There is an emerging insinuation that Igbo leaders in the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) are beginning to beguile the controversial RUGA policy under the guise of another suspicious agricultural policy of the federal government, Integrated Farm Project (IFP). The IFP was coined after wide rejection of RUGA across several states in the country.
An APC stakeholder in southeast Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), on Sunday, encouraged Enugu State residents to accept the Federal Government’s Integrated Farm Estate Project.
Okechukwu urged communities in Enugu State to key into the Integrated Farm Estate Project, noting the farm projects will be managed by the communities themselves, not the Fulani.
The VON D.G. further explained that the programme enforced by the federal government is a presidential mandate to spread across the 109 senatorial districts towards taking over the space from bandits, creating employment and ensuring food security in the country.
The VON D.G. concealing the Fulani interest in the Integrated Farm Estate Project, seduced the people that his passionate appeal was to provide opportunities for the southeast to benefit from the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), noting that they are embarrassingly missing billions of Naira unlike other geopolitical zones in the country.
Okechukwu identified the Integrated Farm Estate Project as one of the key projects in the Agrarian Revolution value chain of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The federal government is working towards compulsorily establishing Integrated Farm Estates in the 109 Senatorial Districts across the country. However, the skepticism over the controversial RUGA has continued to generate fears and more suspicion of the government’s intentions.