- Being excerpts from Dr Sam Ogbuku’s speech at the stakeholders meeting to set agenda for agricultural revolution…in Port Harcourt.
NDDC is only providing itself as a platform to bring all states together so we can build an integrated agricultural hub that can even feed this country because we believe we have the capacity as a region, not only feeding this country through our rich natural resources of oil and gas, we have the potential in agriculture which we have not really harnessed, to test how we can feed Nigeria.
We have a comparative advantage nationally when it comes to aquaculture. We have the rich land massin areas like Abia, Imo, Delta, parts of Bayelsa and Rivers. So, we are really blessed as a region. So this is the time that we consider that as part of the cardinal objectives of the renewed hope agenda where food security is one of the major agenda of Mr. President, we thought it necessary to take this matter seriously.
It is not enough for us as a commission, as an interventionist agency, to build roads, schools, hospitals — this is the time for us to also look after our stomach because we must leave lasting legacies behind for next generations to benefit from what we are starting today.
This retreat will be cascaded to the level of regional agricultural summit. But for today, we are here to set the tone, to put together the framework that will guide us as a region. We are even going as far as putting together researchers and consultants that will come up with an empirical study on the agricultural potential in the Niger Delta so that it will serve as a guide for prospective investors.
So for those who intend to invest in cassava, they know where to go. For those who are interested in investing in palm oil, they know where to go, because we need those data.
Those data, when they are out there, will guide people to know where to go to, and those data once out there, will also showcase our rich cultural heritage when it comes to agriculture.
Before crude oil and gas exploration, our people were farmers and fishermen. Crude oil production eroded our traditional economy, which was fishing and farming. This is the time for us to go back to our traditional economy because that economy is the natural economy and most sustainable economy. That is why under this administration we don’t — let us drive over gender that are too forward over agriculture as one of its primary focuses to secure Nigeria. We, the Niger Delta, cannot be left out. It’s only through agriculture that we can provide sustainable employment because in agriculture, we have a vehicle which is under our control, but in the oil and gas sector most of the vehicles are not under our control.
The day the dollar goes up, the crude oil prices come down — it affects the economy. But for agriculture, we can guarantee more export and we can also as a region earn more foreign capital into this economy or the region.
Today if you look close to our region, you go to Warri — the oil and gas sector is there, it seems all the oil companies have left. You come to other places, you go to Trans-Amadi — it’s now a shadow of itself. This is happening across the region. Oil investment is now being divested into the deep ocean; we don’t have their investment onshore. And if we don’t have their investment onshore and we cannot catch up with them, are we going to say that we don’t have other means of sustenance or creating job opportunities for our teaming young youths who are energetic enough?
So for us as government — when I mean government, I’m talking about various governments like NDDC and other partners — to come together and see how we can create the future for the Niger Delta; and the future is agriculture.
Agriculture is not only limited to land; agriculture goes deep into economy because we have not even tapped into how to take advantage of the blue economy in the Niger Delta. How many fishing trawlers do we have? As people from Niger Delta, you go to our deep waters, you find out most of the fishing trawlers are owned by foreigners and they don’t sell what they catch to us; they export them. But we can only regulate them if we go into competition with them.
These are the issues we must look at: how do we take advantage of our blue economy? Which state has comparative advantage when it comes to the blue economy? Which state has comparative advantage when it comes to land? How can we integrate our efforts to see how we can build food security in the Niger Delta and provide job opportunities for our younger ones?
We believe agriculture is the future. The land is owned by us, the water is owned by us — we don’t need to import them, we don’t need to buy them, we only need to enrich the soil.
Today as a people, we find out that most of our stakeholders are no longer growing again in our region. We also have to look at that — how do we bring back these staples? Because the Lord that kept us here deliberately kept those staples with us because that is where we get our healing from. Food that is grown in your environment is food that feeds you, but when you buy them, they are alien to your DNA. Let us grow back those staples that have disappeared.
We realized that after the 2012 flood that actually ravaged the Niger Delta, most of our staples stopped growing. For example, cocoyam — which is one of our major staples, especially for those of us from Bayelsa — cocoyam doesn’t grow anymore in our land. You find out that before, we were very rich in banana, but now we even hardly see banana in our land. The bananas you see there look very sick. Let us treat our soil and go and bring back our staples because most of these things can also be exported. Some of them are medicinal and can be exported. Today, people buy bitter leaf from us and also buy supplements that are bitter leaf–based medicines.
But bitter leaf is our own cash crop. And today I want to announce to us too that Niger Delta is to record it in production of cocoa. Cocoa is also a cash crop because our people from Ondo are very rich in cocoa. So how do we reintegrate to ensure that we bring them back and export them in commercial quantity to bring in funds into the Niger Delta which will also improve our GDP in the region and in the country at large?
