OVER the weekend, the minister for labour asked Nigerian youths to start farming cash and food crops because white-collar jobs are no longer available in the country. Dr. Chris Ngige has grown fond of passing this same comment as though the Nigerian youths are dumpheads, hopeless idiots, chunks of wastes, and are a national burden.
Perhaps the time of queuing up for white collar jobs is coming to an end, as Dr. Ngige rightly stated, but does this automatically make farming attractive to people who spent 4, 5, 6 years studying something completely different in the higher institution? Interest is cultivated and agriculture has not been championed enough to make the younger generation consider it as an profitable option.
Technology is a more profitable and attractive area of interest for the Nigerian youth, in case the minister was wondering. Most young persons want to practice UI/UX designing, coding, trading non-fungible tokens, trading cryptocurrencies, animation, and the list goes on. The difference between technology and farming at the point is the endless possibilities technology has to offer. The internet is creating multiple spaces for different kinds of niches. Nigerians can see the commercial viability of technology, but not for farming (in Nigeria).
It is shocking that the Minister of Labour cannot see that insecurity will further prevent Nigerian youths from running to the farms. Just some hours ago, President Olusegun Obasanjo's farm in Benue state was burnt down by arsonists. Hundreds of persons have been killed on farms across Nigeria in the last couple of years. Some farmers in some regions cannot even return to their farms because of the insecurity raging their communities. This has even played a part in the food inflation the country is currently challenged with.
The government is still a long way from making agriculture as attractive to its citizens to have the right to urge them to invest their time and energy in farming. The farms are not safe and the economic realities of Nigeria make it difficult for young persons to embrace farming. And playing around the idea, I don't see it ever coming to fruition a graduate of Electrical Engineering picking up the hoe and cutlass, when 'mechanization' is not first adressed by the Honourable Minister.
As the Federal Government lays more emphasis on self-sufficiency in food production, it must be at the vanguard of promoting agriculture by making it as exciting as technology can make Nigerians. Graduates won't go to the farm with hoes and machetes, neither will they risk getting shot by unknown gunmen in secluded parts of large farmlands. Ngige should use his ministry to assure the youth that going to the farm is really worth it rather than passing soft comments that are not helpful.
