We Must Stand Together, Fayose Tells Southwest Governors In Ekiti

Speaking at a quarterly meeting of the Southwest Governors’ Economic Forum at the Government House, Ado Ekiti on Monday, Fayose said “we must constantly ask ourselves; where is the Southwest in the scheme of things in Nigeria?”

On the issue of security and agriculture, the governor stressed that “in promoting agriculture, we must take into consideration the menace of herdsmen, which has become major impediment. The question is, how do we continue to encourage our people to embrace farming when their investments are being lost daily?

“We must therefore adopt a common strategy to curb this menace before we are consumed by hunger.

“Apart from the herdsmen, there is also need for us to use our influence to secure assistance from the federal government in the area of construction of dams for irrigation as well as storage facilities. No doubt, if we must make agriculture the mainstay of our economy, as in the time of old, it must be mechanised and we must use our reach and influence to get the federal government to do the needful in the Southwest, as being done in other zones.”

Fayose accused the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of allocating the least allocation to the region in the 2017 federal budget.

“The federal government 2017 budget is about N7 trillion and the only capital project allocated to Ekiti State is the Akure – Ado Ekiti road to which N250 million was earmarked. What can N250 million do on Akure – Ado road that is begging for reconstruction? There is even no guarantee that the N250 million budgetary provision will be made available at the end of the day. I am sure this is applicable to other states too compared to other zones.

“We must therefore ask pertinent questions. How much did the federal government allocate to irrigation, construction of dams and storage facilities to boast agriculture in the Southwest?

“We must equally take collective interest in the annual national budget to ensure that states in the Southwest are adequately catered for. This we must do by using our technical people to study the budget and make inputs on our behalf.

“One other germane issue I will want us to look into is the federal government $1 Billion Eurobond, re-payment of which is to be made from source (before accruing to the federation account) and expected to last till 2032.

“As representatives of the people of the Southwest, whose future will be affected by this $1 billion Eurobond, I expect that we look beyond party politics and ask questions as to the beneficiaries of the bond, its repayment and what the Southwest will benefit from it.”