₦airaland Forum

“We have what it takes to turn around our fortunes and I pray all the 19 governors of the northern states will wake up and follow the footsteps of the Kaduna State Government.”

“Given the vast arable land and conducive condition, I think in the next 10 years, agriculture can generate more revenue and prosperity than oil that we have now if we have the right commitment.”

“He also told governments in the region to identify their areas of comparative advantage, adding that the provision of information and data on what was available in various states was equally necessary.”

According to him, efforts should be made to encourage local investors because “they will attract foreign investors.”

“While the overall social economic consideration in the country is a cause for concern, the regional indicators are very alarming. In the north-western and north-eastern parts of Nigeria, more than 60 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty.”

“It is instructive to know that the 19 northern states, which account for over 54 per cent of the country’s population and 70 per cent of its landmass, collectively generated only 21 per cent of the total sub-national internally generated revenue in 2017.”

Aliko Dangote - Africa’s richest man and President of the Dangote Group.

“I agree with Aliko Dangote, our governors are part and parcel of our problem especially in the area of corruption. These governors are engaged in massive stealing, corruption and waste of public resources.”

Alhaji Balarabe Musa – Former Governor and Northern Elder Statesman

“We still have arable land and a growing population of young, energetic but jobless people roaming the streets but our governors are not providing the right kind of leadership to turn this population into a useful force in our farms.”
Alhaji Tanko Yakasai – Northern Elder Statesman

“What is required of the Federal Government are the right policies as well as provision of power and other infrastructure because the governors own all the land in Nigeria and land is key to agriculture. Dangote is absolutely right on this.”

Emir Sanusi urged the region “not to use the oil rich Niger delta, commercially viable Lagos and business oriented south east to mirror the living standard of the North. If there are all of these things, we wont have Boko Haram and other people bombing our pipelines.”

Socio-economic development will surely bridge the gap between the North and the South, if advantage is taken of the vast underutilised lands for agriculture purposes

He also disclosed Dangote Group will be considering investing in dairy production in Kaduna state, saying the trend of importing 98 per cent of milk consumed in Nigeria at the rate of $1.3 billion is unhealthy coupled with the fact that the imported milk is unhealthy.

Sambisha or Kaduna-Abuja Road forests may be a better place to site such industry for security and economic development!

“Private investment will create jobs and will ameliorate the twin problem of poverty and unemployment.

“As more people are gainfully employed, you will witness a very sharp decline in some of the disturbing social vices prevalent in our society, especially among the youths.”

I must agree with Dangote on this too.

“Closing the gap requires multi years investment and goverment will not be able to raise the require capital funding, only the private sector can raise the capital to fund the level of investment that this country needs.”

He went on: “Therefore, government must create the conducive environment that will trigger a huge inflow of private capital into attractive sectors of the economy.”

I agree with Dangote on this that government has a responsibility of creating an enabling conducive environment for businesses to thrive.

“The North certainly has no business with poverty but we are certainly not making progress with the kind of leadership we have both at the federal level and in the various northern states today.”

“And that is why we are always saying the biggest challenge that we have and what we have been praying for is to have 10 governors like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to move the northern Nigeria forward.” Aliko Dangote - Africa’s richest man and President of the Dangote Group.

“If there are enough jobs, 80% of the beggars on the streets wont be begging. If there are enough jobs, and enough manufacturing companies, we wont have to go to China to buy the clothes to sell to the emir.” Emir Sanusi

“The problem of the north and Nigeria as a whole is not societal, it is economical. And you don’t need to be educated to be part of the working class. In any company, you have the higher staffs (managers, directors, etc) and the lower ones (the labourers), which are mostly uneducated.” Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano

Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, in his key note address during the opening ceremony of Kaduna state’s investment programme titled ‘Promoting Investment Amidst Economic Challenges’ says ‘northern Nigeria will be the poorest if the country is broken into components.’ He says “the North east and west are the most poorest in the country and even in the world.”

At the 4th edition of Kaduna Economic and Investment summit (KADInvest 4.0), organized by Gov. El-Rufai.

Africa’s richest man and President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, on Wednesday expressed concern about the high rate of poverty in the North, ‘saying northern governors should wake up to address the problem.

