Embrace farming, cleric urges Nigerians – Punch Newspapers
A Zonal Superintendent of the Christ Apostolic Church Worldwide, Prophet Sam Olu-Alo, has urged Nigerians, particularly the youth, to embrace farming as a means to bridge the unemployment gap in the country.
Olu-Alo, who superintends CAC Grace and Mercy Zone, Essien Region, Nigeria and Overseas, noted that although the government recently approved N70,000 as the new minimum wage, the amount is insufficient for Nigerian workers.
“Even if each worker is given ₦200,000 as a minimum wage, it won’t be enough for them to feed their families. This is because the government has not yet addressed the critical areas where intervention is needed. The government will get it right when it focuses on farming and agriculture.
“Nigerians, especially the youth, should be ready to take up farming and embrace agriculture. They should be provided with caterpillars, fertilisers, seedlings, farmlands, and other farming implements as incentives,” the cleric said in a statement on Friday, signed by his Personal Assistant, Deji Ogunbusuyi.
Olu-Alo, speaking on Thursday at Jesus City, Lekki, Lagos, during an empowerment programme, said that in encouraging Nigerians to return to farming, the government at all levels must provide incentives and make agriculture a worthwhile venture.
“But before doing that, the government needs to take certain steps to encourage people. State governments should purchase produce from local farms and provide financial assistance to farmers.”
The cleric, who is also the planter of CAC Adamimogo, Grace of Mercy Prayer Mountain worldwide, added that the challenges of terrorism, banditry, and other forms of criminality in the country are partly a result of unemployment and joblessness.
“Some of our youth have already acquired skills but lack the equipment and tools to work with. That is why we have thieves, armed robbers, fraudsters, and kidnappers all around us.
“Some farm, but there are no buyers for their produce. In most developed countries, the government buys produce from farmers and stores it. This serves as encouragement, which is why those nations enjoy peace and stability.
“But there is hunger in the land, and while we’re bearing the brunt, some food items from farmers are wasting away due to inadequate infrastructure for proper storage and transportation across the country.
“With these challenges, farmers are running their businesses at a loss, and if this continues, there will be no way to bring growth and development to our country.”
Meanwhile, beneficiaries at the empowernment programme were trained on different skills and vocations. Some of the skills learned were security door installation with equipment, catering, snacks making, craft, cloth dyeing, adire, and weaving among others.
Some of the beneficiaries include a physically challenged, who was gifted a wheelchair while his wife was empowered with N500,000 to start a business.
Commenting on the empowerment programme, a trainer, who is also a pharmacy technician, Mrs Temitope Michael, encouraged jobless youths to learn trades and acquire skills apart from being educated to earn a living.
One of the trainees, Mr Mathew Ayodele, said the programme afforded him to be trained in foreign security door installation.
“I was giving equipment to work. I have been coming to the church programmes and when the opportunity came for skill acquisition, I chose to learn door installation because I had once learned welding before now. I have been travelling to various parts of Nigeria to do the work and thank God, it has been helping me to raise money to take care of my family.”.
