Let the Nigerian Government Begin to invest in agriculture, Yam, Groundnut, Coco,Cassava, poultry, and stop depending only on Oil,

Nigeria Government is too Lazy,

As the world moves towards automation, fossil fuels generate more of the energy used than food.

As such, agriculture can never be as valuable as oil

As long as Nigeria has oil, it will be the region's primary export.

(As the world's energy crisis grows worse, all we can do is pray that we do not end up like iraq)

LiquidMind:

Let the Nigerian Government Begin to invest in agriculture, Yam, Groundnut, Coco,Cassava, poultry, and stop depending only on Oil

It is not the job of the government to invest in anything; it is the job of the private sector which is you and I. Instead of asking the government to invest in agriculture, you should go and start your own farm.

Nigeria Government is too Lazy

If anything, it is the Nigerian citizens that are too lazy. Always crying to government for everything.

Seun.

You yourself once spoke of the overly centralized nature of our top-heavy government.

too much govt control over *everything*. How can the private sector survive when there is such a stranglehold over practically all sectors of the economy.

Ask anyone in business. If you don't have govt connections/support/interests you are either screwed, or too small to bother about.

Most leaders of the militants were political thugs of the ruling political party and they are not afraid of their former employers, because the kettle cannot call the pot black.

Seun, Nigerians are not lazy.

God knows that Nigerians are not lazy. But our government is not proactive. And the rulers are kleptocrats in power.

One long bridge from Port Harcourt to Bonny Island will boost the economy of the region. But, now without a bridge, traders and millions of others risk their lives to cross the sea in boats and countless people have drowned in boat mishaps in the high sea.

I am on location in an estate that is as good as any modern town in America and Europe and even more secured. It is like paradise on earth compared to the ghettos outside the estate. And to me this inequality is not justified.

It is not the job of the government to invest in anything; it is the job of the private sector which is you and I.  Instead of asking the government to invest in agriculture, you should go and start your own farm.

If anything, it is the Nigerian citizens that are too lazy.  Always crying to government for everything.

you must have said this 1 million times now BUT THE UNDERLYING FACT IS THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD PROVIDE THE BASICS, the infrastructure, most things have to be put in place first then any sensible private investor will take do their bits with gov making sure competition is healthy ofcourse and monitoring them!

Most developed/developing countries started with the government providing everything!! until theres enough structure in place! why would anyone go and build power station just to start a business 

Leave him _(seun), would there be nairaland if government banned internet connectivity and cybercafes? Would there be gsm if the operators where refused licenses? Lazy Nigerians indeed.

Ask anyone in business. If you don't have govt connections/support/interests you are either screwed, or too small to bother about.

The solution to this problem is not to ask the government to "invest in agriculture". The solution is to ask the politicians to get their hands off the economy and mind their own business of enforcing law and order!

God knows that Nigerians are not lazy. But our government is not proactive. And the rulers are kleptocrats in power.

The only area in which government needs to be proactive is in maintaining law and order. Instead of meddling with the 'economy', they should reform the police and legal system so if someone defrauds me I can get quick compensation.

Most developed/developing countries started with the government providing everything!

This is very wrong. Most developed countries started with the idea of government providing just law and order. As they got more prosperous people started crying on government to provide more and more. The example of Sweden is similar to many other developed countries: How the Welfare State Corrupted Sweden.

Leave him (seun), would there be nairaland if government banned internet connectivity and cybercafes? Would there be gsm if the operators where refused licenses? Lazy Nigerians indeed.

I am not aware of any farmer who has been refused license to farm in this country. Besides, it is not the person that gives licenses that is responsible for the development of any technology. Nigerian politicians are not responsible for the GSM revolution, they are not responsible for Nairaland, and if a few smart entrepreneurs decide to invest heavily in agriculture to make Nigeria a superpower in that area also it will have nothing to do with the politicians. If government is meddling in your preferred business, asking them to 'invest' is a wrong response. The right response is to ask them to mind their business of reforming the police, prisons and legal system.

This is very wrong.  Most developed countries started with the idea of government providing just law and order.  As they got more prosperous people started crying on government to provide more and more.  The example of Sweden is similar to many other developed countries: How the Welfare State Corrupted Sweden.

like u said most started with the idea of gov providing just law and order,  In a country that is already developing with laws they(governement>people) themselves do not abide by, the economic situation in the country will obviously not flourish significantly to warrant self-employement or private investments as these so called private investors are already the government- "the rich few"

Nice info on the link u provided

When i said the governemnt should provide the basics- i meant Security, good electricity structure (which can then be sold to investors)

The government should invest in Agriculture. However, this would not be at the top of my list for government spending. The government needs to =

1) Provide Stable power (Raise the cost of electricity if needed)
2) Provide security of life and property
3) Crack down on corruption and the perception of corruption.
4) Provide loans to credible, well-educated people that are willing to research and apply modern farming methods. (I.e. don't give 20,000 naira to Ibrahim/Tokumbo, the secondary school drop-out, so he can waste that money on silly farming errors).