We are a blessed people. We are not only blessed in the area of oil and gas; we are also blessed with our land and with the sea. The Lord gave us the economy to tap into it, the vast land, to take advantage of them, take possession, take pre-eminence, to ensure we can have food security for ourselves and next generations.
Let’s see how we can reduce traffic of food that is coming from up North. Some of these we can also produce here. Today science has made everything very possible that there are some staples that probably do not grow but you can also grow them here and treat the land. So let us go mechanical, let us explore our land, let us enter into this discussion with an open mind of thinking that impossibility is possible. Let us not limit our minds to the fact that we are where we are.
Let us not be contented with what we have. Let us know that we can actually make this region the hub of agriculture and that can only be possible if we can only agree in this room and think robustly as states, NDDC, and other partners that want to partner with us.
I believe these are very, very possible. It is only your mind that can limit you, but if your mind is open, the impossibility can be possible because there is nothing that is impossible. Today Malaysia is known for rich production of palm oil, but we are very much aware that the initial seedlings of palm oil in Malaysia were taken from this region, and they’ve been able to develop it, and today they are one of the biggest producers in the world. So why can’t we now compete with them since we are the original owners?
Technology has also improved that some of the species of palm trees can be modified and be grown in this region that can grow faster and can yield more than the normal ones we have here. Let us take advantage of cyber technology and improve the agricultural sector of our region. For us, let us consider it a major challenge that we must grow what we eat and ensure that we have enough to consume and enough to export.
Today we have a situation where some persons are investing in cassava for either ethanol or cassava industrial starch, and find out that if we don’t create a balance because of their vigorous investment, their plants need to be fed with so much tons of cassava. It also makes garri expensive. That’s to tell you that we have a challenge. We can’t only produce cassava starch for export without also producing enough garri for people to eat. That is to say, we need to work harder. We need to double our efforts to grow more in our region, and this can only be done through government intervention. This cannot be done through subsistence farming of farmers.
The government must take charge. The government must take the front role, and that is what this administration stands for. The Federal Republic of Nigeria cannot speak for us; it has already put together the framework. It is left for us to take advantage of it, and I believe if we are able to come up with a proper framework for agriculture that will guarantee food security in this, I know the Federal Government is going to support the various states because already the Federal Government is supporting states today.
This is the only president that has shown compassion for the effective running of states because he is someone who believes that the center should be weak, let the sub-nationals be stronger.
That is why today the states are better funded. If I could remember, during the commissioning of our state office in Warri, the Delta State governor said no state government should complain that they don’t have money; that the president has given them a lot of money. So these are the fundings we also should look at how it’s done in agriculture because agriculture is rich.
Science will tell you that with time, you might not have crude oil as much — you don’t want to believe that, but that is that. But we have also seen in our lifetime that some oil wells are already going dry while we are also discovering new ones. That is to say there is a possibility that you might also wake up one morning and oil is no more there. So when the oil is no more there, what do you do? Because today your pride is oil and gas. Take advantage of what you have to protect your future, to preserve your future. The future is in our hands. Let us, those of us seated here, coming up with proper framework, be the ones that will take the credit that whatever has to do with the future of the Niger Delta in the area of food security was actually designed by us.
We are here to make history. Let us make history together. I know your governors delegated you to come bcause they are committed to ensure that you make history together for us. You see, we are very, very committed to ensure we make history together because we are trying to tap into the agenda of the main goal of ensuring food security in Nigeria. If the North is working to ensure that there is food security, let us ensure there is food security in the South. When there is plenty in the North and there is plenty in the South, then the country will have enough food to export, and that is the only way we can crash the price of dollar, because only a mono conomy — oil and gas — is not strong enough to drive the price of dollar.
When we have multiple income, and in agriculture there are so many chains — that is why the world needs what we have. The world needs our agricultural resources. Let us fight it together. In the Niger Delta, we are very, very rich in ogbono production. Ogbono is also needed in the western part of the world for medicine, but for us, we only just have them for soup. Why don’t we grow plantations? This is what we as a government should create with that direction so that we can have a lot of cash crops.
We have the African Development Bank to partner with as a people and other international partners — a lot of agencies that are willing to support. Let us take advantage of it. So on this note, I want to say thank you to all of you, and I wish us fruitful deliberations and discussions that will take us to the level of agricultural summit which all of us would agree on when and where that summit is going to take place in this region, and we can invite personalities from different parts of the country in the midst of agricultural donor agencies.
