An agricultural expert and Chief Executive Officer, Samguono International, Apostle Samuel Emiaso, has charged the Nigerian government to live up to its responsibility concerning the nation’s development and stop relying on aid support from international agencies.
Emiaso argued that the earlier Nigeria came out with a template for economic revival, using available local resources, the better for the country.
The agricultural expert said Nigeria got it wrong when it jettisoned her early sources of economic mainstay, which were mainly agriculture, trade and local manufacturing, and relented because of the fund coming from oil.“We missed because we did not see tomorrow,” he said.
Emiaso spoke at a free agricultural training programme aimed at exposing the people of Delta State to local opportunities available for the citizenry to change their economic fortune.
The three-day training programme with the theme: “Hope for Nigeria and Economic Power,” held at the Flock of Christ Gospel Church, Enerhen and was powered by Go Ambassadors International in partnership with Samguono International.
He said, “It is shocking that Nigeria is a blessed country, yet we cannot take care of ourselves. I once was in Israel as was shocked when a man asked where I am from and I said Nigeria.
The statement he made, I won’t forget it till tomorrow. He said rich country and when I was about smiling, my smile was punctured by his next statement, when he said poor people. Rich country, poor people.
“We have wealth but cannot harness it. There are so many people out there without jobs, but there are things we can do to create wealth. My father once said to me in the 80s, my son go and study agriculture because this country will later return to agriculture.
After over 30 years, Nigeria is returning to agriculture. Emiaso said that the aim of the free agricultural and economic training was to empower people with local and foreign expertise, adding it was time Nigerian youths became their own bosses.
“As long as we continue to be a consumer country, consumer state, consumer local government, consumer cities, consumer towns, we won’t catch attention from anywhere. But when we begin to produce, that is where we will find the power, the economy is in production,” he said
