Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former Minister of Works and Housing, has pointed fingers at the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari for the current food crisis in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels Television, Ogunlewe attributed the crisis’s root cause to the alleged neglect of academia, specifically universities and researchers, by the Buhari administration.
He criticized the Buhari government’s actions over eight years, accusing it of actively working against the academic community, closing down universities, and denying them essential research grants.
According to him, this stance hindered progress and modernization in farming methods.
The former senator and lawyer emphasized the critical role of research in agricultural development and economic growth.
He urged the current government to rectify this situation by investing in agricultural institutions and research, asserting that Nigeria has no excuse for facing a food shortage given its abundant resources and potential.
Ogunlewe stressed the importance of research and innovation in addressing challenges such as food inflation and enhancing overall food security.
His words: “I am very worried about what is currently going on in the country, but I’m not surprised because for eight years of the last administration, it was a fight against the academia: the universities, the researchers, people who are supposed to do research for your country and get modern ways of farming. But you fought them, closed down universities. No research. No grants.
“There’s no country that grows without research because the products from the farm are the products you can export. But why are the professors in the universities not involved? There are no funds for research.
“We have over 20 universities and colleges of agriculture. And the combined acres of these schools is about 50,000 hectares. Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta alone, has about 10,000 hectares. But there’s no investment in them, despite that they rely so much on research.”
“So, it’s for the government to now invest in them. We don’t have any excuse for food shortage in this country, with all these institutions we’ve been investing on for years.”
