A new starting for Nigeria is within the wings. I hear the fun of expectations from fellow residents; I see the longing and need for change. Our earnest prayers and needs for a peaceable and progressive Nigeria won’t be undone… It is a bountiful season of Agbado. And should the land flourish.
The time is ripe; the hour is nigh, when a brand new authorities takes the saddle – the federal government of President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It comes bearing good tidings and a message of Renewed Hope. It comes on the wings of the stork betokening blue skies, luscious inexperienced and a clam of the deep.
What an auspicious time. What a worthwhile season. Agbado is right here, and agbado is right here. Sure, it is the season of one in every of Nigeria’s staples – corn. It is additionally the season for a New Nigeria.
What is it about “agbado” that is taking up the faddism?
When President-elect Tinubu mentioned Nigerians wouldn’t need to import meals as a result of “agbado”, cassava, “ewa”, and “garri” are produced regionally, I imagine he didn’t count on his candid and good intervention on meals sufficiency for Nigeria to be the fodder for uppity memes.
To on a regular basis Nigerians “agbado” is a staple meals which they stay on, however to the stuck-up class, “agbado” is not horny; they might quite prefer to have conversations on pizza, burger, lasagne, and all different artificial international junk.
In a rustic the place individuals wrestle to feed, it is a present of synoptic ignorance to mock agbado, cassava, ewa and dodo. These are Nigerian staples. In policymaking, addressing starvation is pivotal. Governments have fallen over shortage and the excessive price of bread. Foodology is on the nucleus of existence.
Over time, Nigerian governments have designed totally different insurance policies to make sure meals safety for the nation. In actual fact, agriculture has been a centrepiece of Nigeria’s coverage thrust for the reason that Nineteen Sixties. The nation’s agriculture blueprint consists of insurance policies foregrounded in surplus extraction and export adaptation in 1963; the Nationwide Accelerated Meals Manufacturing Programme (NAAP) in 1972 by the Common Yakubu Gowon-led authorities; Operation Feed the Nation in 1976 by Common Olusegun Obasanjo’s authorities; a Inexperienced Revolution in 1980 by the Shehu Shagari administration; Goodluck Jonathan’s Development Enhancement Scheme, which revolutionised Nigeria’s agriculture worth chains underneath the then Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina; and President Muhammadu Buhari’s more moderen follow-up on rice manufacturing as a centrepiece of financial development.
Agbado is thought-about as essentially the most consumed staple meals in Nigeria. Based on Babbangona (an NGO which specialises in agriculture), an IITA Nigeria Meals Consumption and Diet Survey performed in 2003 confirmed that agbado is essentially the most consumed staple meals in households at about 20%, adopted by cassava at 16.5%; rice, 11.9%; and cowpea grain, 11.8%.
Agriculture gives employment for 35% of Nigeria’s inhabitants, in response to the World Financial institution, and it is a principal contributor to the native financial system. Nigeria is blessed with about 70.8 million hectares of agricultural land, however the nation is but to actualise its full potential in agriculture. So, it is sensible {that a} presidential candidate is talking on Nigeria’s meals safety with some gravitas.
Any authorities which fails to plan on agriculture and meals safety may have a disaster in its arms.
A bit on “agbado”. Nigeria’s maize manufacturing was at its highest since 1960 in 2021, in response to US Division of Agriculture. The rise was as a result of Central Financial institution of Nigeria’s halting of foreign exchange for maize importation. Maize is a money crop. A uncooked materials for many our merchandise. In processed kind, it is consumed as pap, cornflakes, custard, and many others. And about 60% of agbado produced within the nation is used for poultry feed.
Agbado is thought-about as essentially the most consumed staple meals in Nigeria. Based on Babbangona (an NGO which specialises in agriculture), an IITA Nigeria Meals Consumption and Diet Survey performed in 2003 confirmed that agbado is essentially the most consumed staple meals in households at about 20%, adopted by cassava at 16.5%; rice, 11.9%; and cowpea grain, 11.8%.
Additionally, it mentioned agriculture contributed 22.35% of whole GDP between January and March 2021, rising practically one share level over the identical interval in 2020. Agbado alone accounts for five.88% of Nigeria’s agricultural GDP.
Nigeria is the most important producer of agbado in Africa — with over 33 million tons, adopted by South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia. So, why would anybody mock this elixir of the lots? Mocking agbado or anybody talking on its satisfaction of place is tantamount to mocking hundreds of thousands of Nigeria who stay on the staple meals.
Figuring out with “agbado” is nothing to be mortified about. Agbado rings a bell for the lots. It is relatable. It represents meals on their desk and escape from the quotidian realm of starvation.
Past being a favorite snack, “agbado” has morphed into some kind of political identification. Publish a photograph of your self snacking on roast corn on social media, and you may be summarily sentenced as a supporter of Tinubu. Supporters and admirers of Jagaban are actually recognized by what they select to snack on. In the event you share a photograph of your self masticating agbado, you then should be a Tinubu boy. It is a superb badge to put on. We should embrace it. I’m not too shy to say I’ve corn in my again pocket. By the best way, agbado is a wholesome snack – and nutritious too.
Coincidentally, agbado is the image of one of many events (ANPP), which merged with the ACN and the CPC to kind the APC. So, it is all so as.
Figuring out with “agbado” is nothing to be mortified about. Agbado rings a bell for the lots. It is relatable. It represents meals on their desk and escape from the quotidian realm of starvation.
We should speak about feeding the nation. We should speak agbado.
A new starting for Nigeria is within the wings. I hear the fun of expectations from fellow residents; I see the longing and need for change. Our earnest prayers and needs for a peaceable and progressive Nigeria won’t be undone.
It is a bountiful season of Agbado. And should the land flourish.
God bless Nigeria.
Fredrick Nwabufo, Nwabufo aka Mr OneNigeria is a media govt.
NB: This essay is written with modification from an earlier article — “Agbado as a political identification”.
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