Brave Dickson
As the 2023 general elections draw nearer, farmers in Rivers State have insisted that only a governorship candidate who physically meet with them will they vote for.
The farmers under the umbrella of the
Commercial Farmers and Agro-Allied Producers of Nigeria said since the state governorship candidates are yet to meet with them, the candidates should equally be prepared to lose the votes of farmers on the day of balloting.
The National President of the agro group, Fidelis Amadi told our correspondent that the forthcoming election is not going to be business as usual where candidates would expect farmers to vote for them without concrete agreement.
“We have succeeded in encouraging our farming population across the 23 LGAs of the state to get their PVCs which they had done because we will use it to tell politicians how important we are.
“Any guber candidate who needs our vote, would first meet with us and agree with us on what we would want such candidate to do for farmers if elected before we will vote such candidate.
This time around, we don’t want a politician to be appointed as commissioner for agriculture. We should be the ones to recommend who the next governor should appoint into such position.
“We need commercial farming that will make life meaningful for the average farmer and reduce food price inflation.
“We must reach an agreement with guber candidates on these core demands of ours before we will cast our vote.
“As I speak to you, we have not decided on who to vote for because no guber candidate has met with us,” Amadi said.
