Agriculture in the Niger Delta

This post is specially dedicated to all those children in the Niger Delta region who went to bed last night without food. I understand because I walked through that road several decades ago. The pity is that they will never understand. How can a three year old toddler understand why, in the midst of apparent plenty, he had to go to bed with a growling stomach when his counterparts in other parts of the country (same country) had to pick and choose between fried rice and white rice for dinner.

There are a lot of things my old brain cannot understand but this one takes the icing. Why anybody should go hungry in Nigeria. What is the problem? Is it land? Is it the weather? Is it the soil? Is it drought? Sometimes I wonder whether the problem with Nigeria is not over-indulgence. God, in his infinite wisdom endowed Nigeria with so much that he crowned the project with abundance of bad leadership! For more than three decades now, Nigerian leaders have been farming and feeding the Nation on the pages of newspapers.

Now that we have an opportunity to do something reasonable with these youths (whatever you decide to call them), the Federal Government should come to the heart of the Niger Delta and set up an Agricultural Village. Bayelsa and Rivers States have the potential to supply enough fish to the whole of Nigeria and even beyond while Delta State can provide enough root crops to feed the whole of Africa. Everything is in place except the political will and sincerity of purpose. These youths can be converted to very productive Farmers to replace the ageing ones who need to retire!

Lets leave the politicking for a while and settle down to serious business. Nigeria can feed itself unless there is someone in Aso Rock who knows a few reasons why crops won’t grow in Delta State or fish will die in the waters of Bayelsa State.

Tata, everybody.

Napoleon