U.S.-based lawyer Owolabi Salis has praised First Lady Remi Tinubu for her recently unveiled Smart Garden Initiative.
The Ikorodu-born lawyer described the initiative as a significant step with the potential to transform the agricultural sector from its current rudimentary state to a highly productive one, achieving national self-sufficiency if managed with sustained and intensified effort.
He said: “The initiative came very close to the content of my manifesto on Agriculture which I repeatedly harped upon during my three-time campaigns for governorship spanning 2007 to 2019, variously on the platforms of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Alliance for Democracy (AD).
“In those periods, my team and I worked out an operational methodology to ensure that every available arable land in Lagos State was converted to agricultural usage as part of a comprehensive blue-print drawn towards the crucial goal of agricultural self-sufficiency, in accordance with the advice which I had called on successive governments before then, and even up till now, to heed in other to save the people especially the poor, from the throes of starvation.”
The widely acclaimed social critic and reformer also took the opportunity to commend Chief Afe Babalola, the founder and proprietor of Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti.
At a recent university event, which coincided with the unveiling of the First Lady’s Smart Garden Initiative, Babalola mentioned that he often sources his food, including meats, from his own farm and refrains from purchasing food externally.
“Indeed this epic revelation by Chief Babalola is an exemplary action that Commends itself for emulation by us all because this is a man, who has all the financial resources in this world to afford whatever he desires, yet he jettisoned that option and rather decided to show us a worthy example in self-sufficiency”, said the High Chief, who also gave a high thumbs-up for the nation’s First Lady, Mrs.Tinubu, for not only preaching but leading by example.
“This move by our distinguished First Lady is indeed unprecedented in the annals of First Ladyship in this nation. It really shows that she cares, and not only that she cares and has the motherly empathy to feel for the poor, but she also strives in her own way to contribute her own quota towards ameliorating their plight, as we can all see during the unveiling of her Smart Garden Initiative. She could have reclined in the cosy comfort of her presidential residence, but rather chose not to do so, touched by the severe plight of the people, especially the poor”, said Salis.
Popularly known as Oba Mekunu (King of the poor in Lagos and New York) because of his philanthropic propensity for the poor, Salis described the initiative as properly conceptualized and well thought out.
“The crops like Ewedu, Okro, among others, which the First Lady started with are not only the common staples, they are also highly nutritious and medicinal as well. Moreover, the competitive spirit with which she kick-started it with N25million to be won will go a long way to excite popular interest”, he stated.
Salis was happy that First Ladies in the States were not only imbibing the idea but doing so with remarkably impressive zeal.
He also advocated the need for the First Lady to evolve a more enduring and effective mechanism to harmonize and integrate the states and the local governments, coupled with the effective participation of the Ministry of Agriculture, in a collaborative synergy aimed at elevating the scheme to a formidable mechanism to lift the frontiers of agricultural production to remarkably phenomenal heights.
“Virtually everything can be grown in your backyard including Yam tubers, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and so on. You can even grow them in the bucket, remarked the social critic and reformer.
“As a compulsive global traveller, over the years, I have travelled to a greater part of the world, like the Middle East, Europe, the Caribbean, Antarctica, and the Arctic North Pole regions of the world, including the U.S. where I’m based. My travel to the North Pole early this year, through Krasnoyarsk, to Khatanga and Borneo, all in Russia, was aborted by a runway collapse in Borneo. I am often impressed to note that in most of these places, a greater part of the landmass is dotted with Garden Farms.
“In other words, almost all families in these countries, compulsively have a garden farm. The First Lady should bring her influence to bear, in putting in motion, innovative processes geared to promoting it as an abiding aspect of our productive culture, culminating for the vast body of populace, in optimum beneficial advantage in agricultural self-sufficiency.
“Remember that the Obasanjo regime earlier undertook a similar ambitious initiative sometime in the late 70s, officially known as Operation Feed the Nation, unfortunately, the initiative simply died a natural death, for lack of continuity. This is an aspect where we should all learn to avoid the pitfall of the past, and therefore strive towards continuous innovative measures and ideas aimed at driving the evolutionary processes towards its optimum perfection.”
“I will also advise that this potentially utilitarian initiative be re-inforced with an effective publicity leverage, through the various mass media, like Radio, TV, and Newspapers.” “Publicity posters, jingles and slogans should be coined to enhance a new orientation and awareness for collective involvement in agriculture, while musicians should be hired to wax records, in reinforcement of the publicity drive, just as lots of musicians like Ebenezer Obey, Ayinla Omowura among others, did in their records waxed in the late 70s, in which they espoused the immense values latent in Operation Feed The Nation” Salis advised.
He, however, called on the generality of Nigerians, and not only housewives, to take a cue from the initiative, adding that the food crises currently pervading the nation, have attained such an emergency that only an emergency solution could stave off the impending danger.
The emergency solution, according to him, “calls for all hands to be on the deck in other to save the nation from a steady heady plunge into the pit of starvation because only a collective effort on the part of the citizens could save us.
“We will only be living in a fool’s paradise if we fold our arms and expect the government to start feeding all of us.
“From the look of things, as it is presently, this is practically not feasible, not even shortly. This is why it becomes urgent and necessary for us all, to strive and save ourselves by going all imaginable lengths to use our own hands to feed ourselves”, he added.
