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Governor Ortom Of Benue State Explodes, Says Nigeria Sitting On Keg Of Gunpowder

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Buy Weapons To Defend Yourselves - Gov Ortom Tells Benue Residents Again
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The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom has warned political leaders in the country to take urgent steps to combat high poverty and unemployment levels in Nigeria.

The Governor urged that except drastic steps are taken, Nigerian is sitting on a time bomb with a World Bank report recently indicating the country might be the World headquarters of poverty with 87 million extremely poor persons.

He, therefore, called on leaders to take steps that will turn the tide around for the better as Nigeria is blessed with all forms of human and other resources.

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Ortom spoke yesterday when he hosted a delegation from Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation, a USAID Agri-Business Investment Activity led by the Deputy Chief of Party, Dr. Farouk Lawan.

In his words, “Other people may dismiss the World Bank report but for me as one who is interested in the development of my state and country, I want us to take that report very seriously.

“Instead of criticizing it, lets begin to reassess what we have done, where we have failed and what we can do to improve on the productive sector of the country because we are fast becoming the poorest country in the world which is dangerous.

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“As leaders of this country let’s help our people improve themselves and not be home to over 87million destitute as predicated because we can see that happening already.

“With recent developments nobody is safe, I cannot go out without encountering those who feel that except they get something or handout from me they would not carry on, and this is not peculiar to Benue.”

The Governor also commended the intervention of Feed the Future in his state while also pledging the support of his government in providing the enabling environment for organizations to exploit the rich agricultural value chain of the state.

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Earlier Dr. Lawan also highlighted the plans by his group to improve the welfare of farmers in Benue state.

“This is important because we know that farmers may be in groups but they lack that group cohesion and financial literacy skills which are basic requirements by financial institutions that they consider to extend credit to the farmers.

“So by next week we will commence the training of additional 100 farmers. Recall that during that last summit, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority of Nigeria, SMEDAN was there and we agreed to collaborate with them to support farmers in Benue state.

“As part of that partnership we have agreed to train farmers in Benue state on those specifics which will enable them to access credit facilities of between N500,000 and N10million from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

“That partnership has commenced and we will continue to do that for the benefit of Benue state,” Dr. Lawan said.