National food security council, Madlion criticizes.

  

 * Says farmers not involved

·      Lament over insecurity

The Group Managing Director of Safari 54, Mr. Shedrack Madlion in a chat with Nancy Illoh on Money Line a popular financial programme on African Independent Television (AIT) has criticized the action of the Federal government (FG) on the non-involvement of farmers and other technocrats in the recently inaugurated National Food Security Council, pointing that farmers are the ones at the receiving end and their issues cannot be discussed without being involved.

Mr. Madlion Lion described the council formation by President Muhammadu Buhari as not being completed without the involvement of Mayetti Allah, farmers, researchers and agronomists who can bring to table strategic method that would checkmate food insecurity solution in the country where killings and kidnappings have been the order of the day in the recent time.

According to Madlion “over 134 rural farmers have been lost to herdsmen clash, 73 in Logo in Benue state, 35 in Alu, and we have about 56 within Taraba and Adamawa, these are rural farmers that we know about”.

“The only person I did not see is the sector commander of the Federal Road Safety, because I begin to wonder what the chief of defense staff and others are doing in the council, when they are discussing the critical point of a nation which is food security, which has been in turmoil since last year till now, and has resulted into a total decline of farmers participation as regards insecurity”.

“Farmers are no longer going to farms, farmers are the ones being kidnapped, farmers are the victims of insecurity all over the country, we thought it was a Zamfara and Kaduna problems, but only for us to realize that even in Delta, Kogi they have issues where farmers are the major victims . When you are now inaugurating a council, you did not pick up farmers from the Mayetti Allah, farmers groups, who are into cultivation, Institutions and research institutions that have direct relation to food security in the country”.

“The attention needed to be given to food should not be played with politics, because when you visit the market you do not see APC or PDP on food stuffs displayed, when it comes to food security, it is what nations should not joke with.  According to the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO) survey, Nigeria stands in the ninth (9^th) position among the forty-nine (49) countries that are going to face starvation”.

“We have more than 3826 farming families between Kaduna and Zaria, and the total decline of farmers participation as regards insecurity, am in Kaduna and my farm is in a place called Dutse, due to insecurity, I and my workers can hardly access the farm due to the fear of kidnapping on the Abuja-Kaduna highway, and which has turned into the den of kidnappers, thereby making us to sale our products at a giveaway price. The activity of the kidnappers along that road has crippled farming business in that axis, as kidnapping activities start as early as 11 am in the morning to 4pm”.

“The farmers’ association needs to be part of the initial inauguration, we know very well that state governors have constituted themselves as emperor in their states, putting food on the table of Nigerians are not what you need to handover or play politics with. It is a speculation that we have over 2million live cattle in Nigeria, that is not true, we have the worst looking cow in the world, our production ratio, in terms of beef, milk, health qualities of our cow is wrong. 42% of the cow we slaughter in the market are diseased and when it comes to the creation of this food security council, you did not bring in the professionals such as vet doctors, Meyetti Allah group or agronomist, so that when you are giving brief, the professionals should be able to say that in six month this is what we are expecting during the dry ad wet season, hence we want to change our aging farmers with the younger ones. I say that the council will do less; I stand to be proven wrong. And if you look at it very well the farmers are the highest payers of taxes, the farmers pay commodity taxes, he pays for transportation, he sustains the market and the market officers still collect money from him for bringing his goods to the market which turns into the local revenue”.