Agric ‘evangelist’ reveals how Nigeria can use agriculture to fight insecurity

Paul Opue, an agricultural ‘evangelist’ has revealed how the Nigerian government can end insecurity in the country using farmers.

Opue said that full attention must be paid to the agricultural sector by supporting farmers with Smart Technologies like the irrigation system, solar energy systems, fertilizers and seed, and guaranteed off-taking from the farmers. Then, farmers can become a force that can fight the real enemy of Nigeria which is insecurity, he said.

Opue, a retired Squadron Leader in the Nigerian Airforce, in an interview with BusinessDay Sunday, propounded that Nigeria should have two armies – The Shooting Military and the Green Army.

“The Green Army is comprised of youths who are working in the land, producing food for the country. Then, the Shooting Military are the ones to protect the Green Army from the insurgency from outside, that’s the external forces.”

He said if there is deliberate policy on agriculture, there would be food security and surplus for exportation.

Using himself as example, he said, “I started farming as far back as 1984 when I was in the Air force, because I looked at Nigeria’s growth trajectory, I discovered that disaster was in front of us.

“When I was a young military officer, I asked myself how do I shield myself from the food insecurity that is coming up? Then, what really prompted me was the importation of food items by the then Buhari government. We remember the Essential Commodities when Buhari was importing food. And it was the military officers who were clearing the food and distributing to Nigerians. “Then I said; this is a shame! I will not be part of this mess.” That’s how I decided to learn how to grow my own food.

“So, I started growing my food – growing and farming at the Airforce Base in 1984 to shield myself from the food insecurity. I started by growing rice, wheat, ginger, etc. The house I built in Port Harcourt, I built it by growing rice and I was not growing low land rice. I was growing upland rice – the rice that you can grow anywhere, just to prove that rice can be cultivated anywhere.

“I was also processing my rice. I took my rice from Port Harcourt to Aba. Aba had some of the mills imported by the then Michael Okpara in the Eastern region. I processed my rice to become stone-free. The bane of Nigerian rice then was stone. I asked ‘why don’t we eat Nigerian rice?’ They said Nigerian Rice had stones. I now solved that problem. Eventually, I was posted to Kainji in the North. I spent eight years there, and exploded my farming activities there because there was so much land.

“The proceed from the Kainji is what I used to start building my house in Port Harcourt. Growing rice and maize, just to prove that agriculture is the most viable venture. Then, I was still in active service. Since the government permits public servants to go into agriculture and it’s not a problem, I decided to do something that would not offend my call of duty.

“I was doing this to shield myself from the disaster that was to come, which is already here with us. I continued in that trajectory up till now. So, farming has always been what I used in defining myself, to understand clearly what can be done about the insecurity in the country,” the founder of Opue Farms, Asaba, Delta State, disclosed.

“As a soldier, the shooting side is always costing life but when you now secure your country against hunger, you sustain life. That’s why the government is calling people to join the military and that’s why there is a lot of reluctance but if we can use two percent of the military budget and allocate it to agriculture, to support the farmers with smart technologies, then they can become a force to fight insecurity which is the real enemy of Nigeria,” he said.

Opue, a former lawmaker in Delta State, further said, “The reason why we have pockets of Boko Haram and Unknown Gunmen all over the place is because the youth are available for these nefarious activities.

“If the youth are engaged in agriculture in a very sustainable way that they can be prosperous, they would be able to safeguard this country,” he said.