By Godspower Akpude
After his military career and subsequent adventure into politics, President Muhammadu Buhari won the love of many Nigerians hence his fanatical followers. But now, the Nigerian leader surely has fanatical aides, one of whom is his aide on social media, Lauretta Onochie.
After his military career and subsequent adventure into politics, President Muhammadu Buhari won the love of many Nigerians hence his fanatical followers. But now, the Nigerian leader surely has fanatical aides, one of whom is his aide on social media, Lauretta Onochie.
Although one may easily conclude that
Onochie’s obsession for showcasing the president as a man of the people is
simply, because of her job prescription, but for those familiar with the
presidential aide, she is a true convert of the president, who believes Buhari
has done more than enough to market himself for re-election.
Thus, at every opportunity,
Onochie takes to the social media to list what her principal achieved in
various sectors. It was no wonder that recently, when the Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
Campaign Organisation alleged non-performance on the part of President Buhari,
she was quick to come out with another long list contained in a statement,
where she enumerated 64 achievements of the government in the agricultural
sector.
As a foundation for all other
things done in the sector, first, she noted that the anti-corruption drive of
President Buhari has blocked exogenous leakages in the agricultural sector to
encourage, empower, and enhance the locally made farm produce thereby
increasing Nigeria’s internally generated revenue (IGR) index and foreign
exchange capacity as well as reserve to over $45bn in cash and bonds.
According to her, the home grown
feeding programme, designed to end importation and market monopoly of farm
produce that could be grown here in Nigeria, is a pilot vehicle to sustainable
economic, agricultural, academic and job creation across the length and breadth
of the nation.
Other very important developments
she noted included the inauguration of the Standing Inter-Ministerial Technical
Committee on Zero-Reject of Agricultural Commodities and Produce/Non-oil
Exports in Nigeria; Nigeria benefitted from 13.1billion Euros honeybee project
and commencement of steps to improve the standards of Nigeria’s agricultural
exports to align with global standards due to the rejection of our produce at
the EU border controls by developing standards and quality control measures.
“Under President Buhari
administration, at the end of 2016, agricultural goods as share of total trade
got N212.73bn and 4.02 per cent and agricultural goods exports were 2.7 per
cent higher in Q4 2016 than Q3 2016, Sesame seeds contributed N6.46billion to
agricultural product exports in the fourth quarter of 2016. In 2017, and first,
second and third quarters of 2018, the agricultural sector has continued to
contribute to Nigeria’s GDP.
“In the fourth quarter of 2016,
frozen shrimps and prawns chipped in N4.4billion to agricultural product
exports under PMB’s administration, flour and meals of soya beans contributed
N2.59bn to agricultural product exports and cashew nuts in shell contributed
N0.95billion to agricultural product exports with the Buhari-led administration
and crude palm kernel accounted for N0.62 billion of the total Agricultural
exports under the President Buhari administration in the fourth quarter of
2016,” Onochie listed.
She is optimistic the agricultural
universities coordinating agency is being revitalised as stipulated in the
enabling Act, and that it would work closely with the Nigerian University
Commission and development partners to re-focus the universities of agriculture
in the country to continue to boost the sector.
In her views, the Livelihood
Improvement Family Enterprises (LIFE) programme initiated by the Buhari
administration to bring life back into rural communities through the
empowerment of youth, women and other vulnerable groups across the country
would actualise its mandate and further help in agricultural production.
Noting that through the Anchor
Borrower’s Programme (ABP), the Buhari administration has been providing money
for dry and wet season farming in many states, she said the “Anchor Borrowers’
Programme is an intervention of the Buhari administration aimed at
fast-tracking access of rural farmers to finance productivity.”
The Anchor Borrowers Programme
(ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria under the Buhari-led administration has
made available N82billion in funding to 350,000 farmers of rice, wheat, maize,
cotton, cassava, poultry, soy beans and groundnut; who have cultivated about
400,000 hectares of land. There has also been provision of agricultural credit
for financing the production of rice, wheat, ginger, maize and soybeans in
Kebbi, Niger, Kaduna, Kano, Enugu, Benue, Zamfara, Anambra and Kwara States.
