A cleric has called on Nigerians to think more seriously about sustainable food security, and shun the debasing practice whereby politicians dole out petty quantities of imported food items regarded as ‘stomach infrastructure.’ He wondered why a nation which God so liberally blessed with abundant arable and wetlands, as well as sufficient rainfall across the six geopolitical zones should be a major food importer.

The General Supervisor/Minister-in-charge of ThankGod Awaited Liberation Ministry, Ikeja, Mr Francis Onwudiwe Otukwu, who expressed this concern in his message during the ministry’s 2014 Annual Harvest Thanksgiving Service, challenged the political leadership at both federal and state levels to create a conducive social environment and provide the necessary infrastructure that could attract private sector investors to farming. He posited: “This is the only way youths and the teeming unemployed graduates could be absorbed in a diversified, adequately funded and sincerely implemented agricultural programme.”

Drawing from the theme, Harvest Time, taken from Genesis 8: 22, Mr Otukwu said that God Himself instituted farming as the most important occupation of mankind, because despite the advances in science technology, there is no alternative to food, which is the reason why God also provided man with the favourable seasons that enhance agricultural production, all year round. He noted: “It is unfortunate that despite billions budgeted for agriculture, which is rated the nation’s highest employer of labour, there is so little to show in terms of local food production, leading to the preponderance for food import. On the contrary, the same developed/developing nations from where we import industrialised and high-tech goods first developed agriculture through mechanisation, some since 200 years ago.”

The General Supervisor regretted that Nigeria’s inability to optimise her abundant natural resources to feed her large population is attributable to large-scale corruption among the ruling class. He, therefore, charged believers to live above board, by being agents of integrity and transparency whenever and wherever they find themselves in positions of responsibility.

•Photo shows Francis Otukwu, General Supervisor/Minister-in-charge of ThankGod Awaited Liberation Ministry.

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