“Yes, it is true that Northerners are hostile to restructuring. The fact is that they are so dependent on oil revenues that they are afraid that if restructuring takes place, the proportion of oil proceeds they will get will be much smaller and therefore, their capacity to look after themselves will be much more reduced. That is a fallacy that they believe in because they are not looking inwards. Honestly, if I were from the Northern states; the states that produced cattle; that is a sustainable, renewable source which oil is not. Cattle should not be mainly for people to slaughter and take to the market to sell. No! I believe that we should have a system where cattle is used for milk, butter, cheese, milk and frozen beef that can be exported, because the world needs meat that can be exported in a clean environment. If they can do this and move away from the current way of rearing cattle for just slaughtering and eating, you will see that the North will have an advantage. My own calculation is that at least, $5b can come initially from the cattle industry by the time they maximise all the benefits from the cattle and export some. This is not like oil that can dry up or lose its value because the cattle will breed, new cattle will come and they can continue to expand. Oil right now is contracting, getting smaller and one day, it will go. I have pointed out all these in some papers I have written. If I were the Northerners, I will never be afraid of restructuring. I will rather concentrate on this natural resources that we have, which will be self-sustaining permanently and it is the Southern part of the country, particularly the South-South that should be worried about the future of oil. This is because once oil goes and there is no replacement economy, then there will be very dire consequences.”

Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC)

Why is it that prominent people in power are not interested in this topic as a panacea to economic emancipation of the North? Some prominent peoples' words will be quoted below

The President should look into this write up and this is only possible if the right people draw his attention to it. President Buhari mean well for this nation and putting an end to all insurgencies and transforming captured areas into productive economic centres will go a long way. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and our President. We must have peace, prosperity and progress under this NEXT LEVEL government!

This is the kind of change we expect of this APC government. They should not continue to pump money into unproductive ventures like the former wasteful PDP regime on the same protracted war with the insurgents when a better plan such as this can be implemented that will affect generation to come.

Just like we have oil block allocation in Niger Delta, Agro block for agro related business should obtain in Sambisha Forest. The writer in conjunction with one of his business partners from up-North have conceived this idea and have even mapped out how the land is to be put to productive use. It is hoped that the Presidency, the National Assemblies, President of the Bank of Agriculture Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Clubs of Retired Farmer Generals as led by former President, Dr Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen (Rtd.) and Theophilus Danjuma and the Arewa Consultative Forum ACF, amongst others should take a critical look into this noble and patriotic idea. My partner and I are more than willing to be among the Consultants that will midwife this idea to reality, God willing, as part of our patriotic contribution to national development aimed at ensuring lasting peace in the polity.

With this initiative and the political will on the part of the APC government as led by President Muhammed Buhari, this is one sure way to curtail the menace of Boko Haram and Herdsmen-Farmers crisis and to leave a lasting economic legacy for generations to come.

The government could make the land available at agreed terms to local and foreign investors and provide basic infrastructures like, internal roads, drainages, electricity including making loan available to big time farmers and the small ones too. Approval is being put in place to commit a Billion US Dollars (US$1b) to fighting insurgencies, particularly in the North. This is about Four Hundred Billion Naira in the current exchange rate! I believe if this fund has been channelled towards this project, Sambisha forest would have been transformed into an economic hub and even as a tourist centre. Sambisha agro hub will complement the oil and gas resources being sourced from the Niger Delta and all will be better for it. Agro business is more profitable to run than oil business and is eternally environmental friendly. It can accommodate diverse players which will lessen the incidence of agitations and provides more platforms to engage both the skilled and unskilled workers.

The existing model of destructive military operations without adequate plan for post conflict engagement with insurgents have become an obsolete method that should change. This is why this writer is not fully in support with the views of some Governors or States that destroy kidnappers’ homes only without a concrete plan in place of what to do with the now vacant place. Sambisha forest conversion to a productive agro hub should serve as a model for other crisis prone areas to be made a productive centre, including that vast land between Kaduna and Abuja. Destruction generates noise but creation is quiet: peace and quietness enhance rapid economic development.

Since setting up military bases in all the captured areas is never feasible, putting up Sambisha forest into a massive integrated agricultural use and establishing an agro free zone in the area will enhance not only the economic but the social life of the area. Obviously the land is fertile for diverse agro uses and there are massive human resources available in the Northern Nigeria to implement it on a large scale basis. Government should leverage on this instead of the unrealistic concept of cattle colonies that is causing further tension in the many States that are against it. Sambisha agro forest establishment will engender force concentration and proper harnessing of resources as the forest is big enough to produce sufficient agro products to satisfy the Nigerian and West Africa countries, particularly with respect to beef production. So many cattle colonies and ranches can be established in the zone.

