Chocolate City’s Maikori Promises To Connect Kaduna South Farmers To Markets For Economic Growth 

Lawyer and entrepreneur, Audu Maikori, has said that he will ensure that farmers are well connected to markets if elected to represent the Jaba/Zangon Kataf federal constituency of Kaduna Sttae in the House of Representatives Committee 2027 elections.

The 50-year-old founder of Chocolate City Entertainment Company stated this at the weekend when he spoke on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics monitored in Lagos. He said that most people in his constituency were farmers who grow ginger, maize, and yams but cannot access markets to sell their products.

Maikori, who recently joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), said this is the real development Southern Kaduna needed, not political handouts. “I am not coming with bags of rice. That is not development. That is why we remain where we are,” he said.

The APC hopeful told viewers that his focus would be on helping Southern Kaduna farmers access markets and scale their production.

He said, “The average Southern Kaduna person is a farmer. We grow ginger, maize, and yams. But farmers cannot access markets. They cannot get the right fertilizer. They do not have the technology to scale. That is what I want to fix,” Maikori explained.

He added that his relationships and business experience would help deliver solutions to these challenges.

The entertainment mogul, who has spent over 20 years building one of Africa’s biggest music record labels, also spoke about his plans for Nigeria’s creative industry. According to him, despite Nigerian artists selling out concerts abroad and Afrobeats going global, the sector contributes only 0.33 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Multinationals are making millions of dollars from our country. If I am blessed to be in the House, I will push for them to give a percentage back to grow the sector,” he said.

On women’s participation in politics, Maikori said women must be empowered because they are “the bedrock of society.” He noted that women remain severely underrepresented in the National Assembly.

Asked about his 2017 arrest by former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, over a social media post, Maikori said he won the court case and that the judge ruled his rights were violated. “I believe in the rule of law,” he said.

Maikori said what makes his campaign different was that he was showing voters what he has already built, not what he promised to do.

“It’s time to practise a politics of ideology, not just bags of rice every four years,” he added.