Evaluating Agric Minister’s 83 Days in Office

It has been 10 weeks and 13 days since the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, took over the helm of affairs at the ministry, Gilbert Ekugbe takes a look at some of his achievements so far

It will be rather too early to place the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, on a scorecard, but this is extremely important in order to track his development to see if there will be any hope for the nation’s agricultural sector before he takes his bow at the expiration of the present administration in less than 18 months from now.

Indeed, local and foreign investors who would want to invest in the sector would take into consideration some of federal government policies before committing their resources into the Nigerian economy.

So far, there has been some glimpse of hope as the minister is taking proactive steps to transform the agricultural sector. Recently, the minister announced plans to recapitalise the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) with help from the African Development Bank (AfDB) as both parties have agreed to set up a task force team to develop a plan for accelerated implementation within the next 60 days.

According to him, his mission is to examine ways Nigeria could enhance food production, lower food prices and create wealth. It is hoped that with the planned recapitalisation of the BOA, farmers and stakeholders in the industry would get the much needed funds to venture into food projects that would boost food production in the country.

It is without doubts that a bank that would provide credit facilities to both small and large scale farmers and small businesses within rural areas need to be recapitalised to ensure the growing income of farmers and agricultural Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through commercialisation and access to better technologies, increasing resilience through climate smart production, risk diversification and access to financial tools

President Muhammadu Buhari has always stated the need for Nigerians to consume what they produce in order to drive local production while also encouraging farmers to produce more. The minister in one of his early plans for the sector urged Nigerians to buy Nigerian produce to support farmers as the present administration’s diversification efforts is heavily hinged on agriculture.

The minister in different fora has continued to promote food security, saying that Nigeria has what it takes to be food sufficient and be ranked among the world’s leading producer and exporter of food.

“Buy Nigerian produce wherever you can because that is the only way to support our own farmers so that they can continue to produce. We just find out that we can do that because during the border closure, there was sufficient rice. Even Mr. President eats the same rice. So, there is no reason why we cannot patronise our own farmers. Food security is everything and can make a difference. There is no reason why we cannot do this,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr. Kabir Ibrahim, in a chat with THISDAY, said that the minister is a persistent person who has been working hard on the blueprint of the things he needs to do to achieve a virile agricultural sector.

“I think he is very tactical in improving the food system and the style he has adopted towards addressing the food system is quite acceptable. We have had issues with two former ministers of Agriculture and the investment into the sector today, judging from what the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other windows of credits, it is very surprising that we have high prices of food items especially during harvest, which means that a lot of things have gone wrong. I commend him because in the last few weeks, he has been going round to seek collaboration to address the food situation. I have had interactions with him and I find him very attentive to what needs to be done. I believe he is taking his time to understand the whole situation and I think we should encourage him to do more and what I have seen, he will do a lot better than his predecessors,” he said.

On his part, the Director General of Premier Agribusiness Academy (PAA), Mr. Toromade Francis, said it is too early to access the minister’s performance and advised him to surround himself with personnel who share his vision and mission to transforming the nation’s agricultural sector.

Francis said: “For me, it is too early to access now. He may be strategic and when you are strategic, you will have to be practical. His strategy is good but it is the direction that matters. You must put square pegs in square holes. The main work is not the intention you have, but the main work is the implementation of who does what, where and how. If he is sentimental in his decision making, his good strategy and vision will flop,” he said.

In his words: “The minister must be able to hire people he can fire because immediately you hire people you cannot fire, you cannot succeed. He must look for the right people no matter their ethnicity, no matter their background. His focus must be on the results of what he wants to achieve. Nobody is interested in the process but the product. No matter how viable his plans are, if he has the wrong people around him his vision for the sector will be an exercise in futility.”

He however harped on the need to evaluate the impacts of BOA, saying that he is yet to hear any farmer talk about the bank whose impact is not being felt by farmers and stakeholders in the industry.

“There is a need to access what the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) is currently doing and evaluate the impacts they have on the agricultural sector. Do they really exist? The farmers will rather talk about the commercial banks and I am yet to see a farmer that talks about the BOA. I deal with 85 per cent of the major stakeholders in the industry and none has ever mentioned the BOA.

“If we cannot feel it from the end user, then the work of the institution is questionable. Somebody needs to convince me on the relevance of BOA, because most of their jobs have been hijacked by the CBN,” he stressed.