By Izunna Okafor, Awka
It was a scintillating scene over the week, as the Anambra State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Mrs. Ify Obinabo, joined the trending skit dance of ‘Gwo Gwo Gwo Gwo’ in expression of her gladness after a bountiful farm harvest.
The Commissioner, who recently went to reap some fruits of her labour on her farm, was seen in some viral videos, performing the skit right inside the farm while displaying some of her harvests.
The videos also show many harvested farm crops, including maize, assorted types of vegetables, and white-seed melon (egusi), among others — all fresh and in assorted quantities. The Commissioner was also seen in the video expressing joy for the bountiful harvest, while also highlighting the inestimable significance and benefits of farming, especially in the state face of the current economic realities in the country.
Speaking later in an interview with this reporter, Izunna Okafor; Commissioner Obinabo, who lauded Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s ongoing agricultural revolution in the state, also hailed the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Nonye Soludo, who, she attested, was the source of her motivation to go back farming.
She went memory lane to recall the days of her youth back then in Ebonyi state, where and when, she said, they were all farmers and made a good livelihood from it, only to begin refraining and shying away from it as time and status advanced, just like many other Igbo people do whenever they feel they have got a little exposure, without knowing that the so-called exposure would consequently expose them and the entire society to hunger and high cost of living.
This, she said, is because only a few persons now farm, and what the few persons produce cannot feed the entire nation, let alone remaining for export; hence many people would be chasing after the little available food produced by the few farmers, thereby leading to skyrocketing increases in their prices, in concordance with the popular economic law of demand and supply.
Commissioner Obinabo, however, said she began to reconsider farming when she saw the wonders the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Soludo is doing in the field and how she not only farms, despite her status, but also encourages others to do so; as well as her advocates for production and consumption of pure organic food for healthy living.
This, according to her, made her to consider giving farming a try again, and which has now turned out to be a huge testimony for her, given the bountiful harvest that resulted in her dance of ‘Gwo Gwo Gwo Gwo’ right inside her farm.
While commending the Governor’s wife for her motivation, Commissioner Obinabo further urged everyone to think agriculture, especially in this time of hunger, food scarcity, high cost of food items and general economic hardship in the country. According to her, massive farming by every household would not only solve the immediate needs of food in the short run, but also help in resuscitating and bringing back the good olden days, when agriculture was the main stem of the Eastern Region’s economy, as is currently envisioned in Anambra State by the Soludo-led Administration.
Watch the videos below:
