Kogi governor looks to agric as ‘quick win’ in depressed economy

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has said agriculture has provides the “quick win” to bridge the funding gap created by the dwindling fortune of crude oil and mitigate its accompanying challenges.

Bello disclosed this while receiving the 5th World Bank/FGN joint mission to Kogi State on FADAMA 111 AF Implementation team on a three-day project visit to Kogi.

Meanwhile, the governor is being accused of anti-party by members of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in the National Assembly from Kogi State, House of Assembly members, executive members of the party in the state and prominent party leaders from the state, who have also set up a panel to probe Bello.

The stakeholders, who made the resolution after a crucial meeting in Abuja, said that the governor engaged in anti-party activities.

They, therefore, set-up an 11-member Disciplinary Committee headed by Dino Melaye, to review the various allegations leveled against the governor, and report back within seven days.

According to the resolution of the meeting, which was also attended by the APC chairman in the state, Haddy Ametuo, and read at a media event by Melaye, Bello allegedly made all the appointments without carrying the party along.

For instance, the Kogi APC leaders said, “Out of the 15 Commissioners he (Bello) appointed, PDP has 13 card-carrying members while APC has two. Out of the 105 members of the Caretaker Committee members for the 21 Local Government Councils, PDP has 72 while APC has 33.”

They also said, “Out of the 28 people he appointed as Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants, PDP has 24, APC has one, APGA has one, Labour has one, Accord has one.”

The party said it acted based on the Article 12 (8) of the APC constitution, to convey the meeting, where it had agreed to set up the committee made up of members from the three senatorial districts of the state to invite the governor, for necessary questioning. The governor said that earning from agricultural resources can replace crude oil earnings within a decade if vigorously pursued and embraced by Nigerians.

He said: “My vision and yearning since assumption of office has been to transform Kogi State into an industrial/economic destination with the agricultural sector playing a pivotal role particularly through massive support for cassava and rice value chains”.

The governor equally expressed the determination of his government to ensure the success of the World Bank assisted FADAMA 111 Additional Financing agricultural projects through prompt payment of counterpart contributions.

However, he pointed out that the one hectare per farmer of the ‘Brown field’ was difficult to achieve without assistance on land clearing. He requested for an increase in land clearing allocation to Kogi by at least 100 percent.