THE NEED TO ESTABLISH SAMBISHA FOREST AGRICULTURE EXPORT PROCESSING ZONE AS A PANACEA TO THE PERENIAL BOKO HARAM/HERDSMEN-FARMER MENANCE IN NIGERIA.
‘You never change things easily by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.’ B. Fuller
The menace that Boko Haram and Herdsmen-Farmers crisis portent for Nigeria and indeed the West African sub-regions is best imagined in the light of what we have seen thus far which has resulted in tremendous loss of lives, properties and displacement of people leading to the creation of IDP camps. This is besides the enormous financial costs and the attendant corruption resulting in exacerbation of the crisis as evidenced by the recent past regime.
If we don’t want the enemy stronghold to thrive, the present territory occupied by Boko Haram must be taken and the area turned into productive use. The only feasible use Sambisha forest could be turned into is for a vast integrated agro based industry including making it the first agro export processing zone in the North of Nigeria. The rampaging Fulani Herdsmen can also be curtailed in their non-co-ordinatedroaming, by setting up colonies and ranches for them in Shambisha forest. This writer will be least surprised if it was found later that besides the big men and corrupt politicians who actually own the cattle being managed by the herders, who are fomenting troubles all over the country, Boko Haram occupation of the Sambisha forest may have contributed to the Fulani Herdsmen’s displacement from the forest, hence the tension in the land in their quest to get a greener pasture for their flocks.
The strength of the small territory of Britain in the world affairs today and tomorrow is their ability to utilise the Roman’s concept of colonialism yesterday and neo-colonialism todayto have a grip on world affairs. While it is no longer fashionable or even realistic to use colonial method against a country’s neighbour, we need to use this method internally to suppress and manage internal crisis on the principle of carrot and stick basis. In the case of current happening, the dangled carrot was rejected and despised by the insurgents who have no fear of death; as such government have resorted to using the stick approach against them. The stick approach also is no longer effective as expectedand has become counter-productive. For example, school girls are being rounded up and kidnapped, perhaps for various ransom purposes, including outright extortion to bargaining for prisoner swap with the government.
Why has the stick approach become less effective by the day? It is simply because of the massive size of the Sambisha forest: territories taken from the terrorists by the federal forces are being re-taken by the insurgents: it is impossible for the captured territories by the federal forces to be occupied by the same federal forces due to inadequate resources and shortage of manpower, among others. There cannot be vacuum. The vacuum in this case is the actual massive sized Sambisha forest itself.

The below article was featured on LinkedIn since last year but one begin to wonder why government seems not interested in implementing the recommendation given therein. Is it that our officials don't read or despise new ideas aimed at solving societal problems?

But thank God for the another four year term being given to this present government, under His Excellency, M. Buhari, to transform this nation.
Implementing this idea may help him achieve some objectives of his government, among which include the following: security of lives and properties, agricultural cum development and youth employment, among others.

The African Development Bank Boss; Hon. Minister of Agriculture; the influential Retired Generals with interest in agriculture; the Northern Royal Fathers; the Governors of the NE States and other Eminent persons that love peace and development should look into this write up as seen on LinkedIn and bring it to the attention of government for possible consideration. It was not written by a Politician but a Technocrat who believes and loves the peace, stability and development of Nigeria.

The article has been cut into segments for easy read.[https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-abraham-ajisafe-58281253]

[/b]1.
Area of land is [b]65 Plots in all
Have 4 separate solid Warehouses on the dry land
Also is a large 2-storey Administrative blocks building
Standard Perimeter Fencing
Powerful Security and Gate House
Potable Water with Overhead Tanks
Standard underground drainage on access road
Situated in the heart of Trans Amadi Industrial Area
Directly located on the newly re-constructed RIVOC Road
Surrounded by many other factory buildings and Warehouses
Ideal for industrial use including Warehousing of products
Title deeds available
Free from all encumbrances
Asking Price: Call

2.
Area of land is 21.25 Plots in all
Standard Perimeter Fencing
Security Gate House
Standard underground drainage on access road
Directly situated on a newly constructed road behind Shell RA
Close proximity to the Airport, Onne Oil Free Zone, E-W Road
Neighbourhood of Shell RA, TOTAL Village & Schlumberger
Ideal for Residential Estate, Shopping Mall, Hotel, Schools, etc
Very Good Title Deeds: C of O available
Free from all encumbrances
Asking Price: 19.35m Naira Per Plot


For more enquires and inspection, please Contact:
S P & S Ltd – Properties Division
Telephone: 0815 675 5561;
Serious enquiry only please!

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