President Buhari has reiterated his call on youths in Nigeria to
seize opportunities in agriculture, a sector of the economy he said is
already proving to be the bedrock of the nation’s new economy.
Speaking on Monday at Blair House, Washington DC after his White
House engagements with President Donald Trump, the President, at a
meeting the Chief Executive Officers of six American agricultural
companies and their Nigerian counterparts including Aliko Dangote and
John Coumantaros, again lamented the challenges of the country’s youth
bulge, with “sixty per cent of the population below 30 years.”
He said the country must help the young people to plan their future
and urged them to explore opportunities easily accessible in agriculture
because, as he said, “agriculture is the future.” While stressing that
planning in Nigeria must take into consideration the factors of climate
and a bulging youth population, President Buhari also promised the
support of his administration in the promotion of skill development,
innovation and entrepreneurship among the young population.
According to him, “We realized, rather belatedly that we ought to have
been investing in agriculture. We are now aiming at food security
because of our large population. Our youths, the ones who have gone to
school and even those that have not, should go to the farm, to earn
respect for themselves. Agriculture is providing jobs for millions of
our citizens and we are doing well towards the attainment of food
security and jobs. The media may not appreciate the work we are doing
but we will shock them by the success we are recording.”
President Buhari welcomed the several investment proposals being put
in place by the Americans and their Nigerian counterparts. Among those
brought up for discussions were the three million tons fertilizer by
Dangote, the largest in Africa coming on stream in July, to be followed
by another one to produce 1.4 million tons of the commodity; a
large-scale modern seed production company, and weed and pest management
and chemicals products companies by the Americans.
Similarly, the Burger King food chain with plans to integrate local
farmers in livestock production; the Heinz tomatoes production, with
backward integration of Nigerian tomato farmers; and another company
coming to set up a local branch to facilitate merchandising of
commodities, in effect establishing a link between the Nigerian
producers and the global market.
A tractor manufacturing company, John Deer, also unfolded a plan for
an assembly plant to produce 10,000 tractors in four years in Nigeria.
They will all come with jobs for Nigerians. In a second business meeting
same day, President Buhari brought together Nigerian businessmen and
their American counterparts from the U.S Chamber of Commerce and the
Corporate Council on Africa, (CCA.)
The U.S Chamber, on behalf of its three million member-companies
which included General Electric, Chevron, Proctor and Gamble and Boeing
aircraft manufacturers, expressed happiness with improved security in
the Niger Delta, reforms in the economy leading to ease in doing
business, and the war the administration is waging against corruption.
Several of the oncoming plans were disclosed to the President who
demanded concrete plans and an aggressive timetable for their
actualization. He envisaged that the investment schemes will lead to a
lot of new opportunities for the Nigerian youth.
The founder and spiritual leader of One
Love Family, Satguru Maharaj Ji, has declared that he was excited when
he heard the rumour of his death, which filtered on the social media
last Friday.
Yesterday, Nigeria's 