The administration has
established 40 large scale rice processing plants and 18 high quality cassava
flour (HQCGF) plants with a stake commitment of China EXIM (85 per cent) and
Nigeria Bank of Industry (BoI) (15 per cent) through concessional credit
facilities of US$383,140,375.60 for the rice mills and US$143,722,202.40 for
the HQCF plants.
Added to that, through the
Ministry of Agriculture, the government is distributing rice mills of ten tons
per day capacity, 20 tons a day, 40 tons a day, 50 tons and a few 100 tons.
This is to collectively increase the capacity for rice milling a day nationwide
and it is expected to close the gap between paddy availability and mills to
process it.
“Under President Buhari, the Bank
of Agriculture (BOA) has been strengthened for improved delivery of services
through consolidation and recapitalisation in collaboration with the Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE) to ensure loan disbursement at a single digit interest
regime in the agricultural sector as obtainable in developed and emerging
economies.
“The President Buhari
administration has approved the restructuring, re-capitalising and
repositioning of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and has secured the approval of
a grant of $1.1 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for the
restructuring of the Bank of Agriculture, aimed at staff training to strengthen
service delivery.
“Now, the government is embarking
on National Soil Map Data, and the aim is to use soil-specific fertiliser
formulations and application in prescribed dosages based on soil types, and the
government has signed an agreement with Morocco to supply fertilizer, raw
materials on concessionary terms to boost local blending that will facilitate
the production of soil and crop-specific fertilisers,” she said.
The Buhari-led administration has
revived 11 moribund plants with a combined capacity of over two million metric
tonnes and in 2017, the Presidential Fertilser Initiatives (PFI) delivered 10m
50kg bags (500,000MT) of NPK 20:10:10 fertilizer at a price of N5, 500 in time
for the wet season, which is down from the price of N9, 000 per 50kg bag in
2016, a 40 per cent reduction in price.
The Executive Secretary,
Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Alhaji
Ahmed Rabiu Kwa jas, recently said the PFI activities had brought dramatic
changes in agriculture and particularly the fertiliser industry in the country.
Other things according to her is
that government was facilitating timely access of farmers to appropriate
quality seeds, local and international seed trading, National Irrigation Policy
and Strategy designed to overcome the irrigation challenges and established a
N50 billion mechanisation fund to facilitate the second phase of Agricultural
Equipment Hiring Enterprise (AEHE) to roll-out 6,000 tractors and 13,000
harvest and post-harvest equipment units across the country.
The administration has assessed
the status of infrastructure in all the 12 River Basin Development Authorities
(RBDAs) and as such, commenced immediate and effective use of the facilities
for commercial farming, tractors and Implements have been rolled in parts of
the country to support targeted commodity value chains.
Worried about the rising spate of
hostilities and attendant insecurity arising from clashes between farmers and
nomadic herdsmen, the Buhari administration has commenced efforts towards
resolving the conflicts through the provision of 55,000 hectares of land by 11
states as part of the 5,000 hectares each expected from the 19 northern states
for the development of pasture/paddocks grazing reserves.
The list of these achievements
and the ripple effect is almost endless but in totality, there is a
conspicuously growing positive effect in the agricultural sector that
presidential aides as Onochie are proud of.
In conclusion, the Buhari-led
administration will boast that it has cut down on imports of agricultural
products due to self-sufficiency in food production and consumption and it
consequently created jobs. The PFI alone has created over 60,000 direct jobs
and even a higher number of indirect jobs. The bag-making sector of the economy
has been boosted, with over 10m packaging bags produced exclusively for PFI.
Generally, the Buhari
administration has resurrected interest in agriculture particularly, among
small holder farmers.
*Akpude is a public affairs
analyst based in Warri, Delta State
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete