By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Apparently to give the President a first-hand report on the security challenges in his domain especially the recent cross border attack by gangs suspected to be Ambazonia separatists from Southern Cameroon, Taraba state Governor, Darius Ishaku on Tuesday met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after the closed doors meeting with his host, Ishaku disclosed that he was in the seat of government to brief the President.
Said he: “First is that I came to see, Mr. President, on security issues. If you remember, some weeks back, there was an attack in Taraba state, specifically, at Manga, which is Taraba state and has boundary with Cameroon, it was invaded by the Please note this correction: manga community in Taraba was attacked by Ambazonia separatists from Southern Cameroon, they killed 11 people, including the chief of the small town”.
“And I have not been able to see Mr. President because of his busy schedule and his travels. So I’m fortunate today to have an appointment with him, to brief on details, about what transpired and need to give us some assistance in that axis. It was a very usual discussion and I am happy”.
Continuing he said: “And also to seek for assistance, I told Mr. President that Taraba can supply the country with rice, which he knows very well because he knows Taraba absolutely well. If you remember, he was our Governor in those days as in North East Governor.
“So, I’m seeking for more aid towards the farming of rice, particularly the dry season rice, where we get three four times of that one of the rainy season and more and more people have been encouraged into this farming. I have empowered with well over 20,000 people and they are all interested in the dry season. And I thought that if we are assisted , we should be able to produce enough rice in this country because we have the land. These are some of the things discussed with Mr. President”.
Asked what type of assistance he will require from Mr. President to improve on the rice farming, Governor Ishaku said: “First, there are loans that have been approved we have not received our own through the CBN”.
“We also have gotten assistance from Czech Republic to give us long term loan, we have actually manufactured about 2000 tractors. For over two years it is stuck in Czech Republic, we have not been able to get those shipped to our farmers”.
“And there are other assistances that comes from the Federal Ministry. Some have reached us which we are utilizing very well. But I imagine that without getting this soft machinery assistances, you will not be able to encourage much more people than we already have. Because, if they have this small medium tractors, which we had ordered, with their chemicals, fertilizers, and so forth, which usually comes from ministries and the federal government”.
“And even with those places particularly my area, I need to do channelization, I need canals, I need to build a lot of canals to carry this water during the dry season along the coast of the rivers. We have River Taraba, River Donga, River Gongola within the state, without those canals, they cannot be able to irrigate. We have excess water during rainy season, but then it dries not only dry but then if we have these canals, we can store this water as a dam, pump it and it will roll down and the farmers use them in their farms. I don’t if you have ever been to Kano, you see the way you have those canals on your way entering Kano”.
“This is the kind of thing I am hoping to do in Taraba. We have applied to CBN for years, nothing has happened. And without you doing this, we cannot get the dry season farmers to come on board. And as I said earlier, they harvest three to four times more than the rainy season”.
