35 years after, Ogbeh moved to tears at Iseyin


THIRTY-five years after the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh witnessed the supply of turbines to Okere Gorge Dam in Iseyin, Oke-Ogun, the minister was moved to tears when he saw abandoned dam.

He visited the dam as part of
his two-day working visit to the state.

He said the dam was capable of providing irrigation services to 2.8million hectares of arable lands.
According to him, the dam which is the second highest in Nigeria, ranked among the 22 dams that are in Oyo State.

As part of the visit, Ogbeh held a town hall meeting with farmers, youths, women and other stakeholders at the House of Chiefs, Parliament Building, Secretariat, Ibadan.

Ogbeh said that he served as the Federal Minister of Communication between 1982 and 1983 noting that he was at Ikere Gorge Dam in 1982 when the FG brought turbines to complete the project.

He said, "I remembered that we visited the dam in 1982 and brought the required turbines to complete the project. I almost wept yesterday (Monday) when I visited the dam in Iseyin and met the turbines lying fallow at the dam without being fixed.


"It is very sad that the dam has been idle since 1982. This is how we have been wasting our various resources that landed us in the present economic woes."
Earlier, he had visited Fashola farm, okere, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, in Akinyele Local Government where he saw so many agricultural innovations.

The Minister lamented the increasing rate of decay in most agricultural facilities and institutes across the country.
Governor Ajimobi who was there at the town hall meeting said, "People should begin to think of the future today, think of agriculture today for our survival. Let us all work. Let us all do agriculture.

"Nigeria is not a developing nation, but underdeveloped because it is a nation that cannot feed its people. Millions of people are still malnourished. We should really start to change our thinking and the way we think. We need to restructure our value system. We don't need only physical restructuring in the country. We also need value system restructuring. The country grows based on the way its people think.



"People who love money must engage in agriculture because there is money in agriculture. for you to live eminently, you need to have money and agriculture can provide the needed money for you."

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