Oyedepo urges leaders to consider agriculture

The Chancellor of Landmark University, Omu-Aran and
founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David
Oyedepo, has urged the nation's leaders to redesign their
various policies towards developing agriculture so as to
reduce the high rate of unemployment and insecurity in the
country. Oyedepo disclosed this yesterday at a press
conference in Omu-Aran in Irepodun Local Government Area
of Kwara State to mark the maiden convocation ceremony of
the institution.
Oyedepo, who identified the subject of food availability, food
affordability and food security as one national issue that
stands out as a definite factor for almost all other critical
challenges facing the nation, added that it had caused
national and continental tension and crisis.
He said: "What the people of the country needs this time
around is abundance food and once this is done, the desire
of the nation to tackle high rate of unemployment will be
reduced drastically. "On this three-in-one gap, we can
establish the disruptive connect with our unemployment
challenges, pervasive social crisis, non inclusive economic
growth and our national security nightmare." The bishop,
who said Landmark University was birthed as a vision and
with a mandate to ignite the agrarian revolution in order to
attain food security for the country and continent, added that
most of what the university consumed as agricultural
products are produced by the university and also marketed
outside the varsity community.
He said the university authorities had also tackled the
nation's challenge of low enrolment for agricultural
programmes, adding that the management had carried out
enlightenment visits to secondary schools while
scholarship programme for students of agriculture was also
in place.
"In preparing our students for the world of work and in line
with the agriculture revolution mandate of the university,
farm practice is a mandatory aspect of their curriculum for
all students to develop their agricultural entrepreneurial
skill, which helps to generate their interest in agriculture, as
well help them understand the dignity of labour," he said.
Oyedepo, who said a total of 386 students would graduate
in 13 academic programmes, added 39 are in First Class
category, 186 in Second Class Upper, 152 in the Second
Class Lower and nine in the Third Class.
He said the programmes, which the students graduated in
include accounting, banking and finance, business
administration, political science, international relations,
sociology and economics. He said others include industrial
physics, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology,
industrial mathematics and computer science.