The Secretary of Agriculture and Commodity of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Retson Tedheke has said that rural farm leaders across the 774 local government areas of Nigeria are prepared to mobilise millions of voters for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tedheke, made this known ahead of the Monday inauguration of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.
He said the lead mobilisers were expected to mobilise at least 20,000 farmers in each of 774 local government areas across the country, bringing the figure to 15 million farmers.
The Secretary, who is also the national convener of Asiwaju’s Farmers Forum and National Coordinator of Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative Society (NFGCS), said his secretariat has the names and contacts of 11,000 registered farmers from the six geo political zones in the country who will serve as the lead mobilisers in their various states, zones, local government and wards.
According to Tedheke, the election of Tinubu as the next President of Nigeria will see agriculture get a facelift..
“Between January and March 2021, agriculture contributed to 22.35 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product. This shows that agriculture is the only sector capable enough to absorb the growing rural and urban population in the country.
“With Tinubu, what can be done was to improve the agriculture sector in productivity, technology inputs, farming method changes, better seeds procurement, new crops grown, among others
“Increased subsidies on utilities like power, water, input materials will go a long way to solve the current challenges bedeviling growth in the country’s agricultural sector”, he said.
While expressing confidence that things were going to be done differently under Tinubu’s administration, he disclosed that over the years, despite the contributions of farmers to the electoral value of the political class, they have not been fully appreciated.
“The rural communities contributed largely to the ballot during every election and the majority of those residing in our rural communities across the country are farmers.
“If elections are about numbers, democratic politics is about stitching together a majority. So, the larger a group, the bigger is its vote bank and greater is its electoral clout. This is the value we are bringing to the table for the Tinubu-Shettima’s ticket.
“If we go by the facts available, farmers should have unmatched electoral clout in Nigeria. After all, they constitute a clear majority. All available evidence indicates that they vote at least as much, if not more, than other classes such as industrial workers or urban middle classes”, Tedheke added.