Recently, the cost of living has surged, causing a sharp increase in food prices nationwide and Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe while speaking on Channels Television recently suggests that addressing this issue requires strategic investments in research and the establishment of industrial estates, reminiscent of approaches taken decades ago.
“We had several industrial estates [then]. That is what the Federal Government has failed to do. Create industrial estates, [where they] conduct research on all these commodities, and put them out. Over half of what is produced is wasted because they are not processed,” he lamented the country’s continued abandonment of research which he says is the backbone of food security and other societal advancement.
“There are professors in all our universities that are only doing research on rice – new varieties of rice; they are conducting research on a daily basis on them.
“Let the Federal Government invest in what we have, we will produce a lot better. But when you don’t invest in research in your country, and you think your country is going to grow, it is very difficult. Invest in them; give them more money for research,” the former lawmaker maintained.
Since the price of food commodities began a fast rise, protests have broken out in several parts of Nigeria as people took to the streets to register their grievances over the development.
Despite these agitations, an optimistic Senator Ogunlewe is calling on Nigerians to be patient with President Bola Tinubu’s government.
“We are going to get it. Nigerians should just be patient,” he said. “Give him time. This hunger will last another three months.”