BENIN CITY – GOVERNOR Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John 
Odigie Oyegun, were Tuesday received awards from the Association of Deans of Agriculture of Nigeria Universities (ADAN) for their contribution to the development of agriculture in the country.
This comes as the National Chairman of the APC, attributed the current recession hitting the nation as the handiwork of God, acknowledging that the situation has forced government at all levels to invest into agricultural asserting that the nation will be one of the biggest exporters of farm produce in the next two years.
He disclosed this at the 61st Annual General Meeting of ADAN, which held at the University of Benin (UNIBEN). According to Chief Oyegun, “I want to emphasis that the APC is totally committed in developing agriculture as the back bone of the Nigerian economy. A lot of ideas have been thrown out, there is no country on the planet that does not subsidize agriculture. So we have been living in this fool’s paradise that government does not subsidize agriculture for its people.
“United States of America which is the greatest economic power, guarantees and pays farmers to produce. Even things that they don’t need. So we have come to that because the price of a barrel of oil has today dropped from 50 dollars per barrel. Projections for the future is not very encouraging, most developing nations now concentrate on renewable energy, we have not gone beyond exporting crude.
“Today agriculture has become the Cinderella and we are committed to making it an alternative source of income. I am happy that twice that I have been in this chambers, it has to do with agriculture. The chairman of the LOC made it quite clear that may be God in his kindness has forced us into a situation where we now have to think, where we now have to reason, look back.
“It is no longer a matter of choice that we must divert to agriculture infact it is unforgivable that we behaved stupidly without vision for so long. Agriculture is about 70 per cent of our growth and if we can generate even a 3 per cent growth , which marches the rate of our population growth then you would have stabilized the whole vision.
“ But if you can make it 4 per cent, 5 five per cent, you would have changed the living standard of the majority of Nigerians. Agriculture is a big business that we can profit from and we thank God for bringing us to this state” he stated.
The chairman of ADAN, Prof. (Mrs) F.M.David-Abraham, said the awardees which includes the Vice Chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof.Faraday Orumwense, were carefully chosen due to their effort in ensuring that agricultural policies are implemented at all levels.
