|
|
Nigeria: Don't Panic Over Food Crisis, Okonjo-Iweala Tells Nigerians
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Vanguard (Lagos)
11 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Austin Ogwuda
Lagos
FORMER Minister of Finance and presently a Director with the World Bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Nigerians should not panic over the current global food crisis.
But advised that the Government should partner with the World Bank and United Nations for needed assistance to the farmers for increased food production especially in the area of provision of fertilizers.
The Economic guru who spoke to journalists yesterday at Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, during the 1st anniversary of his father's installation as the Obi of Ogwashi-Ukw, Obi Chukwuka Aninshi Okonjo also described the ongoing probe in the power sector as a worthwhile venture.
Shortly after the brief chat with newsmen, she teased the reporters by saying, "hope you will not go and publish screaming headlines and misquote me.
At this juncture a reporter retorted, "no madam we are not going to misquote you". She then started to ask to know the respective medium the reporters represent.
She chided some newspapers (nameswithheld) but when it gets to the turn of this reporter, she exclaimed yes, Vanguard is a responsible newspaper".
On the food crisis, she said "the World Bank and the UN are doing quite a lot . They are trying to assist countries with emergency grants and loans in order to enable them meet the higher cost of food for their population.
But most importantly we believe that Africa can feed itself. We believe Nigeria has the capacity, you know we are only using 40 percent of our arable land in this country so we are blessed.
|
"We don't even need to look anywhere so what can the World Bank do", she went on, "is to assist to make sure that things like fertlizers and all the other things that the farmers need that they can help work with Government to make that available .
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
