The Police Officers Wife Association (POWA) in collaboration with the UNESCO Read and Earn Federation (UNESCO-REF) and the House Committee on Diaspora has pledged to strengthen the agricultural value chain in the country.
The President of POWA, Mrs Elizabeth Egbetokun, said in Abuja on Thursday that she was mobilising 100,000 women to boost the agricultural workforce to mitigate risks occasioned by food shortage.
She was speaking when the President of UNESCO-REF, Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu and the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Tanko Adamu, paid her a courtesy visit.
“As the Wife of the Nigeria Inspector-General of Police, I am committed to enhancing security through non-kinetic approaches and addressing food scarcity that directly contributes to the United Nations’ Goal 2- Zero Hunger.
“In my capacity as the National Advocate of the Young Women in Agriculture (YWA), I am actively seeking collaborative partnerships to advance President Bola Tinubu’s vision for food security, which he has declared as a state of emergency,” she said.
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Tanko Adamu, said that the collaboration was in pursuit of UNESCO objectives on food programmes.
Adamu said a number of Nigerians in diaspora would be willing to champion the objectives of the YWA programme as a way of giving back to their home country.
He, therefore, expressed the willingness of the committee to join the vanguard in mobilising Nigerians in diaspora to key into the programmes for the betterment of the country.
“We have sat down to look at our mandate as a committee which is primarily to identify and harness potentials of Nigerians in diaspora for the benefit and development of their home country.
“So we want to see how we can align ourselves with POWA and UNESCO-REF in the attainment of the UNESCO goals.
“As a committee, we want to see how we can come in to mobilise Nigerians in diaspora to bring their contribution to the development of agriculture in this country in other to attain food security.
“This is in line with the vision of President Bola Tinubu to attain food security and combat insecurity using non-kinetic approach.
“If you look at the challenge faced by the country today, we have challenge of food security and insecurity as well so if we have a robust investment in agriculture that will go a long way in ameliorating these challenges.
“So we want to tell influential Nigerians across the world to come and use the instrumentality of their personality and offices to support the structured institutions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ladigbolu said the collaboration would serve as a spontaneous approach for Nigerians in diaspora to invest in their native home.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria