Food Security: Release your farmlands to support Tinubu’s agricultural reforms, IMPI tells state governors

A policy analyst body, the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has condemned what they described as lackadaisical attitude of some state governors towards the release of arable lands for farming to support the Agricultural initiatives of President Bola Tinubu.

The IMPI expressed dissatisfaction that despite efforts by the president to address the skyrocketing food prices in the country and to ensure sustainable food supply, some state governors have not embraced this initiative.

The body stated this in Abuja on Monday, during a World Press Conference on the Social, Economic and Political Developments in Nigeria (January to April 2024).

Although, the IMPI did not reveal the name of the accused states, they urged them to turn a new leaf by assisting the President Bola Tinubu-led administration achieve the desired goal.

Speaking on behalf of the body, IMPI Chairman, Chief Niyi Akinsiju said “While the economy is gaining much needed momentum in the enunciated areas as recorded in the first quarter of the year, we, however, observe with mixed feelings, rocketing food prices which continue to manifest in high headline inflation rate recorded at 33.2 percent, very much driven by a 40.01 percent food inflation rate in March.

“Despite this disconcerting persistent increase in food prices, we must acknowledge the conscious efforts of President Bola Tinubu to rejig the economy and ensure food security through massive investment in agriculture. In this regard, we particularly commend the administration for funding the ongoing dry season cultivation of 120,000 hectares of farmland for the production of wheat.

“This aggressive push to boost food production is a confirmation of the President’s seriousness on his declaration of State of Emergency on Food Security on 13th July 2023. To this end, we also commend the Jigawa state government for allocating 80,000 hectares of land to the Presidential initiative on wheat, and also thank the government of Kano and Kaduna states for making available the remaining 40,000 hectares that will make the exercise a tremendous success.

“However, we are not happy and wish to publicly register our displeasure over the lackadaisical attitude of some state governors to the Presidential commitment to cultivate 500,000 hectares of land, to grow rice, cassava, maize, wheat, millet, and other staple crops across the country.

“Our investigation showed that many state governments are yet to make available their own portion of farm lands for the exercise. Therefore, we call on all the state governments that are yet to provide farmlands for the programme to do so, as quickly as possible, because time is of the essence as the country is in dire need of massive food production at this crucial moment”.

The IMPI Chairman also commended the President Bola Tinubu’s government for the gain in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through the removal of fuel subsidy.

“Painful as the decision by the Federal Government to remove petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange windows has been, the economy had responded positively by returning an impressive 3.4 percent growth in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 4th Quarter of 2023, as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in February this year.

“This confirms our earlier claims and projections that the economy was responding positively to the reforms of this administration. And that Nigerians will soon begin to reap the harvest of their sacrifice through affordable cost of living, food security, creation of a job creating economy, access to quality education, and affordable health and transport services”, he added.

On the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as an alternative means of transportation to mitigate the costly impact of fuel subsidy removal, he said “the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered transportation system has become a reality as promised by the president. Nigeria has now joined the group of nations with fleets of CNG vehicles, as all is now set for the launch and deployment of the first set of mass-transit CNG vehicles and tricycles across the 36 states of the Federation and FCT in May, 2024.

“These eco-friendly vehicles will transport commuters at reduced cost, provide thousands of job opportunities for our youths, and improve the standard of living of the people”.

“On the revenue side, the removal of fuel subsidy has become a financial elixir for the hitherto constricted revenue earning capabilities of the national economy. Nigerians are now witnesses to the monthly spectacle of Federation Accounts Allocation Committee’s (FAAC) sharing and savings never-before-earned revenue among the three tiers of government which has averaged N250bn monthly, thereby enhancing the Federal, States and Local Government Areas capacity to pay workers’ salaries and provide critical infrastructure”.