President Bola Tinubu has lauded the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, for keying into his declaration of the state of emergency on food security to increase production and productivity, ensure availability and affordable of agricultural commodities to enhance livelihood of Nigerians. The President gave this commendation while delivering his speech at FUNAAB 30th convocation ceremony, held at the Oluwafemi Balogun Ceremonial Building. According to Tinubu, FUNAAB had gone a long way in its role of developing human capital for agribusiness undertakings in any clime, stressing that it shows the University’s contributions at ensuring food security, employment generation, and wealth creation.
On his administration’s contribution towards ensuring food security, the President said the immediate commitment in this regard include the clearing of 500,000 hectares of land, mechanisation, irrigation of farming process and provision of agri-inputs to enhance commodity outputs and create job opportunities. The steps, he said, correlate with the 5th constitutional alteration via the Right to Food Act of 2023, which read “that the state shall direct its policy towards ensuring strategies that guarantee food security of the nation regarding availability, accessibility and affordability of food to the citizens are initiated, undertaken and implemented”.
The President, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe, called on Nigerians to key into the path to development that his administration had started in renewing the hope of all citizens of the country, stressing that “it is important for all stakeholders to join hands with me by contributing their own quota to the development of Nigeria”. He, however, stated that his administration of ‘Renewed Hope and Share Prosperity’ equally prioritised education as “important to every individual, the life of every nation, and serving as the bedrock for national development”.