The economic blueprint to be implemented by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, will bring down rising food inflation in the country, his Campaign Organization, has assured.
According to the spokesman of the campaign, Charles Aniagwu, who made this declaration on AIT’s “Kakaaki” on Wednesday, Atiku is the only presidential candidate that is into agricultural production and will stimulate processes such as soft loans, access to land, fertilisers farm implements and agro-processing to improve the agricultural value chain.
Speaking about the content of the PDP’s Economic Blueprint, Aniagwu said that Atiku is already practicalising production and processing as a farmer while desirous of implementing strategies to improve the agricultural value chain and bringing down the worrisome food price inflation in the country.
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The campaign spokesman stated: “As a successful farmer, Atiku owns Adama Farms and they are into the production of beverages and other products in the food value chain, he already knows that for the private sector to have a role you need to be able to stimulate certain processes including access to soft loans, ensure access to land are made easier.
“Specifically, Atiku is very clear that to stimulate growth in the agricultural sector, you need to make access to farm inputs such as fertilisers, tractors and other needed facilities including seedlings much easier for farmers to access.
“In doing so, it is not only production but improves the food value chain by ensuring that the man who produces must also have access to processing.
“When you produce without processing the goods would rot away and because the farmer is scared of losing his money he may sell at prices far below what it’s supposed to be.
“Atiku is looking beyond giving them access to farm inputs, after production, he is also interested in the other value chain which is how to dispose of what has been produced.
“He will also make veterinary services available for aquaculture and animal farming, irrigation for all-year-round farming as well as animal husbandry, ranching and access to funds.
“So, with all of these incentives, the farmer would upscale from subsistence level to commercial level where beyond feeding themselves and those around them, they can also earn a living and also acquire other things that make life better.”
Also speaking on power sector reforms, Aniagwu said Atiku will ensure that states with the capacity to generate power are allowed to do so just like Delta has done.
He explained: “The idea of leaving power generation in the hands of the federal government is not good enough for a developing country like Nigeria.
“Although there seems to be some form of quasi-liberalisation of the power sector it has not been backed by relevant laws such that you take away both generation, transmission, distribution and then make it possible for individuals to be able to generate power if they have the capacity.
“He is going to make it possible for individuals to be able to generate captive power like what we are doing in Delta, where almost every government facility is powered by our Independent Power Plant.
“What that does is that you can have a reasonable amount of power supply which today Nigerians agree is the bane of our development and once he can address the issue of power challenge through this decentralisation of power generation, distribution and transmission of power, then we would have been able to address the many challenges facing Nigerians particularly the Micro and Medium Scale Industries we have in this country.”
Beyond that, the campaign spokesman added: “Atiku has also proposed a 10 billion dollar intervention fund for MSMEs for them to also become players in our economic space as the case in China.
“All of these packages he will unfold with his running mate Dr Ifeanyi Okowa to help our country’s economy recover which today is in a very comatose situation.”
