Chief Pius Akinyelure, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and a member of the All Progressives Congress, has urged Nigerians to return to farming in order to address the country’s food scarcity.
Akinyelure made the remarks on Saturday at an event hosted by the Idanre Development Assembly to honor and celebrate the community’s reputable sons and daughters in his hometown of Idanre, Idanre Local Government Area, Ondo State.
According to the chairman of NNPC, one of the ways to face the current economic hardship was by going back to the farm.
He said “If we don’t go back to the farm, where will we get food? We will be importing and the cost of importation is too high. So the only way out is to go back to the farm, make sure there is security for the farmers so that they are not driven away from their farm and then we can have enough food to feed our nation.”
The APC chieftain emphasized the importance of agriculture, stating that refusing to return to the farm “will result in us importing food, which is very expensive due to the high cost of importation.”
He emphasized the importance of providing adequate security to ensure that farmers can cultivate their farms in peace and are not forced to leave them.
Akinyelure, who expressed gratitude for being recognized, stated that the event was also used to inform the government about areas where the community was falling behind in order to address the issue.
In his remark, the Ondo State governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who was a special guest of honour at the occasion, said the award given to Akinyelure was a well deserved stressing that such an event would serve as a motivation for others to do well.
Aiyedatiwa noted that such a rare honour was bestowed only because the people of Idanre recognise Chief Akinyelure and the other celebrants worth and the many impacts they have made at local and national levels.
The governor emphasized that Akinyelure’s legacy will be remembered for many years to come, and praised his humanitarian efforts, saying that “the award serves as a lesson to everyone to serve their community, state, and nation selflessly.”
Mayorkun Akinmoladun, chairman of the event’s organizing committee, stated that the event’s main purpose was to recognize and celebrate the efforts of past and present heroes.
He said, “Today’s event is very remarkable, we thank God for the lives of our aged ones, past heroes and living ones. We did this to appreciate what they have done, those in the past, to also encourage those that are still in office or in one capacity or the other to be able to do more for their community.”
