Nigerian farmers urged to rise up against corrupted officials: president

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday called on farmers in the country to rise up against corrupt government officials whose unlawful conduct could reverse the gains recorded in the agriculture sector.

Speaking at the inauguration of the country's first Bio-secured chicken farm in Ibadan, capital of Nigeria's southwestern state of Oyo, Obasanjo said farmers would wage a war to bring down such corrupted officials, no matter how high rankings they are.

He said his administration had done a lot in the agriculture reform. "We cannot do all these and allow it to be frittered away on the altar of politics," he said.

The president said the federal government's decision to ban the importation of all poultry and its products was fast paying off, adding farmers were already reaping the benefit.

The president said there would be no policy shift with regards to the ban on poultry imports, noting that "my administration's target is for Nigeria to take over the poultry market in North Africa."

Obasanjo said Nigeria, the most populous African country with a population of over 130 million, could earn huge foreign exchange from the export of poultry, cassava, grains and livestock generally.

In his welcome address, Oyo State Governor Rasheed Ladoja said that agriculture must be given all the attention it required to diversify the nation's oil-based single-product economy.

The chicken farm is a highly-automated and ultra-modern one, the first of its kind in the West African sub-region. It is reportedly able to raise 240,000 birds.กก