Ayodele Olalere
The Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture says it has generated over N1billion as IGR this year alone from agriculture in spite of the challenges posed by the Covid-19 scourge.
According to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya who gave this indication at this year’s Lagos Food Fest held at Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island, held on Sunday, she explained that the event was put together to allow residents unwind and relax with their families.
Olusanya mentioned that the Food Fest is a follow-up on the success story of the five editions of the annual Lagos Seafood Festival, which was held between the year 2012 to 2020.
She further stressed that the event, which was an offshoot of the annual Seafood Festival, allowed the State to celebrate its seafood varieties that are spiced up with other exciting side attractions.
According to her “We just want to give them the honour, we want to give them the accord for serving the State well, they have gone over and beyond in this year 2021 to deliver food security to a reasonable extent, for the first time in the history of the ministry, we’ve crossed a billion in IGR. So we feel that it’s imperative that we give them some form of appreciation”
The Ministry also used the occasion to celebrate some of their outstanding staff who assisted to achieve the triumph in the last year.
Gifts were given to both junior and senior members of staff and the highest revenue-generating agency for outstanding performances.
The highlight of the event was the appearance of Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu who was the Special guest of honour and was seen preparing seafood rice with a celebrity chef, and the winner of Big Brother Nigeria Mr Whitemoney to the delight of all the guests.
The Food Fest which has as its theme “A taste of Lagos” was spiced with various entertaining activities including a fashion show, music presentation among others.
The Nigerian Xpress reported that Comrade Razaq Olokoba, renowned human rights activist and political commentator, has given reasons for supporting Lagos Governor; Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s cancellation of the planned Walk for peace slated for last Friday, saying the governor’s decision was the best for the generality of the citizenry.
Leading a coalition of about 70 right organizations under the umbrella of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG), at a well-attended press conference in Lagos said the reason for the cancellation by the governor has shown that he is on top of the situation in the country and the world over, stating that, going ahead with the exercise would have portrayed him and his administration as an insensitive government in the face of the advent of the new version of the COVID-19.
According to him, if the new version adjudged as deadlier than the previous three variants has truly hit the whole world, it would have amounted to putting the lives of the participants, albeit, the whole populace at risk, reminding that the dreaded monster is a highly contagious disease that travels in the air.