How We Can End Hunger In The Land

• Pastor ASHIMOLOWO’s Message To Pres. TINUBU

Last week, City People spent some quality time with Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo. In his interview with City People he revealed how Pres Bola Tinubu can end the Hunger & Food Inflation ravaging the land. He not only has an advice for our Leaders, he also has an advice for the led.

According to him, “the challenges facing Nigeria are enormous. My opinion, and this is purely my opinion, is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done a lot of things with maturity, but I wish he was not in a corner where he couldn’t talk.”

“I honestly think he met an empty purse. I honestly think he met an almost bankrupt nation. I honestly think he met a hole so deep that it’s almost unbelievable and impossible to fill.

Many people do not even realize that part of the reason he probably wouldn’t talk until he felt he had gained mastery of the system is because he wants to quietly accomplish his set goals and target first. Nigeria is a very funny place. If he spoke the first six months, somebody could instigate a coup and remove him. So he needed to have been silent and not criticize the previous system even though he met all this mess that needed to be cleaned up. There are things attributed to him that may have not been him. He was not the one who said subsidy was going. He was just the one who announced it on the day he got there. It had already been removed before he got there.

Where do we go from here? Nigeria should look at five 5’s: 1. The economy. 2. The environment (and by environment, I mean agriculture). 3. Electricity. 4. Electronics/engineering of the nation. 5. Empowerment of human resources.

So taking it one by one, the first one I mentioned was the Economy. I think, in my opinion, the economy should be made more robust in such a way that we should initially encourage industries to come in and make it almost tax-free if they hire a good number of our people. But right now, industries are running out and you can’t thrive. So the economy needs a quick, quick, quick, quick resuscitation. Rather, with all due respect to Mr. President and some of his ministers, some of the decisions are hurting businesses.

Makarios wants to build an estate where you just go into your plot. There’s power in your plot. Mr. Kehinde, some of the equipment we imported to make this happen arrived at the Port, and to clear was 14 million. The next week there was a 10 percent. They made it 80 million. We can’t pass it to the person who bought the plot. Right now, all the Contractors on our site are saying yes, it was a fixed contract, but based on what happened to the economy, we need a revaluation. So the person whom you agreed 500 million for his contract is saying it has to now be 1.1 billion. Where do you get the remaining?

Card number 2, which I said is environment/agriculture. Nigeria is a very, very, very, very funny nation. And so I make this statement as a 72-year-old person who is not afraid. It is an oxymoron that the North is feeding the South. I’m about to give 75,000 people rice in November in Ibadan like the crusade we did in Ikorodu. I’m about to give 75,000 people beans. I’m about to give 75,000 people curry. Guess where we are buying the rice and beans? Taraba. Guess where we are buying the curry from? Benue. Why is the North feeding the South? Where do you have the highest rainfall? The South. Where do you have the most noxious soil? The South. Why is the North feeding the South? It’s amazing all this noise, all these politicians making noise, including the activists. Everybody just likes making noise. They don’t question the one that needs to be questioned.

How come?

I’ll give you 2 things that are happening in Nigeria. If you reverse it tomorrow, we will be exporting Food. Two things. You want me to say that? If I am wrong, let somebody call City People tomorrow and say Ashimolowo was wrong. 95% of the Fertilizers brought into this nation is taken to the North. An oligarchy, a cabal, has seized the fertilizer and carried it to the North. I would beg His Excellency, Mr. President, to reverse it. Let that Oligarchy know that it is an oxymoron for the South to be fed by the North. Let everybody have equal balance. Number two, our professors of Agriculture should cover their faces in shame because Nigeria is the only nation that is waiting on nature before it plants its food. When did they plant it now in Nigeria? Is it not during the rainy season in 2024? Nobody does that anymore. We should not wait for nature to plant.

There was a time I had this crave for mango smoothie. I would look for mango all over Nigeria. That is why all our professors of agronomy, agronomics, they are depending on the rainy season. If the President were to just tear the whole of the South and say, I want to see farms that are 8,000 acres with irrigation. Within two years, Nigeria will produce too much food because you see all the noise we have right now is more around food. I am 72. I have never had Nigerians make noise like now. It is centered around the cost of food because the food is coming from the North. Because an oligarchy has seized the fertilizer. Number three, because all our professors of agriculture are joining us to wait like my dad. No, my father was not a farmer. His brothers were. Like my father’s brothers always waiting for rain. No nation in great advancement waits for rain anymore. They create it.

Number four, you have traveled a lot. You have been to nations. Can you drive from the equivalent of Lagos to Ibadan in the UK or France or anywhere and just see forest? No, it will be farms. If you drive from here now to Ibadan, you will not see a farm that is 100 acres. So there is a lot of self-deception. Do you get my point?

