By Afe Babalola
Over the last three editions I undertook an examination of extreme poverty which now pervades the country. I stated the poor attitude of Nigerians to giving and contrasted this with how charities and foundations in other countries are helping to ameliorate the effects of poor governmental policies on the citizens and concluded with the fact that philanthropy could actually aid development if properly channeled in the direction of critical sectors of the economy. This week I will examine another contributing factor to rising state of poverty which is the abandonment of the agricultural sector.
Agriculture was once the mainstay of the economy
Before the discovery of oil, Nigeria which is blessed with mineral deposits of all types including tin, gold, coal and many other minerals earned appreciable income from the aforementioned minerals. The tin, gold, coal fields were abandoned following the discovery of oil. During the first Republic Agriculture was the mainstay…
