… Empowers Farmers with fertiliser, others In Ogun
Segun Ayinde, Abeokuta
A socio-political movement, The Alternative, has taken its campaign to rural areas in Ogun State to caution the grassroots Nigerians against vote buying and voter’s apathy ahead the 2027 General elections.
The movement which took off with its empowerment programme on Wednesday met with locals, especially farmers in Ogun West Senatorial District, to empower and educate them to shun vote buying and voter’s apathy among others in the forthcoming elections.
The Movement’s Convener, Otunba Segun Sowunmi while speaking at the event” The Alternative” empowerment for Agbe Gbe’lu Agro Network Limited, Ogun West chapter” urged the less privileged
take ownership of the electoral process and demand accountability from their leaders.
Sowunmi, who was represented by a National Member of the Movement, Mr. Adai Edwin, stressed that the The Alternative was set to embark on a mission to reawaken the political consciousness of Nigerians at the grassroots level.
He maintained that the purpose of the movement was to promote a culture of political awareness and civic responsibility among Nigerians and as well reduce or put a stop to vote buying, broken promises, and politics of bitterness affecting democracy in Nigeria.
The former spokesperson for ex- Vice President Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign in 2023 elections, admonished the grassroots on that voting was their rights and civic responsibilities, calling on them to come out on the election day and exercise their franchise without fear or favouring any candidates but as duty to themselves and the country entirely.
Sowunmi as parts of his poverty alleviation programme, through the Alternative Movement, however, presented fertiliser, sprayer and farming other materials to the farmers to assist them in cultivating their farmlands in order to boost local production for food sufficiency in the state.
He said” The message is very simple, we need to first of all reawaken the consciousness of Nigerians in the grassroots level, the era of vote buying, the era of politicians making promises and not being able to deliver, the era of politics of bitterness, the era of where people are not coming out to vote those eras are gone”
“The National movement of opposition political parties, which is “The Alternative”, is set to reawakening the consciousness of Nigerians to understand that everything isn’t about the immediate action. Our major purpose is to see to it that the grassroots are politically conscious whereby during the election time, they should be able to come up with a candidate they can trust not the one they have been imposed on, but a candidate that have the intrest of the people at heart regardless of the political party they represent, the era where we are struggling to see our leaders, struggling to do things that ordinarily political holders should do, that era is over”.
“Again, what we are trying to make them understand is that the time of election is a very serious season and therefore it is expected of them to act now, we cannot have this high numbers of people at the grassroots level and not being able to get a sizeable number of votes, the voters turnout is very low, and therefore we have taken it upon ourselves to sensitise them to understand that civic responsibility of every citizen is their right, and therefore they must understand that they are not doing anybody a favour”.
“On the election day the ability for you to wake up and cast your vote is actually what determines and make you a true citizen of this country and that is the message, because our purpose is really to see that we bring political consciousness to the people in the grassroots not only what people can get, it is a two way thing, citizens have their responsibilities on the day of elections and the leaders also have theirs it is when we come up and make them understand this purpose of political activities then we can begin to chart a way forward for true democracy in Nigeria” he added
Speaking, the Southwest Chairman of the Movement, Rev. Olusola Salau assured the farmers and people of maximum support and through the Movement.
Salau opined that the movement was for all irrespective of political interests or differences, noting that the focus was to meet Nigerians’s yearning and aspirations for good and responsive leadership to turn around the country for better.
He added that part of the movement’s responsive action was its ability to secure a warehouse for farmers in the state capital to ensure they can sell their produce at a good rate.
The Southwest chairman also revealed that plans are ongoing to empower farmers with Tractors, and other major equipment to enable them to shift from traditional farming to mechanised farming.
“We have heard about your lamentation that you sell your produce at a lower rate than the normal rate, We have rented a warehouse in Abeokuta for all farmers to enable you to sell your produce at a good rate”
“We are also going to provide you with more equipment, which will still be delivered to the farmers”.
Earlier, the National Director of Agbe Gbe’lu, Farmer Ola Emmanuel, lamented that the government has not been doing any good when it comes to the empowerment of farmers in Nigeria.
Emmanuel hinted that the government was working contrary to its projection by investing in buying SUVs vehicles for political office holders, instead of buying tractors for farmers to enable food security in the country.
He said ” We have not been given any
empowerment, which is why we have come together to make ourselves an entity. We lack tractors here, fertiliser, and other modern equipment that have been given to people by the government; we have not gotten anything yet. So we need someone who can do it all for us, and we also need a borehole on our farms to enhance our farming business.
“As farmers what we really need at the moment is transition to develop from the use of cutlass and hoe, we are very deliberate and specific about this, we want farming in Ogun state and Nigeria as a whole to transform from the use of cutlass and hoe to minimum technical equipment for agriculture”
“We cannot continue with the use of cutlass and meet the food production demands from the President for the country, and unfortunately, we farmers can’t raise funds to buy all these equipments, for instance we need tractors for the project to be effective. That transformation needs serious government intervention, If the government is not responsive to us, we expect that a developer in the country should also be responsive”. he stressed.
