Tuesday, March 17, 2009

PASTOR T.B. JOSHUA, RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS AND FOOD SECURITY






Of recent, I watched a telecast of Pastor T.B. Joshua’s Synagogue Church on AIT. The cleric has really added some weight and his preaching imbued with more finesse compared to the last time I watched him on TV months back. The segment that really struck me in the programme was when trucks were moving into the church premises to off load tons of rice, and the pastor with his flock including nationals from other countries including Europe and America started re-bagging the rice to 25kg size with the church branded polymer bags. Pronto, the bags of rice were distributed free of charge to hundreds of the poor, to the ensemble of the physically challenged and the needy church members.

This is direct food aid in practical demonstration and a commendable step towards aiding food security. It is the most genuine of miracles. But I noticed those tons of rice were imported brands and not produced in Nigeria by Nigerian farmers or by the church. This is the crux of my discussion today: how religious organizations, particularly, those with large congregation and vast influence like churches and Islamic groups can get involved in direct food production, distribution and of course, consumption to generate employment, empower the people and advance food security in the country.

Needless to say that without food security there can never be national security, faith organizations of various hue and philosophy have a role to play without losing track of whatever they profess. Since religious organizations now invest in education, stock and other trades, investing in agriculture should not be an exception.

I grew up in a farm and church estate, Olaogun Estate, in Ibadan in the 1970’s. Owned by an uncle, Pastor S.O.Bamgbose, the now defunct Olaogun farm, which was essentially a vast poultry farm of hundreds of hectares of land, was then reputed to be the second largest farm in Nigeria, after Ashamu farm in Oyo. Although the farm was established before the church, however, the foundation of the white garment church which attracted members from far and wide helped to expand the farm and the estate tremendously as more people who came for soul deliverance were gainfully employed to work on the farm and hundreds of others settled for residual farm businesses and corresponding trading activities. The stimulating experience I gained in agriculture as a juvenile living in the estate with my parents was partly responsible for my choice of agriculture as a course of study in the university notwithstanding that I had worked for a decade as a broadcast media practitioner before proceeding to the university.

I still leave with the sweet memories of the estate’s camaraderie, of the abundant availability of chicken and eggs that families used to buy at very cheap rates, of the well fed children roaming the estate and ending up in the church in ecstasy after consuming protein rich meals that every family could easily afford. The farm, the church and the people were in harmony to the glory of God

Food security is a biological, socio-economic, cultural and political issue which cannot and should not be left alone to individuals to resolve. It is a collective responsibility of all, government, societies, organized private sectors, religious organizations, the media, NGO’s, and the global communities among the rest.

Religious organizations for example church can get involved in food production and poverty alleviation in many ways. They can acquire hundreds of hectares of farmland and distribute to members according to commodity groups. This means that the interested members are divided into areas of competence and interests such as poultry, piggery, fish farming and crop cultivation of different kinds.

With good internal administrative mechanism of the church, loans can be sought from microfinance banks guaranteed by the church, and fund can also be obtained from donor agencies locally and internationally. The church itself can go directly into mechanized integrated farming as a commercial venture and employ competent skilled and unskilled workforce from the congregation and outside the church. The church can also serve as donor/support agency to small and medium scale farmers in their midst by assisting farmers like in acquiring improved seeds and donating farm equipment. The church can as well make available soft loan dedicated to farming to members who are practicing and intending farmers. Other options can be considered to enhance food security and members’ empowerment.

Marketing of the products and profitability is not likely to pose much problem as many of these organizations have huge memberships who are potential consumers and marketers running into several thousands apart from the consuming public. Their branches can also be used as sale outlets nationwide. I look forward to see in the foreseeable future in the market farm products like ‘Winners Yam Flour’, ‘Nasfat Broilers’, ‘Redeemers Eggs’, ‘Latter Rain Catfish’, ‘Synagogue Rice’, ‘Quareb Bread’, ‘Baptist Farm Plantation’ ‘Anglican Cattle Ranch’ and Bagged Gari from Living spring among others. It would be fulfilling and Nigerians would be happier for it.

Through my programme association with the Justice Development and Peace Commission, (JDPC), I am aware that the catholic mission is effectively making use of the JDPC as an outreach to assist small and medium scale farmers in terms of inputs support, organization and extension services to enhance farmers income through higher yields.

This is the path for other religious groups to follow and do more to agriculture in order to save more souls from the pang of hunger and starvation.

Adeola Soetan
Project Executive
Feed Nigeria Initiative (FENI)
fenitiative@yahoo.com
08037207856

1 comment:

  1. all i know is that this is true practical Christianity - i mean the way tb joshua gives. ive never seen anyone giving the way he does. i hope to see more of this

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