By Ijeoma Henry
Abuja (Precise Post) – The federal lawmaker Representing Imo West in the Ninth Senate, Senator Rochas Okorocha has appealed to Onion sellers to maintain their calm after heavy losses were made in the wake of attacks on two trucks of Onions in Sokoto, worth 13 .5 million naira.
Okorocha made the appeal in his office in Abuja when he played host to the National Onion Producers, Processors and marketers association of Nigeria who were led by their president Alh. Isa Maitasamu.
The former governor who sued for peace, commended the association for their maturity and stressed the need for Nigeria to move ahead and be at par with developing economies of the world.
His words “Some few years now, the country is going through a very difficult moment, we are experiencing what we have never experienced before, so much anger; so much pains; so much poverty; so much injustice and lack and it is written on the faces of every Nigerian. To me it is still a miracle how this country is surviving, because every condition for a failed nation’ or a nation at war has been fulfilled in this country yet we are still existing as a nation”.
‘You are in the Onion business, onions remains a very vital crop with a lot of medicinal value, the senior brother to it is garlic, so if the product is going to have problem we should not allow it, we must work to ensure that the product does not go to extinction of the vital sector off our economy” He said.
“I want to thank you for your patience and the ability to control your anger, because what has happened so far could provoke any reasonable human being, under any circumstance to act otherwise but you have decided to tow the path of peace, I share in your pains”.
“My heart bleeds anytime I have to talk about my nation, Nigeria on matters like this; two trucks of onions worth thirteen point five million naira hijacked, wasted; people kidnapped, market burnt in Uyo; children about 360 abducted, in Niger state everyday killings and kidnapping; there is no day you turn on your television that you won’t see a scroll on kidnapping in this country”.
“We are talking about this when countries are talking about going to the moon, the mars, how to develop technologies; solar energy and we are still talking about kidnapping; Boko Haram; killings; IPOB agitations, it is very painful’.
‘If you are in my shoes having been a Governor and Senator, it feels bad, it won’t be out of place to on behalf of every leader in Nigeria to say we have failed, but what can we do but appeal to you believing that a New Nigeria will come’.
‘We have somany homes weeping because they have either lost their father; mother or other siblings and no one has visited them to ask how they are coping , some of them have been left to bury their bread-winners, if there are people in leadership position who refuse to accept the fact that such people exist, then we are not sincere to ourselves’
‘In that nine hundred bags of onions, I am sure some body may have two bags and all he has is that thirty thousand naira, which represents all his life saving and it is taking away from him what will he do. These are the stories we hear daily in my country, so we must act quickly before the situation destroys the psyche of generations of Nigerians yet unborn and we don’t have to waste any more time to see what leaders can do to restore peace’. Okorocha lamented.
