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Recently, the 19 northern governors under the auspices of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) met in the defunct capital of the Northern Region and presently the capital of Kaduna State, Kaduna to brainstorm and strategize the clamour for power shift to the North come 2007. The governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki, after the crucial meeting, fielded questions from a few journalists who ambushed him at the Kwara State Governor’s Lodge located near the famous Lugard Hall, Kaduna. He spoke on various national issues, including the progress made so far by the white farmers in the state. SUKUJI BAKOJI, recorded the interview for Sunday Independent. Excerpts:

What progress have the white farmers you brought from Zimbabwe made so far? What have the people of Kwara State benefited from them in terms of boosting agriculture?

You were at the interactive session presided over by Mr. President today (Friday, Dec.16,) The best thing to do is in demonstrating as against telling the story. We had the opportunity of inviting them (the white farmers) to come and see farming in the state, how commercial farmers are doing. In less than a year, they were able to cultivate 1,500 or more hectares. That means, as of now we rank among the top farming states in the country.

There are a lot of farmers, but how much do they cultivate? So there is no doubt that progress has been made in Kwara state. Some of my colleagues came to see things for themselves.

They too believed that farming is very important.

There has been increase in agricultural production, there is also increase in yield by the commercial farmers other than local farmers.

There was a lot of talk from the local people when the white farmers first came, but we told them that 13 people couldn’t come and colonize 2.2 million people. They cannot bring in the labour, the labour must be our people and that has come to happen. The community has done most of the tilling of the land etc.

They are being paid as high as N15, 000 per month, as you know. These are rural areas where most people don’t even earn up to N4000; they are engaged in this job. Most important is that the rural communities are farmers and the practical experience they are getting from the white farmers is assisting in improving their own skills because they are using same land.

Definitely, these people are doing something that the people are learning from. We will see a great improvement in our farmers in the next planting season when they would have acquired the basic skills.

So food security, providing raw materials for our industries, providing jobs for our rural people who account for the 70- 80 per cent of the population, when you put all these things together, you will see that our problems are being addressed.

How will you comment on the retreat you had with the President and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

It is very commendable. Everybody was there, the president himself was there, stakeholders were there, eight governors and about six deputy governors were there, that was a high turnout and that confirms the importance states have shown in agriculture. We addressed issues. When I had the opportunity to speak, I said there are three main problems. Funding is one of the problems of the agric sector. There has to be availability of funds.

Where agricultural banks are still asking farmers to bring in landed property (as collateral) we are not going anywhere. We have to find schemes that would be easier for small-scale farmers.

One of the points I made was that the commercial farmers who are here with their skills and their experience have been here for one year and trying to raise money, but they have not been able to raise money from banks.

You ask yourself if with their knowledge and their skills they cannot raise funds from banks, what hope is there for Nigerian farmers.

One of the resolutions we made was that the Central Bank should come up with a model that can be of help to small and large-scale farmers.

The same way the government had tackled this issue of power is the same way we have to face this issue of agriculture. Agriculture is one area that we cannot afford to ignore. You see, it is by experience that one appreciates. Majority of our farmers cannot do mechanized farming; they have no money for tractors, and other machines. Look at the fertilizer we use per hectare in this country. It is one-tenth of what every year season is worth. Farmers cannot even afford it and unless you provide the fund that will allow them to improve, we are not going to achieve anything.

So I am happy that we left the retreat addressing the issues, we left the retreat more committed to the issue of agriculture.

It is agriculture that can generate employment for our people and we can address the issue of food security.

You are a member of the Northern Governors Forum. Recently, you people met and declared that power must shift to the North in 2007. Southern leaders who also met in Lagos are saying that power should shift to the South-South or South East. What is your reaction to this?

We also fall under the Governors Forum. We should not forget that first and foremost we are Nigerians. I am sure the time will come when we will sit down as 36 governors and discuss what is best for Nigeria. In the past, we have been able to discuss issues that are contentious. I believe this time around, we also would sit down and discuss what is best for Nigeria. A lot of this, as you know, is politicking. So I don’t want to comment on this or that, I am sure a time will come when we will meet and sit down and discuss what is best for the country to move forward.

There is tremor in PDP. A lot of Nigerians are afraid because the party has not been able to organize itself.

You are not being fair to PDP. You said ‘tremor’; you (press) said that we will not have a convention; you said people boycotted the convention. All sort of things were said before the convention. The turnout was close at least 90 per cent of leaders of the states that were present. What I have come to appreciate about Nigeria is that irrespective of personal interest, everybody knows that PDP, by virtue of being present in 28 states, is

holding the future of 120 million people.

So, we know how far we will allow those personal interests to go, at the end of the day, we have a responsibility as leaders to ensure that we protect the interest of this 120 million people. So that is what is going to drive us at the end of the day.

So, you can be rest assured that as responsible leaders, whatever those interest are, at the end of the day, we will not allow those interest to push us to do anything bad.

If we had a lot of opposition parties that are operational, you can say that if PDP messes up, another party will pick up, but where we are today, even some of those opposition parties really don’t exist. Everything relies on PDP.

It makes us to be more responsible to know that we have to, at the end of the day be very responsible. That is why at the convention, there were some states that were still not satisfy with the out come of their congresses.

But the responsibility that was more important as leaders, is that, look, we will address those issues but what is important is that this party has a responsibility. So that word you used is not fair.

Recently a South Africa- based organisation gave you an award. We will like to know what earned you this award.

The organisation that came out with the award focused on our policy on issue of poverty. In agriculture, we have addressed the issues of poverty reduction. I was quoting President Kaunda the other day when he was at the ceremony. He said that in their time when they were leaders, the key issues were colonialism and apartheid. He said they were fighting for freedom. He said that today, the challenge before us is poverty and hunger in Africa and the only way to address poverty and hunger in Africa today is through agriculture. There is no any other way. We have the land, we have the climate, we have no excuse not to feed ourselves.

Our responsibility and challenges as leaders now is that we must address these issues. That is what we have been trying to do in our own little way in Kwara state. I believe that the more and more we all put hands together to address this issue of agriculture, we will definitely turn Africa from misery, disease, poverty and all this negative tendencies and turn Africa into a continent of prosperity and people who can feed themselves and feed other parts of the world. That is what we are doing in Kwara State and that is why the organization felt we deserved recognition.

Source:http://www.independentng.com