‘We shall use agric to develop the economy of Sokoto and its people’

You are aspiring to be the governor of Sokoto State whose people are farmers. What agricultural policy do you have for the state?If you look at Sokoto State today, fundamentally, the people are farmers. Regrettably, however, if our great grandfather, Sheikh Usman Danfodio of blessed memory, would return to earth and go to our farms, […]

You are aspiring to be the governor of Sokoto State whose people are farmers. What agricultural policy do you have for the state?
If you look at Sokoto State today, fundamentally, the people are farmers. Regrettably, however, if our great grandfather, Sheikh Usman Danfodio of blessed memory, would return to earth and go to our farms, he will see nothing different from the farms they had over 200 years ago. It is the old system of farming that we are still using today. We have a lot of fertile lands that have not been fully put to use. The ones that are put to use are underutilised.
If I become the governor of Sokoto, God willing, depending on the resources we are able to mobilise, we shall develop farmlands throughout the state. For example, we shall capture 1,000 hectares of farmland from each of the 23 local government areas of the state. We shall deploy available resources and machineries to organise and develop the farms then invite willing youth to farm on them. We shall create an economic role model that the people will not only buy into but will be part of it.
Government will ensure that the farmers have very easy access to tractors, inputs, hybrid seeds and also link them up with ready markets for their crops. By the time you do that, you are creating about 23,000 direct jobs. We shall create cooperatives at the local government level and link them up with seed companies, extension workers and financial institutions to enable them practice agriculture as real business. We shall ensure they practice standard modern farming. We shall provide all the necessary support and farm implements and inputs to ensure that the farmers embark on triple or more production annually.
We are blessed with good weather, availability of land, water and the people are ever ready to farm. We shall be ever willing to support them. There are wetlands already in some places; so, we can produce two to three times per annum depending on the crop. We shall use agriculture to fight poverty and turn around the life and economy of Sokoto State for the better.  
On the average, what will be the target financially?
Using the best seeds available in a mechanised farming system, you will be targeting N3 million turnover per hectare. What that means is that you have, through the organised commercial farming, created 1,000 millionaires per local government in the state rather than the present subsistent type of farming being practiced. That is for a start. The second time you are doing it, you will realise that you can go ahead and get about 2,000 hectares per local government because the land is there. It is the opportunity that has not been given to our people. By the time we keep on doing that annually, you will discover that within our first four years in office, we would have developed 5,000 hectares minimum and that means giving good jobs to 5,000 people per local government in the state.
We are talking of wealth that goes direct to the people. Once you successfully start that, it means you have set in motion, an everlasting economic activity in the state. When you have 5,000 people in a local government that have economic power, that is when government will be talking of public, private partnership (PPP) and not when majority of the people cannot feed themselves. That is when you will start talking of establishing industries under a PPP arrangement and the people themselves coming together to setup industries because they have the economic power. Again, the business people in the society can as well go out to seek for more things to buy and come and sell because the improved economy of the people has increased their purchasing power. At that stage, the state can start thinking of devising means to benefit from taxes and royalties because the economic power of the people has been raised and that means additional income for the state.  
What will be the role of government in the business?
Government will acquire the farmlands; prepare the land for commercial farming by linking up the farmers to improved seeds, tractors and other farm implements. Farmers will not wait for certain seasons or follow some process to get fertiliser to apply to their farms. Improved seeds, fertilisers and inputs will be available at any given time for the farmers to access through a value chain. Through the value chain, when a farmer wants to buy fertiliser, hire a tractor or buy inputs, he does not need to go to town and borrow money. His farm serves as collateral to buy any input on credit or enjoy tractor service on credit pending harvest.
Once the state government sets up the farms and allocates them to young farmers and others within working age, the running of the entire system will be handed over to cooperatives. Microfinance banks and other financial institutions will be drafted in. It is going to be a complete money spinning industry that everyone would benefit from.  
How certain are you that the system can work?
It is a matter of determination. Once the leader is determined, success has already been achieved more than half way. Moreover, the Oromia coffee farmers of Tanzania have done it. Government mobilised them; brought them together and today they are contributing immensely to the financing of government especially the education and health sectors. The coffee and tea farmers of Kenya are at the verge of starting their own. Already, they have a value chain for those crops working fast in their favour.
We shall develop the land, link the farmlands to water, establish a value chain where a farmer in Goronyo for example will go to the microfinance bank there by 9am and by 12noon he has accessed N250,000 to go and pay labourers in his farm and buy hybrid seeds. The state government will leverage the loans to the farmers. The rice farmer for example, will sell his rice to millers that will pay him through his bank. The researchers will be engaged to conduct soil tests and advice on the best seed for that ecology. Extension workers will always be there to guide the farmers and give them professional advice. The farmers’ cooperative societies and the business class will be coordinated and mobilised to set up relevant industries that could process the farm produce for export. I assure you in no time there will be no form of idleness or poverty in the state. I am a farmer, Sokoto is an agrarian state and the people are all farmers; let me get the chance and you will see how it works.
How do you intend to handle the persistent problem of fertiliser distribution?
Fertiliser in the first place should not be an issue at all. Government should not have any business with the buying and selling of fertiliser. That is entirely the job of the private sector. Allow the business people to go and buy the fertiliser and store it in their stores like biscuits and soap. Let the farmer go there, select the one he wants and buy. Government should device a means of subsidising it for him rather than going neck deep in trading on fertiliser. At least that is what we shall do at the state level.