The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima has implored the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit (PFSCU) to walk the talk in the ongoing bid to ensure food security in Nigeria, saying Nigerians are only keen on results rather than rhetoric.
He observed that while there have been many presidential initiatives, the challenge had always been implementation, even as he said the PFSCU is in a vantage position to catalyse the nation’s food security challenges into progress.
Senator Shettima gave the charge on Thursday during the second meeting of the PFSCU constituted as part of efforts by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to tackle hunger and hardship in Nigeria.
The Vice President had in July this year inaugurated the PFSCU formed under the Presidential Economic Coordinating Council following a memo submitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the need to come up with a food systems council to address food insecurity in the country.
Speaking during the second meeting of the PFSCU with the states, development partners, and other critical stakeholders, VP Shettima urged the unit to move beyond rural farming and initiate urban agriculture the way it is done in countries like Cuba and other advanced nations.
He said, “We have to walk the talk. I will be in Calabar, and we will go to northern Cross River to flag off the wet season farming. Nigerians want to see what we are doing. And Hon. Minister, I want you to robustly engage the private sector. I want the Hon. Minister of Agriculture to drive the process.
“So, let’s walk the talk. This presidential initiative is a very beautiful one, but we have had a lot of presidential initiatives from time immemorial. It’s the implementation that counts, and we are in a unique position to catalyse our challenges into progress.”
Expressing hope that the PFSCU will provide food security in Nigeria, Shettima said the Unit boasts of some of the leading lights in the nation’s private sector, whose experience, exposure and contacts must be harnessed to drive the process.
He also asked the PFSCU to go beyond crop production and embrace other areas of agriculture, including livestock and fishery.
“There is a need for diversity. Livestock and fishery are areas that I want you to look into, especially when it comes to the South-South and the South East.
The Vice President charged the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, to come up with solutions to issues of access to loans from credit guarantee schemes, pointing out that the entire agriculture sector deserves support, including the big players.
