Afoma Ojei-Adigwe is an actress-turned farmer. Adigwe has indeed demonstrated high level of commitment in encouraging grassroots women to be involved in farming. She is achieving this through her brain child project, Uplifting Women Through Farming (UWTF). In this interview with NGOZI OKPLAKUNNE, she spoke on the reasons for the acute food insecurity in the country; challenges facing agricultural sector and the way forward, how involvement of royal traditional rulers in security matters can help solve the problem of insecurity in Nigeria. Excerpts.
What informed your decision to establish ‘Uplifting Women Through Farming’?
The organisation came into being due to my relocation back to the village with my husband. On getting home, we set up a palm tree plantation and the plantation is twenty-seven years old now. While in the village, l discovered the hardship women are facing, then l started thinking of setting up Uplifting Women Through Farming, to see how they can move from crude ways of farming to modern ways of farming. So, that was the first idea that came into my mind. I also realised that setting up the organisation would help me bridge the gap between the rural women and the government, and the international agency. l started this from my husband’s place before l extended to some other villages before l went national, and international. So, it has been a long journey going to twenty-seven years. Glory be to God Almighty, at least, l have been able to modernise a lot of women at the grassroots through a lot of interventions and l think that is the reason l set up the organisation to be able to assist them in different ways such as legal, in the environmental, health care and also in education because to go modern one should be able to upgrade her life styles. In the organisation, we have been able to do that and l focus more on the community, the grassroots because that is where you find many women that need to be uplifted.
Why focusing on women?
I focused on women because if you look at the society especially in terms of funding, women have no access like the male folk; so, l decided to focus more on women to bridge the gap of financing, that is the reason l have been talking about setting up a bank for women in agriculture which l am trying to gather a lot of professionals in the financial sector to partner with the NGO; very soon, we should be launching the takeoff of our licence which has been a long journey but hopefully, some of my partners in South Africa are trying to make it easier in setting up women bank in agriculture. But lam still looking at setting it up in Nigeria being the headquarters of ULWTF. Another reason l focus on women is because women need funding and without funding, the farming aspect will not be completed. So, a lot of women had problem in getting funding because women do not have anything to use as collateral, like having a landed property.
It is always difficult for some of the women at the grassroots to get funding; some of them are not computer literate and they are not educated, they always rely on the third party to help them in getting funding, even in getting some farming input, some will apply and it does not get to them and you will find out that they are being restrained in getting things that could help them do their farm work.
Nigeria is currently facing food insecurity; as an agriculturist, how can the country overcome this challenge?
Now, when you said that the country is facing food insecurity and hunger, insecurity has been our problem especially in the North where most of these food items come from; so, what do you expect? But the only way the Federal Government can overcome these challenges, one security has to be put in place, the moment we overcome this insecurity, then the farmers can have the mind to go back to farming. So, government needs to make the issue of tackling insecurity a priority; when there is security, our farmlands are secured, farmers are secured, they can now go back to their farms and be able to produce.
Another thing is to get the royal fathers to be involved in ensuring that there is security in their domain; they have to know the strategies; it is their domain, they need to tell us the best way to go in terms of security, with that we will be able to get it right.
Then the issue of transportation should also be looked into because if the cost of transporting farm produce is high, it will negatively affect the cost of food items in the market.
How has your family background contributed to what you are today?
Every family has to start from the grassroots. My father used to be the Odoziani of Issele-Uku, Delta State, that will show that everything we do starts from home even if you have lived in the city, or you have lived abroad, home is home.
l was born and brought up in Lagos, but home has always been home for us; so, l will say that we started from a background that is based at home, and then the contribution I think my family has given, first of all l will give it to my late husband, Prince Chris Adigwe who gave me the opportunity to run the NGO and to be able to assist the rural areas. He set up for me a plantation which makes me a farmer and definitely most of my family members were scared especially some of my siblings because l was always travelling from one village to the other canvassing for support for the rural women farmers, but l will give it all to my elder sister in London, who is also supportive of my NGO. So, l think when l started, it was scary, for my family travelling; going as far as Bakassi in Cross River, Escravos in Delta to campaign for support for the women farmers at the rural areas. l think, l got some fair support from the family.
There was a report that shows your family is in court; what happened and what is the way forward?
Yes, my family is in court, but as we all know that there is no perfect family; at times, when a family seems to bring out their misunderstanding or someone in the family brings out the family name in the public view, you will not shy away from it. My niece, Chichi Ojei, took us to court and sued us for defamation of character for N4billion. Since June this year, we have been going to court due to the case, the next one is going to be on the 28th of November 2024, and hopefully we will be there, and her mother is the one giving her the backbone; definitely, we will all be at the court on that day; we believe that the whole issue will come to an end peacefully.
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