By Donatus Anichukwueze
The newly-elected chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, says with over 8 million hectares of land, Southern Nigeria should be self-sufficient in food production.
Governor Abiodun, who emerged as the chairman of the Forum at their meeting in Abeokuta on Monday, said this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He noted that the Forum made up of all the 17 governors in the Southern part of Nigeria has decided to be more deliberate about promoting agriculture and ensuring food security in the region.
“What we discussed as a region was to ensure that we become more deliberate and more intentional about food security and agriculture,” Governor Abiodun said.
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“This is a region that has over 8 million hectares of land; we don’t have any business not growing what we eat and eating what we grow.
“So, governors resolved that going forward. We are going to be intentional and more deliberate about promoting agriculture and ensuring food security.”
The focus on food security and agriculture is only one of the many issues discussed by the governors in the meeting, according to the Ogun State governor.
He said that infrastructural development was also among the areas the governors resolved to look into, adding that they decided that the region must have a multi-modal transport master plan that will connect rail, road air, and water transportation.
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The move, according to the governor, follows the realisation by the Forum that transportation is a key enabler in investment promotion, facilitation, and of course the general well-being of the people.
According to him, the governors spoke about insecurity in the region, backing state, community, and regional security outfits which he said almost all the zones in the region have set up.
With Governor Abiodun’s emergence on Monday as the new chairman of the Forum, he replaces the former governor of Ondo State, the late Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who held that position until his death in December 2023. The governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo will serve as his deputy.
Governor Abiodun assured that Nigerians will see a new, repositioned, refocused Southern Governors’ Forum going forward.
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