RSG To Check Youth Restiveness In Ogoni Land

The Rivers State Government says its agricultural projects in Ogoni land are aimed at checking youth restiveness and militancy in the area.

Governor Rotimi Ameachi stated this when the National Good Governance Tour team visited the Songhai farm project and the Rivers State banana plantation project, all in Ogoni land.

It would be recalled that the Songhai farm was established in 2009 and is being run by the state government in conjunction with a private investor.

The banana plantation project is an ongoing project and is being managed by San Carlos Ltd with a 60 per cent equity share while the state government retains the remaining percentage.

Amaechi said the farms, being operated on public-private partnership arrangement, were established mainly to create employment for the youth and build their capacity to run their own farms.

He said that although investors in the projects could make profit, the state government was interested more in the opportunities the farms would create for the people that would be involved.

The governor said that the banana plantation alone could directly employ about 4,000 people while many others could be employed through the off-farm activities of the plantation.

“For the businessman who is investing a lot of money, he is here to make money, he wants to make profit, and we in the Rivers State Government are interested in creating jobs for our people through these projects.

“For this plantation, 4,000 people will be employed; that is 500 workers per 250 hectares of land and the entire farm is about 2,000 hectares.

“For Songhai farms, we did not establish it to make money, our interest is to train our people in commercial and mechanised farming; that is our interest and the people of this area are our targets,’’ he said.

He, however, decried the negative attitude of some youths in Ogoni land, saying their attitudes were inimical to the development of the area.

Amaechi bemoaned the recent destruction of more than 10,000 banana plants at the new plantation in Sapkenwa in Tai Local Government Area.