Nigeria’s pop music star, D’Banj, has said that he is
considering delving into full scale farming to help fight
poverty and encourage many African youths to embrace
agriculture as a means of livelihood.
He was also made the organisation’s face of 2014 Year of
Agriculture Campaign as declared by the Africa Union.
“As a face of the ONE Organisation’s initiative to drive full
participation in agriculture, I have to live by example. I am
going to engage in agriculture personally to encourage
millions of African youths who look up to me as a role model.
I need to let them know that unlike the old stereotype of
farming which was considered a punishment, modern farming
on the contrary, is a cool source of employment for many
graduates,” said D’Banj.
According to him, there should be a change where many
youths are expected to embrace agriculture and see it as a
potentially high-yielding venture to tackle hunger and
poverty on the continent.
Agriculture is life and it is everything that we live for. It is
the only way forward for us in Africa. There are many
potentials we are missing out and if we could focus on it, the
continent can actually feed the rest of the world,” he said.
D’Banj noted that he once tried in his own little way to
tackle hunger by going into Koko Gari project not really on a
large scale. But now that he is working with ONE
Organisation and has been exposed to the potentials in
agriculture, he is ready to get involved deeply.
Also speaking at the launch of the campaign, Camerounian-
born Nde Ndifonka, Media Manager, Africa, ONE
Organisation, said the organisation is keen on pushing the
continent’s leaders to stop paying lip service to the funding
of agriculture.
He noted that after 10 years of AU’s affirmation that
African countries should devote at least 10 percent of the
annual budget to agriculture, only three countries-Ghana,
Burkina Faso and Benin have met the target.
Ndifonka said there should be change in paradigm and ONE
is championing a petition to force the leaders to increase
their funding and help tackle poverty and hunger on the
continent.
He disclosed that D’Banj will lead the campaign, sign the
petition and get other celebrities across Africa to sign for
onward delivery to the leaders at their AU Summit coming up
in June.
