By Usman Shuaibu
The Etsu (monarch) of Yaba in Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), His Royal Highness Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, has called on the government to provide fertilizers to the farmers in this year’s cropping season.
The monarch, who made the call while speaking to newsmen after the Eid-el-Kabir celebration in his palace in the community, urging the government to look closely into the acute scarcity of fertilizer in Nigeria because of the high cost of the product in the open markets had deterred farmers from accessing the fertilizers.
His words: “The present government has good plans for famers but the major problem is the middlemen who were hand-picked by government to implement some of its programmes. Every money or farm imputes released to farmers do not get to them. I am appealing to the government to deal directly with the farmers through their community leaders and not those who stay in the cities and call themselves farmers. Look at the issue of fertilizers, the government said it had released fertilizers but we had not seen anything.
“just last week, I bought some bags of fertilizers at the rate of N25,000 per bag. I bought ten bags. How many farmers will have the money to buy fertilizers in the open markets like me and we are talking about having a bumper harvest this year? The problem of fertilizers scarcity will stop when the government distributes the items through the community leaders instead of middlemen.
“we want the government to come to our aid. The fertilizers should be sold at the rate of N7,000 per bag and this will encourage bumper harvest and encourage farmers to plant more this raining season”
On the security challenges facing the people of Yaba community, the Etsu Yaba said he had spent his personal money to hire Vigilante member to keep peace in the community.
He said: “It costs me N4 million this year alone to maintain 35 vigilante personnel especially when the killing and kidnapping increased. We need community policing which the government has been spoken so much about in the villages”
Continuing, he said “Remember that of recent, gunmen killed three people about two kilometers away from this town and kidnapped many others who not been released. I also spent to feed my people who are at IDP camps.“