Number five, you want me to add number five? Number five will now be my own personal hurt. His Excellency President Obasanjo brought a policy that cassava must be mixed with wheat to make bread so that we save the money being spent to buy wheat. When I heard him, I went and planted 500 acres. Do you know the size of 500 acres of cassava? Six times 500 is 3,000 plots. It wasn’t long. I went and planted it. I now built a factory with my money that turned Cassava to farina so that Dangote and Honeywell were our customers in Meridian Farms. The day Obasanjo left, Yar’Adua took that cassava into bread policy and threw it through the window. We were stuck with 500 acres of cassava. We lost money. The factory that I spent many years to build became a waste. So there is a lot of jokes in this nation.

They now said rice importation must stop. So I went and hired a professor of rice from FUNAB, Professor Francis Shuemi, a fantastic man. He brought the best of Offada Rice. We planted 30 acres to test. 30 acres is not a joke. First of all, the farmers in Offada, because my land is in Offada, how do you do it? No birds in your farm. We sold that. We were not processing. We were selling the seed to those who also plant. We now planted 100 acres and I went to them in Ogun State. They said we are not in charge of seed. Go to Federal Seed Council. We went to Federal Seed Council. The Federal Seed Council told me Offada Rice is not approved. The rice that is the exotic rice of Nigeria is not approved. When you say one rice, Derika 45 or something from abroad is the one you approve for Nigeria.

I just told myself, the day we sell these 100 acres of rice, I shall not plant anymore. So once we were able to dispose of the 100 acres, I just sold the land for those who will build houses on it. I took this fight to the Seed Council. The Seed Council called a board meeting and were trying to prove to the media that I planted the wrong rice. This is a local rice that is even more expensive than your Derika 45. Why couldn’t you adopt it? I just saw that some of us have trusted and believed in this nation. There are game players. I don’t want to even tell you what I found out that has been done in that Seed Council. It’s not for public consumption. Nigerians should think that the only place where there is corruption is one area. It is everywhere. That’s our rice. It was a struggle to sell the 100 acres of offada rice in Seed. I brought my own processor to turn it to processing, but I just got discouraged. As I’m talking to you right now, my rice processing machine is still in Mowe, just locked up. I have lost money. The last farm I did, I just got discouraged. I have 2,000 palm trees standing as I’m talking to you. In my hometown, I just got discouraged. Every time my brother would say, we have farms with gallons of rice, they sell and keep the money.

If we keep saying there is no food in the nation, there is a problem with the people who don’t believe in the nation. I guess some of us, because we lived abroad, we felt the pain and the hurt of how Nigeria has been perceived and we wanted to be part of the change. So anybody who feels I have not been part of the change, let them tell the story better than the one I told. I planted 100, the first 30 acres of rice. I was saying it on record. I wrote to Governor Amosun. He sent his commissioner for agriculture, one lady. She came, took videos, and we said, what is the state going to do? Is the state going to help them buy this rice and use it and send it to farmers so that farmers can live on it? We never heard from her.

So  you see that I’ve only spoken about two areas: economy and environment as in agriculture. Maybe you don’t know, 60% of farmable land on earth is now in Africa. I’m going to FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization. 60% of farmable land on earth is in Africa. Central Africa. That’s the only place where you have dense good soil forest. So why should you be hungry sitting on good land when all you need is to start planting and stop waiting for nature? When we did those rice, we also were waiting for nature because it was just my own pocket money that I was using. I hired staff. My rice company was something. We had planters. We had planters which we sat on it and was planting 16 rows. We had harvesters. You sat in a harvester, as you drove it, it harvested, it bagged, it threw away the dirt. I had to sell all of it off. The first 30 acres took them three months to harvest. The 100 acres took the harvester maybe one week. Brought in harvesters from India, from China. Brought in planters. Dealt also with Fulani who were bringing in their cows. It’s a joke.. People know what they should do with those guys who are herding their cows, but politics will not let us do it. Don’t they travel? Have you gone to New York? Are they not all in somebody’s own land? You want to be a cowboy? You keep your cow on your land.

I think I have done enough with this interview because I’m getting emotional. I don’t want to even say more. Even the leader has said somebody will be squirming where they are. The truth is just there. So imagine tomorrow if they empower 10 farms between here and Ibadan. 500 acres, just dairy, Do you know how much the dairy we are buying to give 75,000 Scots? 40 million. The rice I told you we are going to be giving 75,000 people, we will have bought it 80 million naira in Lagos. We bought it 40 million in Taraba. We have not given them the rice to bring it to Ibadan, where we are storing before November, we have to use soldiers because of Armed robbers, We are waiting for the trucks in Iloni by 2am. There is hunger in the land. Ask me, would I blame those armed robbers? They did not wait for armored cars that carry money. It’s food. The Bible says he who withholds the corn, the people will curse him. So here I am. In November, we will be giving out 75,000 packs of rice. In fact, we are planning 150,000 packs of rice, 150,000 packs of beans, 150,000 packs of dairy, 15,000 bottles of oil, 15,000 sugar, 15,000 salt. We will be giving away 100,000 clothes in Ibadan in November. 25 to 30 at Liberty Stadium. So I will see you there.