President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Nigerian Army to convert their vast expanse of land across the country into farmland as part of efforts to tackle food problems and insecurity in the country.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Defence, Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos), who disclosed this on Tuesday in an interview, said the directive to the Armed Forces is part of efforts to ensure that no land is left ungoverned across the country while also providing food for Nigerians.
He said the committee will be meeting with the Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa on Monday to find out how the military plans to carry out the presidential directives to the Armed Forces to ensure that all the land they have is cultivated.
“I want to thank Mr President. He has mandated the Armed Forces to put farming on the front burner to ensure that all the land they have across the country is cultivated for farming because of his belief that if there is food security, insecurity will go down.
“We are taking the initiative by next week. We are going to call the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff to come and explain to us how they want to transform Mr President’s directives into reality. Let the armed forces who protect us and have vast land go and cultivate them”, he said.
He also lauded the recent autonomy granted to local government councils in the country, saying it would spur grassroots development.
He said, “If you empower a local government to have full receipt of their monthly allocations, they don’t have immunity like the governors and people are aware that now the shackles are broken, I don’t think there will be any stretch or space in Nigeria that will not be governable.”
He said with autonomy for the local governments, they will have more money to execute people-oriented projects, adding that it is now left for the people to be wise in choosing people that will administer them.
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