There is always a philosophy that determines the sources of income in western region of Nigeria before the presidential system of government was introduced in 1979, the source of income was AGRICULTURE. The focus of the article is to encourage celestial shepherds and the church members to invest in the agriculture sector. Celestial members need to invest in the sector due to the recent down fall of crude oil which has affected the economy of the country.
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN NIGERIA
Prior to the discovery of oil in Nigeria, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy. Agriculture was then the highest earner of foreign exchange for the country, and Nigeria was also largely self-sufficient in food production, elders in celestial church can also confirm that agriculture help the country to develop during the era of Pa Awolowo. However, with the discovery of oil, the lure of petro dollars turned the focus of the country from agriculture.
The country began to import food that we could have easily produced locally; activities of the crude oil affected the economy of the nation in a positive way but bad management turnout to inject poverty into the country. Although agriculture is no longer the focal point of the Nigerian economy but this present government are giving hope to rebuild the sector while celestial church must key into the plan of the government. With a population of more than 180 million and still growing, Nigeria needs to produce enough food to cater for her growing population and also export to earn foreign exchange, while celestial’s members must be a major player in this new plan by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Nigeria is currently looking to cut down on the huge amounts of money in foreign currency that is spent on subsidizing food imports. A sure way of achieving this is to leverage on the comparative advantage of good weather and vast arable land that Nigeria has, to produce food to cater for her population and other nations of the world.
DIVERSIFICATION OF THE ECONOMY
With the current dwindling of crude oil prices in the international market, Tinubu government believes that the best time to invest and rebuild agricultural sector is now or never. In the quest for diversification, celestial authority must start to act fast on behalf of her members because agriculture has major role to play in the economy of Nigeria. Agriculture seems to be the most sustainable way forward with present situation in our country for now. If proper investments are made by celestials to the agricultural sector, government will be force to encourage other church’s to cultivate from the step celestial church has taking and this will re-lunch the image of the church both locally and internationally.
WHILE, CELESTIANS MUST INVEST
The bible talks about great prophets that were into framing, prophet like Jacob, Isaac, Jeremiah, etc. Those prophets delivered God message and at the same time work on their farm. Celestial church is an Africa church with the root of spiritual instinct which has helped the church to developed in all ramification, but the church members also need to pay attention to agriculture because this present government has invested over 200 billion naira on the sector.
With the recent meeting of council of former head of states and president that approved another 100 billion naira to agriculture sector mean that Nigerian will benefit soft loan from the Bank of Industry; celestial church members must also be ready to invest to the sector, while the registered Board of Trustees of the church and other faction leaders should see the need to encourage members of the church and to also discuss with the constituted authority concerning soft loan for the church shepherds and church members that want to invest into agriculture. It obvious that the church shepherds working outside the urban area find it difficult to feed their families because of the low income in term of money contribute during Sunday service, but by going to agriculture, those shepherds will have enough food at home.
The church authority must wake up to take the welfare of shepherds in the church seriously by writing to the Federal and State Government asking them of their programme on agriculture, then the church authority will study the programme by looking at the merit and demerit of such programme before introducing such programme to shepherds and members of the church.
