Governor Bukola Saraki has asked all the 36 state governors in the country to embrace commercial agriculture as a way of emancipating Nigeria from over dependence on crude oil as the mainstay of the nation source of economy.

The Chairman of Forum of Governors and Governor of Kwara State stated this in Ibadan while delivery a lecture titled “Project Development and Implementation: Kwara Commercial Agricultural Project in Focus” at the 1st annual lecture series of Masters in Project Development and Implementation (MPDI) at the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan (UI).

Governor Saraki pointed out that the importance and contributions of agriculture to the development of the nation economy cannot be over emphasized.

According to the governor who was speaking through his commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Engineer (Professor) Mohammed Yisa, for Nigeria as a nation to be totally emancipated from its over dependence on crude oil.

“We have been over-dependent on crude oil for too long when we are so blessed with agricultural resources and manpower. With the mass of land and funds being expended on some while elephant projects, we can overturn this nation’s economy to a totally agrarian one”, Governor Saraki stated.

The governor stressed that with the embracement of agriculture by the Kwara State government in the past few years, the state government was able to provide gainful employment for its youth especially in the Shonga Farm Holdings where about 13 dislocated farmers from Zimbabwe had each established farms on 1,000 hectares of land.

Speaking further, he declared that no few than 100 youths from the various local governments in the state had been trained at the integrated Youth Training Farm (IYTF) in Malete and had also been empowered with five hectares of land and loans form establishing farms all over the state.

“With all these achievements, I believe that Kwara State will become the head-quarters of agriculture in Nigeria, diverting the country from crude oil economy to agrarian economy. The same should apply to this nation as a whole, I see no reason why our youths should roam the streets hopelessly when they can be gainfully employed in the agricultural sector”, he noted.

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences Professor Isiugo Abaniye lamented that the failure of Nigeria as a nation to implement most of its development plants to lack of trained personnel.