Friday 2 September 2016

After the rain comes what?

Nigeria as we all know is currently experiencing recession.
The naira has fallen drastically when compared to the American dollar.
A few days ago the Emir of Kano(His Eminence Sanusi the second), was talking about the economy in an occasion he attended. The Emir who was the governor of central bank some months ago once again as he has always done, gave an insight into the causality of the recession currently plaguing the nation Nigeria.
The former CBN boss stated that the dependence of the Nigerian economy on crude oil alone has plunged the nation into its current economic saga. He further went on to state that he had known the economy would dwindle with time. He urged the President (His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari) to as a matter of urgency find a lasting solution to the problem so as to ameliorate the sufferings of the populace.
Flowing from the above report, it is clear that Nigeria needs to really diversify its Economy. The fall of crude oil price at the international market has really affected the nations economy. It must not escape mention at this point that before crude oil became an economic product, Nigeria's economy was hinged on the exportation of agricultural products.
But after the discovery of crude oil and it's economic benefits, the leadership of the country and indeed the citizens dropped their agricultural implements and "played the harlot" after crude oil exploration and exportation thereby relegating agriculture to the background gradually and at a certain time dealt agriculture a final blow.
The only solution or at least the most achievable solution to the current economic "higgledy-piggledy" is for more Nigerians to indulge in farming even if it is on a minimal scale. I must tell you that as a farmer myself, and as someone who is acquainted to large scale farmers, the economic benefits that comes from farming is capable of alluring anyone to enter into the agriculture business. If at least there is someone interested in agriculture (even as an aside) in each family, then the economy would progress rapidly.
The only issue now mostly amongst youths in contemporary Nigeria, is the fact that most of them see agriculture as a "poor man's" job and this has further created apathy for agriculture on the side of the average Nigerian youth.
I must tell you that the saying "the rich become richer and the poor become poorer" clearly explains the condition which we face and would continually face as a result of the non interest we show towards agriculture.
At this juncture,I would expatiate on the above quote, through the use of live scenarios.
The owners of Mega Farms in Nigeria are very wealthy and most of them were already well to do through other economic sources before they delved into agriculture in other to expand their wealth.
If those who are already "satisfied with life" can go into agriculture just to make more profit, how much more the average Nigerian who is paid #18, 000 monthly and still buys things like yam and fish which he can easily cultivate and rear in his compound.
We all must at this crucial point in time, indulge in agriculture either crop farming or livestock farming or better still both so as to expand and  build the economy of Nigeria.

Da Jandy.

2 comments:

  1. Full scale Diversification is the only escape route

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sure But we have to start with what is readily available. In this case, "AGRICULTURE".

    ReplyDelete