A community leader has called on the Enugu State Government to quickly inject life at the Songhai agricultural project which is meant to tackle insecurity,unemployment and food insufficiency.
The Town Union President, Nkpologu community, in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Mr. Christian Onodugo, disclosed this while fielding questions from our Reporter in Enugu yesterday.
Mr. Onodogu said, “The Songhai/Ada-Rice project would have to a great extent, tackled unemployment, food insufficiency,instilled a measure of security in our area and above all bring a wholesome development.
“The well structured agricultural policy that is to transform the fortunes of the council area and the state has failed to meet the expectation of the people.
“It first of all started with human capacity training. The government selected graduates from all the communities in Enugu State who read agricultural related courses and sent them to Benin Republic for training to handle the project when started.
“In 2013, the budget approval of fifty million was obtained for the project but was abandoned. At the farm, facilities such as poultries, fish ponds, nurseries, piggeries, hostels etc have been fully completed and abandoned.
“The youths that were sent to Benin Republic stayed six months during the training. The dams meant for irrigation farming were fully completed and powered.
“Farm was commissioned but road leading to it was abandoned after contract award and payment. So, it makes it difficult to be accessed. Farm produce from the area do not get to their desired destinations.
“What baffles us is that immediately after the commissioning, farm produce such as pepper, corn, okoro, melon were being exported to neighboring countries in commercial quantity. Government deceived us by saying that they are duplicating the farm in other areas of the state. They moved human and material resources away from the farm.
“All the people that went for training with government resources and equipments at the site were evacuated. If you go there now, its a ghost town. It has collapsed completely. It could have added to government Internally Generated Revenue,IGR, create employment and establish a semi urban centre to decongest the already saturated urban centers.”
If this story is true,the federal government should fish out those that masterminded the untimely closure of that agricultural initiave because that is purely an act of sabotage.This are kinds of reports that should be taken very seriously if anything is to work well in Nigeria.A country where incompetence is rewarded,so long as some political points are being scored and a certain cabal is pleased with it.We need to do better for a better future and for posterity.