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  • The Food Question

    Images 24A safe affordable and plentiful supply of food is a national security issue quote 1Nigerians are proud to live in a country with a land area of 923,773 km2, with varied vegetation and types of soil suitable for various agricultural purposes.

    In 1960 and the years following, up until the early 1970s, Nigeria's economy was between the agriculturally friendly ''grassroots'' and the ''white collar'' city-oriented center.

    All that had to do with the production of goods was concentrated in the city, while a large percentage of Nigerians resided in the villages, with farming as their major occupation.

    The villages, then, lacked major amenities of life.

    Governance during this period was with a chain of challenges.

    Then, most of the earnings from exports were from agriculture, while 65% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also came from the sector.

    Nearly 50% of government revenue in 1960 could be traced to agriculture.

    Today, as in the 1960s, the provision of quantitative and qualitative education, quality health care delivery, and the absence of social and economic infrastructure are just a few of the long list of challenges that confront the government.

    In 1973, when crude oil emerged as the mainstay of the economy, the government took a ''nap'', having noticed the 'light at the end of the tunnel.'.

    That 'nap' was at great cost, as can be seen in the unfolding events of the present time.

    In 1980, crude oil constituted 81.1% of government revenue and 96.1% of export earnings.

    Indeed, the growth of the economy was tied to projected earnings from crude oil exports; this was despite the fact that signs had begun to manifest on the imminent collapse of crude oil prices in the international market.

    With fiscal and current account deficits occasioned by unstable crude oil prices, resulting in internal and external imbalance, and the state governments contending with monetary challenges, Nigerians insist that those who are at the helm of affairs at all levels, presently, know little or nothing about governance. 

    The cries of hunger and poverty has now become the chorus on the lips of millions of Nigerians.

    Their only hope lies in the newly elected political office holders in the new dispensation. Shall they be able to deliver the dividends of democracy? Time will tell.

  • CBN Palliatives- Our Efforts to Get it Proved Abortive-Oyo Day old Chicks Farmers

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    Members of the Day Old Chicks Association of Nigeria(DOCAN) in Oyo state have lamented that all efforts to access the  Small and Medium Enterprises(SME) loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to cushion the harsh effects of the coronavirus pandemic have proved abortive.

    The lamentation of the members of DOCAN was made known by its chairman, Alhaji Asimiyu Oyetunde in a chat with Poverty Line.

    ''All efforts to get the loans have proved abortive, we only hear that they are giving out loans, we don't know those they are giving it to'', Alhaji Oyetunde disclosed.

    In the same vein, a cross section of worried members of the association have called on their  leaders to put an end to the sharp and unbecoming practices going on in the centers of trade.