{"id":1690,"date":"2021-03-24T14:56:21","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T14:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vor.org.ng\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2022-08-13T19:38:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T19:38:44","slug":"time-to-act-is-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2021\/03\/24\/time-to-act-is-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to act is now"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lekan Sote
\n\"\"
\nThe arrogant Southern Nigerians, especially of the Yoruba stock, nearly got their derriere exposed when the (disingenuous) ill-wind, blown by Northern Nigeria traders, nearly blockaded transport of foodstuffs and cattle down South.
\nFor the South to truly say, Never Again, to the Northern affront, provocation, blackmail and vice grip to their gastronomic jugular, they and their fumbling, probably confused, governors must urgently review their attitude and relationship with their soil, go back to the farms with zeal.
\nThey must appreciate that those who effected the blockade of the (perishable) food items did them a great favour; they now need to consider the wisdom in the words of Juju music maestro, Ebenezer Obey: \u201cAgbe \u00ed gbin \u2018s\u00fa, \u00ecy\u1eb9n a j\u2019iyan. \u00c0gb\u00e8 i gb\u00ecn \u2018gbado, \u00ecy\u1eb9n \u00e1 j\u2019 eko. \u00c8y\u00ed k\u00f2 ko\u2019be, iy\u1eb9n a ra \u2018s\u00fa.\u201d
\nIf you translate this into the English language, it means that the farmer that plants yam will eat pounded yam. The one who plants maize can have cornmeal. But the one who fails to cultivate the soil will perforce buy yam from others.
\nAccording to the German Board of Health, the 1914-1918 food blockade of Germany, during and immediately after the First World War, by the Triple-Entente Powers, which the United States of America joined in 1917, led to the death by starvation of 763,000 Germans.
\nAccording to international relations scholar, Hans Morgenthau, \u201cA country that is self-sufficient, or nearly self-sufficient (in food supply), has a great advantage over a nation that is not, and (therefore) must be able to import the foodstuffs it does not grow, or else starve.\u201d
\nThe World Food Conference of 1974 defines food security as \u201cavailability of adequate, nourishing, diverse, balanced and moderate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices.\u201d
\nIn real terms, food security suggests that all households within a country have access to food for an active and healthy life. It also implies that the citizens will not live in hunger or with the fear of starvation.
\nThe one-day beef boycott, \u201cAnything But Cow Day,\u201d or \u201c#ENDCOWVID-21,\u201d held Friday, March 5, 2021, in Southern Nigeria, is good. But it must move Southern Nigerians beyond the symbolic to concrete action of self-sufficiency in the production of food crops and livestock.
\nIf Northern traders attempted to blockade foodstuffs to Southern Nigeria, but failed, they may try it again. The Yoruba usually counsel that vigilance is the armour of senior citizens. Also, the Bible admonishes that in all thy gettings, get wisdom.
\nThe time for the People of The South to act in their own interest is now. They should regard the, albeit failed, blockade by their own compatriots as a dress rehearsal of something worse that may happen in the future.
\nAs much as the blockade caused a loss of revenue to the economy of Northern Nigeria, it also led to temporary increase in the prices of foodstuffs and, albeit, mild dislocation to the Southern Nigerian economy.
\nIf you have read economics textbooks written by J.L. Hanson, O.A. Lawal, Areoye Oyebola and Adekunle Ojelabi, in the secondary schools of the 1970s, you would have learned that where supply of goods is inelastic, no matter how temporary, prices spike, especially when demand is desperate to stock up on the scarce items.
\nThis is the time for Southern Nigerian governments to revive those farm settlements and livestock ranches that were established by their First Republic political progenitors, but which have been wilfully abandoned, to their collective chagrin.
\nIn addition to providing foodstuffs, these facilities can provide cash crops for export and raw materials for the agro-allied industries that have been neglected. You get no prize for correctly guessing that an increase in agricultural produce will result in other advantages.
\nIt will reduce Nigeria\u2019s reckless importation of consumer goods with its triple consequences of squandermania of foreign exchange, continuous sliding of the naira, and considerably high prices of essential consumer food items.
\nThere is no doubt that a revival of the agricultural industry should relocate many of the sturdy and intelligent, but unemployed, youths, daily pounding the streets of urban Nigeria aimlessly, to the rural areas that should actually be regarded more like the countryside, assuming that the necessary amenities would be provided.
\nTaking these youths off the streets will reduce the stragglers, drug addicts, ne\u2019erdowell area boys and criminal elements that daily terrorise their compatriots and generally constitute a nuisance to the nation.
\nGovernment must provide habitable housing, motorable roads, standard guage raillines, potable water, electricity, hospitals, (primary, secondary and tertiary) schools, recreation and entertainment facilities, directly or through private initiatives.
\nIt must be possible for an individual to opt to live in the countryside without envying those who live in the urban areas, enduring tough hustles, grimy environment, snarling traffic, criminality, violence and housing shortages.
\nIt is imperative for the merchant class, the trade unions and the professionals in Southern Nigeria to own the renaissance of the agriculture and agro-allied sector of the economy of the beleaguered region.
\nThey cannot leave this all-important assignment to the bumbling politicians who have woefully failed to use the sovereign power given to them to improve the quality of the lives of the people. All that many of the clueless governors seem to do is build white elephants or simply steal the money through the special-purpose security votes.
\nThis trinity should encourage themselves by founding and funding political parties that will recruit and sponsor competent individuals who will contest electoral offices, with a view to adding good value to governance.
\nThat is a safe way to guarantee the shaping and delivery of policies that will move the region and Nigeria forward. If other regions are not interested in making meaningful economic progress, the South should consciously move itself forward.
\nThere are two more things that need to be done to ensure the economic progress of the region: Evolve a credible security architecture to safeguard lives and property of those who choose to go back to the land in Southern Nigeria.
\nAlso, review the education infrastructure and redirect the orientation of the people, in order to position them to effectively take full advantage of the new technology and add value to the agricultural sector of the region\u2019s economy.
\nOne more important thing they must do is to be prepared to stand up to federal officers and their collaborative non-state actors, who may attempt to shout down this regional initiative, the way they almost shot down the Amotekun security initiative that was introduced by the South-West in 2020.
\nRemember Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the late Kaduna State Governor, Balarabe Musa, whom many swore was a progressive, came hard against an initiative designed to protect the lives and livelihoods of everyone resident in the South-West, regardless of their ethnic nationality.
\nThe governors and peoples of Southern Nigeria must not blink in the attempt to produce and provide enough food for all within their borders. They must not allow anyone, or any group, ethnic or whatever, to blackmail them into abandoning a clearly existential matter.
\nThe Southern electorate must vote out political parties that may want to wait on the Federal Government before they can advance their economies.
\nSource: PunchNG<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lekan Sote The arrogant Southern Nigerians, especially of the Yoruba stock, nearly got their derriere exposed when the (disingenuous) ill-wind, blown…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[737],"tags":[527,75,528],"class_list":["post-1690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-abubakar-malami","tag-amotekun","tag-time-to-act-is-now"],"yoast_head":"\nTime to act is now - Voice of Reason<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ictnetworldltd.com\/newvor\/2021\/03\/24\/time-to-act-is-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time to act is now - 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