Agriculture is solution to Nigeria’s problems- Chancellor

From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

The Chancellor of Landmark University, Omu-Aran and founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, has said that unemployment and crisis in Nigeria could be resolve through agriculture.

Oyedepo urged the nation’s leaders to redesign their various policies towards developing agriculture towards reducing high rate of unemployment and insecurity in the country.

Oyedepo who disclosed this in Omu-Aran in Irepodun local government council of Kwara state during the press conference to mark the maiden convocation ceremony of the Landmark University, Omu-Aran identified subject of food availability, food affordability and food security as one national issue that stands out as a definite factor for almost all other critical challenges facing the nation, added that it had caused national and continental tension and crisis.

“What the people of the country needs this time around is abundance food and once this is done, the desire of the nation to tackle high rate of unemployment will be reduced drastically.

“On this three-in-one gap, we can establish the disruptive connect with our unemployment challenges, pervasive social crisis, non inclusive economic growth and our national security nightmare”, he said.

Oyedepo, who said Landmark University was birthed as a vision and with a mandate to ignite an agrarian revolution in order to attain food security for the country and continent, added that most of what the university consumed as agricultural products are produced by the university and also marketed outside the varsity community.

He said the university authorities had also tackled the nation’s challenge of low enrolment for agricultural programmes, adding that the management had carried out enlightenment visits to secondary schools while scholarship programme for students of agriculture was also in place.

“In preparing our students for the world of work and in line with the agriculture revolution mandate of the university, farm practice is a mandatory aspect of their curriculum for all students to develop their agricultural entrepreneurial skill, which helps to generate their interest in agriculture, as well help them understand the dignity of labour”.

Oyedepo, who disclosed that a total of 386 students would graduate in 13 academic programmes, added 39 are in First Class category, 186 in Second Class Upper, 152 in the Second Class Lower and 9 in the Third Class.

He said the programmes which the students graduated in include accounting, banking and finance, business administration, political science, international relations, sociology and economics.

Bishop said others include industrial physics, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, industrial mathematics and computer science.