I'm sure am not the only ONE mulling over this line of thought but maybe I am the only one who gets more bemused anytime the GOVERNMENT repeat one of their popular lines. We have learned by rote from the government that Agriculture sector remains the only SECTOR that can absorb the MILLIONS of youths presently unemployed and underemployed in the country. This statement from the government has remained ‘POLITICAL’ and not ‘developmental’ because there is no DEVELOPED nation in the world that has agriculture sector as its biggest employment of LABOR.

If Nigeria is hoping to JOIN the league of the first 20 developed countries in the world, then it should have a VISION sharper than absorbing a gigantic portion of its population in AGRICULTURE rather, it should be more creative and determined to pay the price of turning the country into an industrialized nation where the most labor will be GAINFULLY absorbed.

The invention of EFFICIENT and clear-cut agricultural machinery has literary mean more people on the FARMLAND is simply ‘old school’ and a sign of crudity in the ECONOMY. In the US for example, only 1-2% of the population FEEDS the remaining 98-99% and this goes for all other developed nations where some even have less than 1% on the farm for the REST.
In Australia, each Australian farmer produces enough food to feed 600 people, 150 at home and 450 overseas; Japan has less than 1% of its population claiming to be farmers; Denmark has a population of 5.5 million people and produces food for 15 million people.

The cost of INDUSTRIALIZATION is ‘huge’ for this government because it will mean that they (politicians) will be letting the economy run itself without them having the sole POWER to influence it and that, our greedy politician do not want; it will also mean EXPATRIATES (professionals) who do not and do not want to understand the language corruption speak will have to be involved in the BUILDING of the economy and this also, our leaders do not want for the same reason (GREED).
Our leaders want to keep living like kings when in the real sense they were elected to be servants.

In government today, everyone in all tiers, sectors and sub-sector is a politician and it has to be that way for CORRUPTION to thrive.

To keep saying agriculture is the way out of UNEMPLOYMENT ravaging the economy of the country, is to keep saying this country will remain POOR in the midst of plenty. What will simply do the job is industrialization, where there can be mass TRAINING and re-training to produce what we consume/use and EXPORT what we produce; to give value and dignity to lives by what we can can do with our hands. What we need from the government is to open up the economy by creating apt and sustaining environment for development to naturally take its course and not policies like the importation PHONES for farmers when we can be trained to manufacture phones for everyone.