I hope that while in Brazil, President Tinubu wooed investors who will pump money into Nigeria’s rural road network as without it, our agriculture sector is going nowhere

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Are Nigerians aware of the fact that their country is the world’s sixth largest agricultural producer?

[2] We are the world’s number one producer of about 10 agricultural crops, with the main ones being yam, cassava, cocoa yam, melon seed, bitter leaf and shea nuts

[3] However, about a third of Nigeria’s agricultural output gets destroyed in the rural areas. Poor roads mean potholes, which in turn destroys crops, especially fruit and vegetables

[4] Just imagine how much produce we would save and how much revenue could be generated if we had a decent rural road network with crops transported to markets in refrigerated trucks

[5] I think one thing President Bola Tinubu needs to do is sit down with his governors and explain the importance of rural roads to them. Rural roads are 10 times more important than flyovers and fancy roundabouts

[6] Each state governor should also come up with a public works programme that involves getting our youth off the street and building these rural roads with modern bus stops

[7] Annually, we may need to spend about $2bn on rural roads across all 774 local government areas. The rainy season has shown that we have no rural transport network in Nigeria . Many villages and farms are totally inaccessible at the moment

[8] This then needs to be augmented with the construction of our national rail network linking all 774 local government areas to what is effectively a railway grid. We simply have to get more people off the roads and into trains

[9] In subsequent years, I would also dedicate about $2bn to a national bicycle programme. We need to get away from this ignorant notion that bicycles are for the “bush man” and villager. This will allow farmers to cycle to their farms every morning

[10] Ultimately, for this programme to succeed, our state governors need to run with it. I just hope President Tinubu sought funding for the project while in Brazil as part of his bilateral agricultural pact

ayoakinfe@gmail.com