I hired workers from Togo for farming, says Osun varsity ex-VC

• Laments Nigerian youths’ unwillingness to work in farms
• Says Nigeria must show passion, commitment to achieve food sufficiency

Former Vice Chancellor of Osun State University and the current Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), African Forest Forum, Nairobi, Kenya, Prof. Labode Popoola, has lamented the unwillingness of some Nigerian youths to work in farms.

He said that over the past 15 years, he had been hiring workers from Togo to work on his farm.

Popoola, who is of the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Ibadan (UI), said that Nigeria and Nigerians must show commitment to agriculture to feed its citizens.

The professor, who spoke in an interview with journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, maintained that commitment, passion, and patience are pivotal to food sufficiency.

He stressed that with a good climate and relatively fertile arable land, Nigeria ought to have food security.

He said: “I consider it a collective shame that Nigeria should be importing food.

”Let’s even assume we have facilities for production, storage and processing, do we have people who are willing to be committed to farming? We are living in an environment where people want quick money. If you have university graduates who think that within five years of graduation, they must be riding a car worth N20 million, you cannot convince such persons to go into farming. I am a practical, commercial farmer. I have a commercial fish farm and I am a forester.

“I have my forest plantation. I did not start early, but I went into it with passion and commitment. Today, I have about 12 acres of teak plantation out of my over 60 acres holding. Each time I visit that plantation, I am satisfied that even if my pension is not forthcoming when I retire, I have something to fall back on. If Nigeria wants to be truly involved in agriculture, it must have people who are committed to it.”

”There must be passion and patience for it. My plea to the university system is to try as much as possible to train these students hands-on. Let them develop an interest in some of these things from the university. There are so many people in the city who are supposed to be in the village. I have to hire labourers from Togo. There are Nigerians living in villages around my farm who are not willing to work. When you blame the government, you have to also blame the citizens.

”There is absolutely no reason Nigeria should not be food-secure. We have what it takes. The climate is good, we have the land and the fertility of the land is relatively good. We just need commitment, passion and patience. The importation of food into Nigeria cannot be a solution. It’s akin to importing inflation because there is inflation all over the world.”