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Cross River governor, Prof Ben Ayade, Thursday, gave reasons why his focus
is on the establishment of industries all over the state rather than
embarking on other ventures that have less value to the development of the
citizenry.
Ayade who was speaking at the Cross River Rice city situated at the Ayade
Industrial Park in Calabar, venue for the Rice Farmers Association of
Nigeria (RIFAN)/ CBN/Cross River inauguration program said, the idea was
to create jobs.
“I know what I am doing when I made a choice to go into industrialization.
I can build a road from here to Ougadugu, it would not create jobs, but
when you build a factory it creates jobs,” he said, and asked
rhetorically, “why are you a governor when your people go to bed hungry?”
Ayade listed some of the industries undertaken by his administration to
include a cosmetic factory, the Cross River Garment Factory, the Calendar
Pharmaceutical Factory, the rice seed and seedlings factory, a 30000
tonnes per anum cocoa processing plant, and the ultramodern rice milk in
Ogoja.
According to him, “these factories have been built in just under three
years in a state where we get near zero allocation from the federation
account, a state that is the first to pay salaries ever since I came into
office in spite of the fact that I have brought thousands of people into
the pay roll through appointments.”
The governor maintained that he had to do all these not because he has so
much as the state has the lowest allocation in the country, but because he
cares enough, intimating that, his spirit and commitment to the citizenry
stands above every other consideration.
Continuing, the governor reasoned that “when you put smiles on human
beings, when you see somebody come to you in pain and you take away that
pain or burden, that is when you are truly serving God. The Bible is clear
on this as you can not fail to give because you don’t have enough.”
Ayade who spoke amidst cheers from the farmers gathered at the event
remarked that, “anybody who has never believed in farming, this is the
time to believe. It is the future, it takes the federal government N460
billion and additional N60 billion in the month of December to import
rice. Cross River is ready to harvest a whole chunk of that money as we
are producing seedlings in this big factory and from our N1.3 trillion
budget, we know for sure that the minimum of N100 billion of that money
will come from this factory.”
On the federal government’s decision to support about 25 thousand rice
farmers in the state with N10.8 billion, the governor said: “We appreciate
the gesture but what we will appreciate more is when our farmers don’t
have to till or toil under the sun. Let them have the opportunity to use
the latest technology in farming and not put them through the mercy of
rainfall to be able to have their yield and harvest. Let them not toil in
vain because by the time they harvest, there will be nobody to buy off the
crops from them.”
To CrossRiverians, Ayade charged them to, “rise above the physical reality
of the cash but focus more on what will bring value and sense of progress.
Let us be committed to the fact that you cannot go back to the farm as our
parents did as I will like to see our young men go to farm in their cars,
drive their tilling machines and tractors and get a harvester to harvest
the products.”
Speaking earlier, the National deputy President of Rice Farmers
Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Segun Atoh applauded Ayade for embarking
on agricultural ventures that will boost food sufficiency for self
reliance.
He said Cross River was blessed with “a good governor in Ayade. He is
truly a leader because a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and
shows the way. Rice farming in Nigeria is the largest employer of labour
in the country,” and urged the people of the state to avail themselves of
the “opportunity created by the governor to key into the program.”