14/06/2024
If Nigeria must overcome her food shortages, then we must make some changes. I suggest the following:
Action One: Every schoolchild should be given seeds and a tiny portion of land to plant seeds. And for thirty minutes of the school day, they should cultivate that land.
Result: It will achieve two things. They will have a lifelong skill of how to grow food. And they will have a harvest to take home to augment their parent's income.
Action Two: At the worker level, each worker should be given seeds and fertilisers for free by the Federal, State and Local Governments. Let them close from work and go home to engage in small-scale agriculture in their backyards.
Result: It will increase Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product and reduce food costs, as well as address scarcity of food items.
Action Three: The Federal Government should send officers to every Local Government Health office to provide every pregnant woman in Nigeria with one crate of eggs. A litre of milk and the equivalent of $5 in Naira weekly. They should also have officers in every primary school in Nigeria to mark a register and give mothers the equivalent of $5 in Naira every week, irrespective of how many children they have (they only get one payment), on condition that their children attend school.
Result: It will make the next generation of Nigerians physically and mentally fitter and more educated. And educated citizens produce more, are healthier, and have fewer children. The end result is that it will boost our Gross Domestic Product and stabilise our population, which is currently growing faster than our economy.
Action Four: Just as we had the Environmental Sanitation Day under the military, perhaps the National Assembly may want to pass a Feed The Nation Act, mandating that the first Saturday of every month should be set aside for compulsory home gardening in Nigeria for one hour during daylight.
Result: It will help instil discipline in Nigerians, as studies show that when people grow their own crops, they are less likely to waste food. It will also help address the weather for two phenomena that is prevalent in Nigeria. It will make us less dependent on imported foods, as well as boost the income of every Nigerian, as they will spend less of their income on food, leaving us with more disposable income.
Action Five: As part of their orientation, each participant in the National Youth Service Corp must spend at least two weeks on a farm, whereby the only food and beverages that they consume should be what they produce or grow. It is possible. Tai and Sheila Solarin achieved it with schoolchildren at Mayflower School, Ikenne.
Result: It will instil discipline in our youth and help us produce a new generation of leaders who understand the importance of food security. They will be more likely to make and implement policies that will help Nigeria achieve food security.
These may look simplistic, but it is simple things done regularly that make nations grow great and strong. Nigeria must make every effort to move from being a consumer nation to being a nation that consumes what it produces-a prosumer nation.
Opposition leaders must move from complaining and criticising to selling Nigerians what they would do better than the government in power. Because picking holes and deconstructing the ruling party is very easy. What is not easy and which takes intelligence is building and ideating.
Reno Omokri
Gospeller. Deep Thinker. . Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022.