By Kajo Martins, Markurdi

Benue State Government has advised the defeated governorship candidate of Action Congress in the April 2007 general elections, Mr. Shima Ayati to be objective in his criticism or shut up on issues concerning Governor Gabriel Suswam policy on agriculture.

Describing him as living in the past,the special adviser to the governor on media and public affairs, Mr. Cletus Akwaya said the call by Mr. Ayati on Governor Suswam to drop his agricultural programme of large scale mechanized farming, as it was bound to fail, was unfortunate and retrogressive.

Mr. Akwaya also pointed out that Mr. Shima Ayati’s criticism of the Americans brought into the state by the government to teach the people how to farm has clearly betrayed his lack of understanding and appreciation of the policy thrust of government regarding the development of agriculture in the state.

He said that "Nigeria’s traditional manual farming and mechanized agriculture are worlds apart as the crude method of farming being practiced by our farmers has been with us for centuries, it is obsolete in order climes where mechanized agriculture has taken the centre stage".

The special adviser maintained that the new era required specialized skills, techniques and tools, as well as some kind of induction or training on the part of farmers and potential investors in large scale agriculture in the state.

Mr. Akwaya who was the former commissioner for information in the state explained that "IOWA State University in the USA is rated as one of the best in the world as far as the training of Agriculture extension personnel is concern; which explains why Governor Suswam thought it wise to go there and get the best for the state in terms of the latest and up-to-the-minute techniques and applications which are not limited by clime and geographical conditions".

Continuing he said, "for Hon. Ayati to question the rationale behind the use of foreign experts to assist government in modernizing our agricultural practices smacks of crass ignorance, lack of depth of reasoning and complete disconnect with global trends and techniques in farming. What is even more absurd is Mr. Ayati’s assumption that because a similar project embarked upon by a former governor failed, other such projects would automatically fail with a succeeding governor", saying the likes of Ayati would reduce governance to simple mathematical formulae.

Mr. Akwaya assured that the government of Governor Gabriel Suswam would continue to welcome constructive criticism as long as such criticisms were done in good faith.