invite and encourage investors to come and team up with us in our struggle.”
The chairman noted that the Northeast sub-region is richly endowed with vast agricultural land for cultivation of both food and cash crops. Animal Husbandry is another area that deserves the attention of investors. In addition to these, there are mineral resources yet to be developed. Preliminary investigations indicate that these mineral resources exist in commercial quantities in our sub-region. Therefore, we need to encourage investors to come and invest to make the export drive of our sub-region a reality, particularly the export of non-oil products.
We need to vigorously pursue industrial development programmes that will encourage the development of local resources to stimulate the interest of small and medium scale businessmen to invest in the small and medium scale industries sub-sector.
Zulum further disclosed, "Our deepest concern in our sub-region is the security of life and property of our people. In this sub-region, we need to continue to collaborate with the security agencies especially the Military, Police, Civil Defence, Vigilantes and Hunters to sustain the fight against criminal elements in our sub-region.
"We need to address the issue of youth unemployment through skills acquisition programmes, grants and soft loans for businesses. We need also to mobilise traditional rulers and community leaders to be involved in security of their communities," Zulum said.
"Consequently, we need to have a complete plan to return the railway in our sub-region. It involves a new plan that will serve the integrated agricultural and transportation requirement of the whole sub-region. We will give highest priority to agricultural production and processing. We are determined to feed our people in our sub-region and we shall ensure provision of access road to farmers to improve distribution of farm input and the provision of irrigation facilities to our farmers in our sub-region," Zulum added
Earlier in his remarks, Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed lamented that the economic scene of the country has experienced some convulsions as the Federal Government initiated policies aimed at restructuring the economy, saying “these policies have fuelled inflation, with transportation and food being the worst hit. The huge public outcry is understandable.”
Mohammed commended Taraba State Governor Dr Agbu Kefas for the revival of the historical Nwonyo Fishing Festival, an event that dates back over 90 years, but which went into oblivion a long time ago, adding, "From the video footage and newspaper photographs, it was indeed a spectacle to behold."
"Beyond the fanfare, those are the kinds of events that rekindle a people’s heritage, cement bonds of unity, deepen community engagement, boost tourism and generally re-energize the economic landscape to provide limitless avenues for the people to exploit and enjoy the opportunities in the environment. That is what this Forum is all about. My dear brother Agbu, thank you for reminding us that we must never lose sight of our values, our heritage," Mohammed added.
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