Governors across Nigeria have been urged to emulate the Oyo state’s government, led by Engr Seyi Makinde, in its effort to ensure food security and eradicate food scarcity across the state and the nation at large. 
A professor of Food Science and Technology a the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Alex Ikeme, gave this charge on Friday during the 2022 Economy of Francesco (EoF) conference that was held at the Dominican University, Samonda, Ibadan.
The conference with the theme, “Promoting Agriculture through Intergenerational Dialogue,” which was organized by Studentate, Dominican Province of St. Joseph the worker (Nigeria and Ghana) in conjunction with Student Christian Movement, was tagged “Make it Local”, “Agriculture and Justice”, with the aim of bridging the generational gap between the youths and the veterans, focusing on agriculture.
CEOAFRICA recalls that Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, who was represented by Dr. Idowu Ogedengbe, his Executive Assistant, during the conference had earlier revealed what the state government is doing towards expanding the economy of the state, through agribusiness. 
He disclosed that the government has trained young people in agribusiness and has acquired hectares of lands so that the youths can apply the knowledge they gained and become agribusiness entrepreneurs and has come up with policies that will enhance agribusiness by investing several billions into the agriculture.
“We have been doing a lot in agribusiness. When we came in, we met an Agricultural Development Programme but we changed it to Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency. We changed it because we want to promote infrastructural development within the agricultural space and come up with policies that will enhance agribusiness.”
“We believe that we can be the food basket not only to Nigeria but for West Africa. We are inviting investors to come Oyo state and take advantage of our various farm settlement, which we are converting to farm estate, where we can have all manners of agriculture being implemented.”
While commending the Oyo state government on the development, Prof. Alex Ikeme, who was one of the keynote speakers at the conference, said that if every state would emulate Oyo government, then there would be food sufficiency in the country.
The expert said, “What I have heard about Oyo state is encouraging. Different speakers have said all that the state has done in agriculture. If every state can emulate what Oyo government is doing here, then we will have food, sufficiently. States like Enugu and Anambra are not doing this type of things. However, as I said earlier, Soludo has started, with his plans, he wants to behave like you people.”
“When the federal government is doing her own and the states are getting the money, the politicians should not embezzle the money. They should use it for the people. The poor ones are suffering and the rich ones are just getting too rich.”