Aregbesola wants agric graduates to be self-reliant

Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has tasked university graduates to embrace self-employment in agriculture and other gainful engagements to stem the tide of unemployment.

The governor stated that the present economic situation had shown Nigerians the need to encourage farming as the only alternative to crude oil.

Aregbesola, who gave the charge during the sixth convocation ceremony of Fountain University, Osogbo, noted that there is no aspect of life that can do without agriculture.

He, therefore, called for productivity, resilience and hard work among Nigerians, stressing that the present nation’s economy demands one to be self-employed.

According to him, there is no other alternative to sustain our economy than for us to build the required interest in agriculture and brace up with anything that can promote food production capacity.

He said: “There is need for us, especially our young graduates, to lead the nation in promoting agriculture as the only realistic surviving alternative to economy.

“We must not but embrace farming because it is only agriculture that has direct links to all aspects of life.

“Nigeria has grown to the stage through which her food production capacity must be urgently expanded to meet the general needs of the citizenry and as well enhance exportation.”

In his lecture, the Executive Secretary, National University Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, charged both private and public organisations in the country on the need to invest more in education.

He said the country had gone to a stage where education should be seen by all as a bedrock for national development, hence the need to encourage participation in both basic and higher education.