Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has charged Nigerians to embrace agriculture.
He said it would provide a lasting solution to fuel subsidy removal.
Eno made the call during the September edition of the monthly Covenant Service at the Government House Banquet Hall, Uyo, on Friday.
He urged the citizenry to embrace the agricultural revolution championed through the ARISE Agenda blueprint of his administration by returning to the farm.
According to him, the farm was a panacea to the prevailing hardship in the country caused by fuel subsidy removal.
The governor said that he was not leading a communist state, where citizens depend on handouts from the government for survival.
He, therefore, urged Akwa Ibom residents and Nigerians in general to resort to agriculture at various scales to increase food supply in the country.
He said that his administration had taken steps to reduce the cost of governance by cutting down on excesses and ploughed back the gains to the society to address the enormous intervention needs it was facing.
“Times are hard, but the question is how long will we continue on palliatives?
“The answer is how can we help ourselves?
“We have green land everywhere and we have good weather.
“The best answer is for us to go back to work. Let’s go back to agriculture.
“This is not a communist country where you wake up and there’s milk in front of your house.
“Agribusiness is a serious business. Our young people have to get involved.
“That is what will help us. All these interventions cannot really help us for too long. If you collect rice today, you’ll finish it.
“Will you keep coming back and wait on the government for another? Truth be told, we cannot continue like that,” Eno said.
He further disclosed that the state government had purchased 100,000 bags of rice at the cost of N40, 000.
He said that this was in addition to the 7,200 bags of rice and N2 billion received from the Federal Government.
The governor assured that each of the 2,772 villages in the state would get 40 bags.
