Nigeria will benefit from agric partnership with Israel, says CUFI

Christians United For Isreal, CUFI, has said the Kaduna State’s partnership with Israel on agriculture will be a blessing to the entire North, and Nigeria at large, whose citizens largely survive on agriculture.

The Executive Secretary of CUFI, Rev. Samson Ozovehe, made this known at the end of the year dinner organised to pray for Israel.
He said an ambassador to the foreign state, this week, will meet with Kaduna State Government to revive the agricultural pact it entered with Israel in 2009, during the administration of late Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, .

Speaking to journalists shortly after the event in Kaduna, Ozovehe disclosed that 70 per cent of Nigerians are into agricultural practices, adding that the initiative when revived will boost the state’s economy, especially as the nation is more focused on diversifying the economy from oil dependence, back to agriculture.

He said: “In the year 2009 under the leadership of Sir Patrick Yakowa, the former Governor of Kaduna State, membership of CUFI met him and discussed the need to advance the cause of agriculture in Kaduna state, since the world recognises Israel as the leader in the field of agriculture.

“The administration of Governor El-rufai, rose to it again last year, and asked CUFI to facilitate this initiative, and we had many meetings with the Israeli Embassy in Abuja, the Commissioner for Agriculture, championed it.

“I want to assure everyone that with the support of our governor that is seeking an alternative to oil to boost the economy of Kaduna State, this initiative will see the light of the day, and Kaduna will have an agricultural initiative set up by the state of Israel, which will be a blessing to the entire northern states of Nigeria, whose indigenes are largely into agriculture, and it will provide us viable alternative.

“Whether we like it or not, we need an alternative to oil, because we can’t survive as a nation anymore on oil price alone; the viable alternative Nigeria has is agriculture.

“All the refineries, railways we have today were put in place with proceeds from agriculture, but we abandoned agriculture when we found oil, and we are now importing food items, but the time has come for Nigeria to go back to agriculture,” he said.