50 percent of Okada riders in Lagos have gone back to farm – Communications minister, Adebayo Shittu

Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdulraheem Adebayo Shittu on Monday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital declared that more than 50 percent of commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as (Okada Riders) in Lagos State have gone back to their farms.

He said this was due to various innovations of the present government in agriculture.

Shittu who made this declaration while speaking with journalists during the 50th Birthday celebration of a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State, Engineer Oluwaseyi Makinde.

He stated that they, (Okada riders) went back to farms because they have realised that farming was now more profitable than riding Okada.

Shittu while urging Nigerians to continue to support the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, also noted that Nigerians voted for him (Buhari) because he was the only Presidential candidate that could be trusted with the resources of the country.

He said Buhari was the only one who was known to be devoid of greed and corruption and that was why Nigerians entrusted their country to him.

He said though, there were a lot of work to be done, Buhari has done well for the country.

Shittu said “Before we give a message to the people of Oyo State, we must thank Almighty God for spearing our lives throughout the year, for us to be still alive,

“We should also continue to support the government of President Muhammadu Buhari because Nigerians voted for him because he is the only Presidential candidate that could be trusted with the resources of country.

“He is the only one who was known to be devoid of greed and corruption and that is why Nigerians entrusted their country to him.

“I am confident that as an insider, the President has done extremely well and the indices are there in the area of fighting corruption, in the area of fighting insurgency in the area of repearing the economy which has been driving aground by the previous administration of profligacy.

“The work ahead is still enormous, because when you have a dilapidated structure, you need time to plan to reconstruct and rebuild. That is what Buhari government needs. I am happy that a lot of positive results are being recorded particularly in the area of agriculture and infrastructural development.

“In the area of agriculture, farmers now have for once started building houses, buying vehicles, buying motorcycles and so on.

“More than 50 percent of Okada riders in Lagos who are from the North have abandoned Okada and have gone back to their farms. Because they are now discover that it is profitable to farm than to ride Okada.

“Again in the area of employment, for the first time in this country, we have a government that employed 200,000 Nigerians.

“Again by January, all things being equal, 300, 000 more are to be employed under the N-Power programme, secondly, the School Feeding Program is taking care of about 25 million Nigerian children with one meal a day.

“The effect of that is that there will be many more demands for agric produce of all kinds and there will be more demands of hands or cooks, taxi drivers who will help these people to the various schools on the daily basis. Again, poor Nigerians are being paid 5,000 naira per month, again, this has never happen before, it is a form of Social Security.

“The Nigerian government is building a rail road, a modernise one, from Calabar to Lagos, another one from Lagos to Kano, Lagos to Maiduguri, this is building standard gauge railway line. Again, the East West Road, from Calabar to Lagos. These are things that government has been doing, you also know that in the area of fighting corruption, a lot of money previously stolen are being recovered.

“During the previous government, the Boko Haram were in total control of 14 local government areas spread across 3 states.”