By Adewumi Ademiju, Ado Ekiti
A socio-cultural association in Ekiti State, The Achievers Group, has urged the state governor, Ayodele Fayose, to direct attention of his government to the agricultural sector in order to boost food production and create job opportunities for the teaming unemployed youths in state.
The group said it was unacceptable that people of the state should complain of hunger when Ekiti State is capable of providing enough food to feed the whole nation’.
The group, in a statement jointly signed by its president, Mr. Femi Jegede, and the Publicity Secretary, Raphael Wumi Adeyanju in Ado-Ekiti stated that the state government could replicate the success it recorded in the education sector if it devoted the amount of time and energy it gave to the education sector to agriculture.
It noted that all the achievements recorded by the Fayose led-administration in the last two years, despite all forms of distractions from different quarters, are made possible because the government was fully prepared to face all forms of challenges.
“We are confident that Governor Fayose can use agriculture as a tool for tackling the recent food crisis facing our nation, using Ekiti State as a starting point.
The government can also use this as an opportunity to engage our youths on farms and keep them away from crimes.’’
Jegede and Adeyanju praised the State Government for rewarding some outstanding teachers in the public schools with car and cash gifts as part of activities commemorating the 2016 World Teachers Day.
Fayose for giving out cash incentive to all the teachers in the state, to celebrate the results recently released by the National Examination Council, (NECO) in which the state came first.
This gesture they claim is capable of encouraging teachers to give out their best.
They stated, “The recent noticeable improvement in the education sector was made possible because the governor recognizes the need to motivate the school teachers as important stakeholders in the education sector”.
They however cautioned that: “All the success recorded in the education sector can only become meaningful if school leavers are encouraged to be productive and contribute towards the development of their society through self-employment and Agriculture still remains the most available means of self-employment in this State, blessed with a vast fertile arable farm land for cultivation”.
The Achievers Group also commended the Executive Chairman of Ekiti West Local Government; Hon. Kola Omotunde for numerous projects executed across the seven communities in the Local Government.
According to the group, Hon. Kola Omotunde’s activities in the Local Government show that he shares Fayose’s , politics of grassroots mobilization.
They also advised the chairman to see Agriculture as an escape route from the present economic recession.