The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun yesterday described the ongoing recession in Nigeria as a blessing in disguise.
Odigie-Oyegun made this comment at the University of Benin, Benin City at the 61st Annual Conference of Agriculture/General Meeting of Association of Deans of Agriculture in Nigerian Universities (ADAN).
He noted that if not for the economic downturn, nobody would have given practical thoughts about the capacity of Nigerians to feed themselves, stressing that, “this is another blessing in disguise.”
The chairman noted that the APC-led Federal Government was committed to developing agriculture to make the people to think beyond crude oil.
He said, “The United States of America, which is the greatest economic power pays farmers to produce even the things that they don’t need.
“We have come to that level because the price of a barrel of oil has dropped.”
“It is no longer a matter of choice that we must divert to agriculture. It is unforgivable that we behaved stupidly without a vision for so long.
“Agriculture is about 70 per cent of our growth and the vision would stabilise if we could grow even as low as three per cent,” he said.
