A U.S. based lawyer, High Chief Owolabi Salis, has commended the First Lady, Mrs Remi Tinubu, over her recently unveiled Smart Garden Initiative.
The Ikorodu-born lawyer, who in 2019 contested for governorship on the platform of Alliance For Democracy, described the move as a right step latent with the auspicious prospect to transform the agricultural sector from its present rudimentary bare-subsistence to immensely transformative proportion for national self-sufficiency if properly handled with sustained and intensified consistency.
“The initiative came very close to the content of my manifesto on agric, which I repeatedly harped upon during my three-time campaigns for governorship, spanning 2007 to 2019 variously on the platforms of Peoples Democratic Party and Alliance For Democracy.
“In those periods, my team and I had worked out an operational methodology to ensure that every available arable land in Lagos State was converted to agricultural usage as part of a comprehensive blue-print drawn towards the crucial goal of agricultural self-sufficiency in accordance with the advice which I had vociferously called on successive governments before the and even up till now, to heed in other to save the people, especially the poor, from the throes of starvation,” Salis said.
The social critic also seized the opportunity to give kudos to Chief Afe Babalola, the founder and Proprietor of Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti, who, at an event recently organised by the university, almost coinciding exactly with the unveiling of the First Lady’s Smart Garden Initiative, that he often sources his food needs including meats from his farm and would never purchase food from outside.
“Indeed this epic revelation by Chief Babalola is an exemplary action that commends itself for emulation by us all because this is a man who has all the financial resources in this world to afford whatever he desires, yet he jettisoned that option and rather decided to show us a worthy example in self-sufficiency,” he said.
He also applauded the First Lady for not only preaching but leading by example.
“This move by our distinguished First Lady is indeed unprecedented in the annals of First Ladyship in this nation. It really shows that she cares and not only does she care and has the motherly empathy to feel for the poor, but she also strives in her own way to contribute her own quota towards ameliorating their plight as we can all see during the unveiling of her Smart Garden Initiative.
“She could have reclined in the cozy comfort of her presidential residence but rather chose not to do so, touched by the severe plight of the people, especially the poor,” said Salis.
Popularly known as Oba Mekunu (King of the poor in Lagos and New York) because of his philanthropic propensity for the poor, Salis described the initiative as properly conceptualised and well-thought-out.
“The crops like ewedu, okro, among others, which the First Lady started with are not only common staples, they are also highly nutritious and medicinal. Moreover, the competitive spirit with which she kick-started it with N25million to be won will go a long way to excite popular interest,” he stated further
Salis also expressed excitement that first ladies in the states were imbibing the idea and doing so with remarkably impressive zeal.
He also advocated the need for the First Lady to evolve a more enduring and effective mechanism to harmonise and integrate the states and the local governments, coupled with the effective participation of the Ministry of Agriculture, in a collaborative synergy aimed at elevating the scheme to a formidable mechanism to lift the frontiers of agricultural production to remarkably phenomenal heights.
“Virtually everything can be grown in your backyard including yam tubers, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and so on. You can even grow them in the bucket.
“As a compulsive global traveller, over the years, I have travelled to a greater part of the world like the Middle East, Europe, The Caribbean, Antarctica and the Arctic North Pole regions of the world, including the U.S. where I am based. My travel to the North Pole early this year, through Krasnoyarsk to Khatanga and Borneo, all in Russia, was aborted by a runway collapse in Borneo. I am often impressed to note that in most of these places, a greater part of the landmass is dotted with Garden Farms. In other words, almost all families in these countries compulsively have a garden farm.
“The first lady should bring her influence to bear in putting in motion innovative processes geared to promoting it as an abiding aspect of our productive culture, culminating for the vast body of populace in optimum beneficial advantage in agricultural self-sufficiency.
“Remember that the Obasanjo regime earlier undertook a similar ambitious initiative sometime in the late 70s, officially known as Operation Feed The Nation. Unfortunately, the initiative simply died a natural death for lack of continuity. This is an aspect where we should all learn to avoid the pitfalls of the past and therefore strive towards continuous innovative measures and ideas aimed at driving the evolutionary processes towards their optimum perfection.
“I will also advise that this potentially utilitarian initiative be reinforced with an effective publicity leverage, through the various mass media, like Radio, TV and newspapers.
“Publicity posters, jingles and slogans should be coined to enhance a new orientation and awareness for collective involvement in agriculture, while musicians should be hired to wax records in reinforcement of the publicity drive just as lots of musicians like Ebenezer Obey, Ayinla Omowura, among others did in their records waxed in the late 70s, in which they espoused the immense values latent in Operation Feed The Nation,” Salis added.
He however called on the generality of Nigerians and not only housewives to take a cue from the initiative, adding that the food crises currently pervading the nation has attained such an emergency situation that only an emergency solution could stave off the impending danger.
The emergency solution, according to him, “calls for all hands to be on the deck in other to save the nation from a steady heady plunge into the pit of starvation because only a collective effort on the part of the citizens could save us.
“We will only be living in fool’s paradise if we fold our arms and expect the government to start feeding all of us. From the look of things, as it is presently, this is practically not feasible not even in the near future. This is why it becomes urgent and necessary for us all, to strive and save ourselves by going all imaginable lengths to use our own hands to feed ourselves,” said the lawyer-politician.
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