www.odogwublog.com reports that candidates of political parties contesting the November 18 governorship election in Anambra state will be screened by farmers on September 30, during its inauguration.
The farmers said they will gather to inaugurate their cooperative society, called Fagwod farmers multi-purpose cooperative society limited, noting that the group, will use the opportunity to shop for a credible candidate in Anambra state that will have the interest of farmers at heart.
Speaking to journalists after its meeting at Dunukofia council area, the founder and International Director General of the group, Bishop Eberechris Agbakaizu regretted that farmers in Nigeria have been neglected by some leaders who don’t care about agriculture, stating that farmers will no longer be indifferent during elections at all levels.
His words: “We see farming as what will redeem this nation from where they are and for this reason, we have interest in praying for anybody at all levels of government that will protect farmers’ interest; somebody who will have farmers at heart, we won’t pray for someone who will come in and forget farmers and channel attention to other sectors.
“If you look at this nation today, you will notice that something will happen on the negative side if farmers are not assisted or sponsored and the implication is that this nation will weep at the worst time. So, we are believing that farmers will come together to pray for a governor or president that will come in to assist farmers financially and in agricultural inputs.
“We have plan of raising over 2 million farmers each, across the 36 states of the federation. In Anambra state for instance, we have plans of inviting all the political parties and their candidates in the November 18 governorship poll to attend our inauguration on September 30, to tell us the plans they have for farmers.
That will enable us know who amongst them that has exactly the vision we have. Once the person is identified, we now begin to mobilize our members to campaign for the person to win” he said.
Agbakaizu, however debunked the insinuations that the group has earlier endorsed Governor Willie Obiano under the auspices of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, saying it’s in the hand of farmers to determine who the next governor becomes.
“Our group has not endorsed anybody because we don’t know for now who the lord will lead us to. What we are saying is that they will all be examined to tell us there plans for farmers in Anambra state. At that forum, we will listen to them and decide who has the same vision with us. If we don’t take farmers serious, we will make a lot of mistakes because we are keen in supporting a governor that will assist us practically” he emphasized.
He further explained that Fagwod Cooperative Society has three arms which, according to him, include: Fagwod farmers association, fagwod crop producers, processing and marketing Nigeria limited and fagwod vision bearers.
“We are registered with Cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC)  and hope to give loan to every fateful farmer from 2018. We are going to farm in the 774 Local Government Areas in the country and that is our vision. We are farming to produce farmers or assist farmers that can produce foods that can feed the nation.
“Fagwod farmers association is for farmers, under this arm, all the committed farmers have a lot to benefit. Here we talk about practical farmers and not farmers that carry certificates about. We secured the nod of the Kaduna state bank of agriculture to give us mouth watering loan and have signed Memorandum of Understanding with  Chinese company for supply of inputs.
“Our aim in vision bearers arm is to support good governance, for instance, we are praying seriously to have a governor who will come in and make sure that farmers are assisted practically and not only by words of mouth”