Deploy corps members for farming, OGUNCCIMA boss urges FG

…Chamber holds Trade Fair April 18 to May 2

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NIGERIA: THE President of the Ogun State Council of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (OGUNCCIMA) has advised the Federal Government on how to use the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme to benefit the nation more.

Toyin Taiwo, who spoke at a press conference to announce the scheduled 7^th Gateway Trade Fair holding between April 18 and May 2, 2016 at the Moshood Abiola Trade Fair Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, said that the compulsory one year service needs repackaging in the face of the parlous state of the nation’s economy.

According to him, the government of President Mohammadu Buhari should make the scheme one year compulsory for agricultural purpose.

He explained that it’s regrettable that the scheme which had turned out over 50 million Nigerians since

commencement, according to him, had not lived up to the dreams of the founding fathers.

Taiwo, whose chamber would be partnering with Tacoms Nigeria Limited for the trade fair, said that a one year compulsory Agricultural Scheme for all participating corps members would be beneficial in revitalizing the nation’s agricultural sector in view of the global economic crisis and the need for diversification.

He maintained that the agricultural sector would be better enhanced when youth corps members are deployed to farms as part of the economic strategies to diversify the economy, which has not been doing well in the face of the fall in oil prices.

Taiwo urged the government to borrow a leaf from Israel which used its youths to enhance the country’s security network and maximise her little lands for agricultural needs.
“When we say change, a change should be in all ramifications,” he said.   “My proposition, a long time ago, is the fact that the National Youth Service Corps scheme has been a waste, a drift of resources and a drain in economy.”
He also said: “We have produced well over 50 million youth corpers in this country since inception.  Take a look; if we have these youth corpers targeted for farming, Nigeria would never be the same.

“If we start from the beginning that all those youth corpers should go to the farm and have that one year experience in the farm, Nigeria would have been a different country entirely.”
“We won’t be talking about oil price and stuff like that.  We have produced over 50 million youth corpers since inception,” Taiwo said, adding: “50 million youth corpers to the farm to serve for one year and we create a farm settlement for each youth corper, for all those number of years, that would have made a very tremendous change in our own life.”
Taiwo, however, explained that no fewer than 163 exhibitors and 150,000 visitors and foreign investors, small and medium enterprises and inventors, would be coming for the fair.
The Chairman of the fair’s Planning Committee, Nureni Ogunbayo, stressed that the fair would provide ample opportunities for industrialists with the small and medium businesses to showcase their products, adding that all the local government areas in the state would also showcase their councils’ agricultural products during the event.