Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade has said President Muhammadu Buhari is set to inaugurate an empowerment programme called G-Money that will improve agricultural activities in the state.
He revealed this as he spoke to State House Correspondents after a closed-door meeting with the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday.
According to him, G-Money is meant to empower the people by creating employment opportunities in the agricultural sector of the economy.
He added that Buhari will be visiting Cross River state soon to commission the programme.
His words, ”As part of the discussion with Mr President, we've agreed without a specific date however, agreement in terms of period, he'll be visiting Cross River state to commission yet again, a new programme called G-money.
”G-money is an empowerment of young people through agriculture, job creation through agriculture, establishing massive equipment.
”We, as a state government procured the equipment from John Deere of the United States, the biggest company in the world for deforestation, land clearing, land preparation for agriculture.
”With the partnership we've with Tata, the local partner, we've made order and taken delivery of a large number of tractors, bulldozers, payloaders, excavators, the list is endless.”
”Mr President will flag off the G-money programme, which is a green economy focusing on agriculture as a way forward.
”For a country that imports rice, where rice is our staple food with the northern and southern parts of Nigeria, it is a key project to Mr President, lifting women and young people out of unemployment by creating green jobs for them.
”So , the president has given his approval that he is coming to do the grand commissioning of the G-money programme and all the requirement we've procured, including the new factory, that is the slaughter house for poultry.”
”Mr president understands indeed that coming into life, the Bakassi deep seaport with an evacuation corridor to north is like taking the Atlantic Ocean to northern Nigeria.
”It is a strategic way of putting an end to the insurgency, militancy, kidnappings and the Boko Haram issues. ”Because, indeed once people are hungry, then the bestiality and the criminality becomes evident.
”If we don’t create an alternative corridor and as a country we remain wholly dependent on Lagos, for which the Lagos State governor has cried out, ‘please let other ports work so that we can decongest Lagos’, now if we don’t create that…
”Let’s look at it from the security point of view, if you can burn down Atlas Cove or make it impossible for goods to get to Lagos, in two days Nigeria can be captured.
”We don’t have strategic food reserves, we don’t have strategic storage or petroleum products, so in event that you are unable to get in and out of Lagos, what else? Then you are in trouble.”