So, yes, the Government should invest in Agriculture (In the form of low interest or 0 interest loans) but only to those that are capable of operating large scale, and efficient farms.

when it comes to creativity nigerians are lazy they prefer to work 24 hrs on another person job and say that they are hard working. for nigeria to survive the government must seize all efforts in doing such basic things like agriculture, the private sector u and i are responsible. moving from a command system to a market system takes time but its the right thing. infact gov should laize faire keep hands of all business. by the way i dont see how gov can invest in agriculture the investors you and i can borrow money from government to invest in our business, most things started and run by government are trash that is a proven fact in economics.

@seun.
you still don't seem to get my point. Government affects your productivity. Plain and simple. Poor governance has been our problem from the day of our independence. Not talking about the president here(though it starts from him).

Your opinion is that we need better governance. My opinion is that we need less governance.

You want the government to reform NEPA. I want the government to break it into little pieces and sell it!

You want government to provide infrastructure for business. I want government to privatize it all!

Even if people in government have good intentions, they won't achieve as much as private companies facing intense competition. This is because private sector competition helps to weed out poor performers. click here!

What I could gather from all these entries is that:

Nigerians generally, do not have the right orientaion about citizenship, they do not know what they ought to be doing in a country, after almost 50 years of independence. There is no sense of ownership. The zeal to contribute meaningfully to national development is just not there, rather, everyone is out there to outdo one another, in a rat race pattern. All they are interested in is to line their pockets with ill-gotten wealth, and go to the roof top to show how poor they are.

And to make matters worse, the leaders are a bunch of parasites. The leaders do not even know that they ought to educate the citizenry on how the country is being run on their behalf.

Yeah!

Go Seun!

U gat d right idea- empower the private sector! competition and capitalism will create progress.

Unfortunately it will take a visionary leader to achieve this. This is because the very people who should yield control to market forces and the private sector are the people whose mouths dey for the centre of di awoof. And as long as they are allowed to sit there and get fatter and fatter on the nation's treasury, they will not release control. They will regulate the private sector into irrelevance.

What is the solution to this problem?

@ Seun are you agreeing with yourself that you want GOVERNMENT to do something about NEPA? and people (not the GOVERNMENT) should put on their thinking cap and produce something _{out of nothing}?

Puulease

I'm not saying we should do everything US and Europe do but are you aware that Agriculture in those countries are highly subsidized by their government?

Agriculture in those countries are highly subsidized by their government?

Yes, I am aware of this abomination. This is why the US destroys food that exceeds the farmers' production quotas while at the same time giving "food aid" to starving African nations. Isn't that retarded? Why can't American farmers think of exporting their plentious food to starving African countries instead of relying on government protection? If we are going to copy the Americans, we must avoid copying their mistakes too!

. who says agriculture can never be as valuable as oil?there are so many countrues out there that do not have oil deposit but they survive on agriculture.it's a shame that we can't even produce enough food to feed nigerians,talk less of importing.
nigerians are not lazy.everywhere in the world people are practising mechanized farming not cutlass and hoe thing and this is where our freaking government comes in.what can people do without electricity?without artificial irrigation and regular supply of water?how many ridges can one man make in a day?all these boils down to government's lack of support and motivation.with a little push from gvt,we can produce enough rice and even export to other countries.look at thailand,they supply the rice we eat in naija because they have gvt. support and they are well motivated.igovt. should invest in agriculture and try to boost tourism and other things that can enrich our nation,oil is diminishing!

We don't need any push from government. We need our young people to wake up and start working. And we need our rich people to use their money to buy land and tractors for Agriculture. That is all. Government does not have a right to spend our money to boost any industry at the expense of other legitimate industries. Let's grow up!

Seun:
We don't need any push from government. We need our young people to wake up and start working. And we need our rich people to use their money to buy land and tractors for Agriculture. That is all. Government does not have a right to spend our money to boost any industry at the expense of other legitimate industries. Let's grow up!

Well said. I always laugh when I read comments about government isn't helping farmers. The ones government aided, what have they achieved?