The Bayelsa State Governor, Duoye Diri, has said despite Bayelsa being an oil-producing state, the focus of his administration is to re-orientate the youths to venture into agriculture and agribusiness.
Diri said farming was a priority, and everyone in the state was encouraged to key into it.
Reacting to a claim that the money made from cocoa was invested in oil exploration, the governor explained that crude oil wasn’t developed in Nigeria by the money made from cocoa farming but money invested by international oil companies.
Diri said, “A lot of people make a mistake and say we used cocoa money to develop oil, that’s not true.
“Multinational, international oil companies came with the capital in oil exploration and exploitation”.
There was no money from Nigeria, every money that came was monies from those who came to develop oil here.
These are the issues Nigeria needs to resolve.
“Agriculture is a priority for this government, we are working hard to have a change of mindset of our youths to key into Agriculture.
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Meanwhile, the governor noted that his counterpart from Akwa-Ibom, Governor Udom Emmanuel, will be in the state to flag off the farming season and superintend over the made-in-Bayelsa Agriculture show.
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