INTERVIEW: Oúnjẹ Èkó Phase 2 to include educational institutions, says Lagos Agric Commissioner

Abisola Olusanya is the Commissioner for Agriculture in Lagos State. Recently, she hosted the Commissioners of Agriculture of all the six South-west States to a meeting, coordinated by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN Commission). In this exclusive interview with Adeola Ogunrinde, she spoke on the first and second phase of the Ounje Eko initiative to cushion the effects of high foods prices and the efforts of South-west states to boost rice production…

How successful was the first phase of the Ounje Eko market hub which the Lagos State Government established to help cushion the effect of the high prices of foodstuffs?
It was successful with the number of those who came out to buy foodstuffs at the various Ounje Eko market hubs. It started with the Mushin market hub, owned by the Lagos State Government. The governor now has instructed, after consulting with several stakeholders, for us to do a state wide coverage similar to what we are doing at the Mushin food hub. If we are to be fair and equitable, we have 57 local government and LCDA’s . We have to speak to that framework setting up similar market.
Aside that, in the past , during the covid time, the Ministry of Agriculture had set up several mini markets in some local governments, in about 20, for people to buy food closer to home because of social distancing. We just built on the knowledge we had already and we replicated the same. The only thing, the time of Covid was a different context completely from now. Covid was a lockdown , fewer people came out from their homes. Therefore, we had less crowd to deal with. In this time there is no Covid, there is no social distancing, people are going to come in mass. As such, the ministry has not done the set of full state-wide coverage, the number of people that came out. We also looked at the number of people to handle. We selected 57 locations, one per local government. But the idea is that let us even provide a place for you to find some of this foods, aside that , it is not meant for every category of Lagosians and this is my explanation of that.
Mr Governor had announced different tiers of intervention with regards to food, one of the food distribution, where rice, beans and garri were distributed amongst different categories of the society. This is for those who possibly would not afford buying food at all. The temporary market was for those who have some funds available to buy but would want to buy it at a cheaper rate. The idea of one location per local government is also to manage, it is not something we have done before, and don’t forget because we want to be fair and equitable , we also took on the partnerships and collaborations with different payment solutions platforms and providers. In also been able to give the 25 percent discount to the people, it was done through a fair means, not that somebody is paying cash back to some people. We now added Alausa making 58, and that gave Lekki an area, one of their own as well, so that we covered a demography , though they may say they don’t need it but we feel, they need it as well, making 59 in total.
Recently South West Commissioners of Agric held a meeting, could you elaborate on what the meeting was all about?
The meeting of South West Commissioners on Agric was a coordination of the DAWN Commission. We have been in talks for different things over the years, and the one that was particularly urgent to us was the rice production to feed the rice mill. Now, part of that discussion was to have clarity of what to provide, what size of land are they producing rice paddy on and what percentage of that can be guaranteed for Lagos rice mill such that a percentage of what the mill is processing is coming from South Western states and the reason is not far fetched, it was just to have a percentage production that the logistics is cheaper and we can have lower pricing for a bag of rice.
Regarding the meeting, is it all the stakeholders that came or just a few of them?
All the Agric commissioners were present and the one who couldn’t come physically joined online. We had some participants that joined online, In fact, Ekiti was the only commissioner online, every other Agric Commissioners were physically present.
Agric revolution in Lagos, is it in line with the South West agenda, especially since the First Lady of Nigeria, Oluremi Tinubu has encouraged the planting of food crops?
Of course, the First Lady of Nigeria has encouraged growing your own farm which is urban farming, everyone is in line with that. It is a normalized initiative for urban farming, the same way you have rural farming. It is the revolution that must speak to Nigeria regarding food production, everybody has to be on board, that is the honest truth. If you want to see improved food production, we all have to put our hands together and put our hand to work
The Presidency said there was rice distribution across the States of the federation, I don’t know if Lagos have gotten theirs and have they been distributed?
We did. This is the mix-up. The distribution was announced at a later period, but we have started receiving the trucks of rice far back, I think March, April. So, we distributed our rice along with Ounje Eko beans and garri. If you see some pictures on our social media, you see that the pack of rice particularly, the ones sent to the local government and LCDA’s through the CDCs. Every bag of rice in the picture, you will see the Federal government brand on it. So, we distributed throughout the palliative distribution that took place end of April-May up on till July. We have our records.
The Ounje Eko phase two projects, what next?
For the Ounje Eko that will be commencing on phase two, we have expanded on locations to include our educational tertiary institution because in Phase 1, they started writing to us that we should set up a temporary market in the school premises for staff and students. We have decided to include our four tertiary institutions in Lagos: University of Lagos, Lagos State University, LASUSTECH, and LASUED. We know there are colleges of medicine too but, we will start with this four set. We are looking at 63 locations for the second phase.
For the Tertiary institutions, what day will it be, a Saturday or a Sunday?
We are deliberating on it. We are waiting for feedback from the Vice Chancellors to tell us what day is best for them.