Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has lamented that the crisis rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum has stalled the realisation of the Forum’s peer review objectives.
The governor said this in his response to a request by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development during the committee’s visit to Ahmed at Government House, Ilorin on Tuesday that states should compare notes on areas of comparative advantage.
Ahmed, however, noted that the forum had been polarized, a crisis he said had affected agriculture development in the country.
“Politicisation of the forum has denied it the opportunity of a robust review of commercial agriculture development programme of the state,” he said.
Ahmed, who suggested that funding windows for agriculture must take cognisance of the dynamics of commercial agriculture, added that the prevailing funding policies were counterproductive as they were designed to fund subsistence farming.
The governor said, “It is imperative that stakeholders see commercial agriculture as a business in a manner that would ensure that the country takes advantage of its natural endowment to promote all year farming.”
Describing agriculture as a singular potential that could effectively change the fortunes of the people, if properly harnessed, the governor urged the National Assembly to formulate policies that would address the disconnect between policy formulation and implementation and poor funding of agriculture.
The Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Adegbenga Sefiu-Kaka, commended the giant stride of Ahmed’s agricultural revolution, which he said other state governments should emulate.