“Emilo Corn”: What Is It About Corn In Tinubu’s Campaign Message? -By Isaac Asabor

There is no denying the fact that since Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in his appeal to the federal government at the 12th colloquium to celebrate his 69th birthday in Kano State to recruit 50 million youths into the army to tackle insecurity in the country that not a few Nigerians were flabbergasted as the relevance of corn as a culinary was superlatively highlighted in his speech. The former Governor who stressed that Nigeria is under-policed said those recruited will eat cassava, corn, and yam which are grown in the country. In fact, since the foregoing, the mention of corn in his campaign messages has been recurring so much that not a few people have been asking what it is about corn.

He said; “We are under-policed and we are competing with armed robbers and bandits to recruit from the youths who are unemployed,” and asked, “33 percent unemployed?” He queried, “Recruit 50 million youths into the army, what they will eat, cassava, corn, yam, we grow here.
He emphasized, “Don’t talk about illiteracy, anybody who can hold a gun, who can handle a gun, who can cock and shoot is technically competent to repair a tractor in the farm.”

In a similar vein, in November 2022, Tinubu trended after damning President Olusegun Obasanjo for purportedly spending more than $16 billion on electricity and failing to make payment for a roasted corn! The seeming incoherence of the APC presidential candidate again brought to the fore his predilection to corn as a delicacy.

Ostensibly to clarify his view, he said, “They spent more than $16 billion, they forget (sic) that transmission line is a super highway for generated power. They could not even make a down payment for a roasted corn for that electricity.”

Still in a similar vein, in the month of December, a few weeks after the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in Ebonyi embarrassingly linked roasted corn to electricity generation, he at another campaign forum shared his two cents on how to bring down the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria. In a video shared by Jagaban’s strongest ally, a Lagos-based chieftain of the ruling party, Joe Igbokwe on his Facebook page, on Friday, December 16, 2022, Tinubu speaks on the term ‘AGBADOnomics’, thus glorifying Corn to the height of a somewhat field of study.

Still in his predilection for “Agbado” delicacy, the presidential candidate of the APC, a few weeks ago, donated 370 bags of corn flour and ₦500,000 to the Zamfara State Female Ulamah Association.

The donations, according to a news release signed by Yusuf Idris Gusau, the Director New Media for the Zamfara State Presidential Campaign Council (ZMPCC), were announced and made by the ZMPCC Coordinator, Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, during a one-day seminar organized by the Zamfara State Female Ulamah Association in collaboration with the Zamfara State Zakkat and Endowment Board.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to say that the factorization of Corn into his electoral equation is yielding results as farmers in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) a few months ago identified opportunities in his agenda for agriculture when elected in 2023.

The farmers said there are several investment opportunities in the cassava and maize value chain as proposed by Tinubu.

The farmers under the auspices of Asiwaju Farmers Forum at a press conference in Abuja said their resolve to tap from the opportunities in staples like Corn followed Tinubu‘s assurance to invest massively in the entire agriculture value chain if elected president next year.

The leader of the group and national coordinator of the Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative Society (NFGCS) Mr. Retson Tedheke, said there must be a different approach to tackle the economic challenge for Nigeria to work.

Retson said, “Something easy, simply but ultra-nationalistic must be done. Let us reason. Our population is mostly not employable except in the art of farming. When a population is as uneducated as we are, we look for the low-hanging fruits to get us rolling and working in large numbers even with machines. Our people, particularly in rural Nigeria, need to be engaged in large numbers before they engage us violently with devastating consequences.”

At this juncture, it is expedient to ask, “What Is It About Corn In Tinubu’s Campaign Message?”