By Arc Kabir Ibrahim

It is 1999 and Umaru Musa Yar’adua is elected the Executive Governor of Katsina State and Kebram Associates, our Architectural Consulting firm, is apprehensive of continued patronage from the PDP Government because the Principal Partner did not participate in the politics of the time.

The need to diversify from consulting to agriculture was identified quickly and KEBRAM FARMS was founded to do poultry which has a fast asset conversion rate.

Soon we began producing large quantities of egg and the market was quite good.

Our market segment was largely the civil servants and especially Local Government staffers.

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A pattern of brisk business for egg producers emerged coinciding with the payment of Local Government salaries between the 23rd and 27th of every month in the Umaru Yar’adua days.

This continued until the Local Government resources were held in the hands of the State Government and the Local Government Areas (LGAs)became insolvent.

The activities in the LGAs suffered a lull and poverty reared its head and it has now become commonplace.

The situation is still the same in Katsina and unfortunately in the majority of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria.

The LGAs are the closest to the people and therefore more impactful.

To restore the purchasing power of a good majority of Nigerian citizens the LGAs should be given autonomy to function properly as contained in the constitution.

The reference to Agricultural production and Agribusiness is germane because it is what the majority of Nigerian citizens partake in.

The current administration has brought it to the front banner and so must be more worthwhile if the market for the product is enhanced by improving the purchasing power of Nigerians generally.

There is an established nexus between petty crimes and poverty in the US and other developed countries of the World.

In Nigeria, my experience and the general experience is that poverty and idleness can lead to drug abuse, Banditry, and Kidnapping.

The eradication of hunger through empowering the majority of the people is a non-military and non-kinetic option to stem insecurity!

Arc Kabir Ibrahim is the National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria(AFAN), wrote in from Katsina, Katsina State.

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