A former Minister of Works and Housing, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, has said that the President Bola Tinubu government does not have any excuse for the present food crisis in the country.
Speaking in an interview on Channels Television, Ogunlewe said he was worried about the current situation in the country, but said he was not surprised.
He heaped the blame on the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari for neglecting the academia, especially the universities and researchers, who were supposed to conduct research and develop modern ways of farming.
He said that for eight years, the government fought against the academic community, closed down universities, and denied them research grants.
Ogunlewe, who is a former senator representing Lagos East Senatorial District, said that no country can develop without research.
He said, “I am very worried about what is currently going on in the country, but I’m not surprised because for eight years of the last administration, it was a fight against the academia: the universities, the researchers, people who are supposed to do research for your country and get modern ways of farming. But you fought them, closed down universities. No research. No grants.
“There’s no country that grows without research because the products from the farm are the products you can export. But why are the professors in the universities not involved? There are no funds for research.
“We have over 20 universities and colleges of agriculture. And the combined acres of these schools is about 50,000 hectares. Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta alone, has about 10,000 hectares. But there’s no investment in them, despite that they rely so much on research.”
Ogunlewe also urged the current government to invest in the agricultural institutions and research, saying that Nigeria has no excuse for food shortage, with all the resources and potential it has.
“So, it’s for the government to now invest in them. We don’t have any excuse for food shortage in this country, with all these institutions we’ve been investing on for years,” he said.
