Where are the signs of diversifications?

By Victor Anya

IT is bewildering to note that in spite of the overhyped talks by President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the economy into solid minerals and agriculture, no farms can be traced to the local, state and federal governments. All Nigerians have been told are empty promises about the diversification of the economy without articulated measures on ground as to how Nigerians can access land, fertilizers, seedlings, tractors, pesticides, herbicides, plowers, slashers, farm settlements, funds etc.

I think the federal government would lead by example by being in the forefront in cultivating its own farms so that both the local and state governments would emulate it but this is not so.  From a close  observation, it appears that government is insincere with its diversification policy because about $1 billion has been spent in prospecting for crude oil in the north without success yet the federal government has continually urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to continue with the search for crude oil in the north! Why Buhari is continually nudging the NNPC to search for crude oil in the north but no such push has been mounted on the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to revamp the agriculture sector.

In October, Buhari unveiled what he called Petroleum Industry Roadmap which Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State Petroleum renamed “Seven Big Wins.” The seven big wins are targeted at security, policy and regulations, business environment and investment drive, transparency and efficiency, stakeholder management and international coordination, gas revolution and refinery and local production capacity. I can’t see the same attention given to the agriculture sector and this is the irony of the Buhari’s diversification policy! It is a herculean task to fathom why Buhari is so interested in oil, the same product every Nigerian knows as been the bane of development in the country. So, why is Buhari concentrating and exerting all his energy in the oil sector? Is Buhari really sincere and committed to his diversification policy? If the answers to these queries are in the affirmative why is he still giving the oil sector so much time, attention and funds?

It is necessary to state that if the seriousness and attention accorded the search for crude oil in the north by this administration was also extended to agriculture, unarguably by now there would have been many farms across the country and perhaps the country would have also witnessed super bumper harvests in rice, cocoa, groundnuts, palm nuts, cassava, tomatoes, beans, yam, wheat and other agricultural produces for which the country expends much of its foreign exchange!

Early this year, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe said Nigeria spends $20 billion annually on the importation of food. In March also in this year, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said Nigeria spent N972.59 billion on importation of staples alone in 2015! According to Emefiele, wheat, sugar, milk and fish cost whopping sums of $966.13 million, $337.89 million, $582.70 million, $590.27 million respectively in 2015 while $2.41 billion was expended on rice importation between January 2012 and May 2015!

Considering the huge sums of foreign exchange being expended on the importation of food annually, one would have expected government at all levels to have expedited action in cultivating farms across the country but this is not so. What are the measures put in place for Nigerians to access land, fertilizers, seedlings, tractors, pesticides, herbicides, farm bikes, irrigation, plowers, slashers, farm settlements, funds etc? These are the necessary tools needed for farming. It is not enough to make pronouncements about the diversification of the economy, such pronouncements should be backed with actions to translate them into reality. Anything short of this will amount to waste of time and energy.

Thus, there is need for governments at all levels to introduce agricultural programmes such as Operation Feed the Nation, OPN, and Green Revolution, GR, of yore in order to reawaken the consciousness of farming in Nigerians. The above mentioned farm programmes were relatively successful hence there was food security in the country at that time. The federal government  should work in conjunction with the state and local governments to provide land, fertilizers, seedlings, tractors, pesticides, herbicides, farm bikes, irrigation, plowers, slashers, farm settlements and funds for farmers.

Above farming and harvesting, there is also urgent need for government to build silos and preservation centres to preserve the huge harvests that would come thereafter.

Indeed, there is nothing on ground to show that the Buhari led federal government is serious about the diversification of the economy especially in the agriculture sector. The interest of the Buhari led government is still in the oil sector and this will not be in the best interest of the country. There is urgent need for a paradigm shift from the oil sector to agriculture and solid minerals.

*Mr. Anya, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos.

 

The post Where are the signs of diversifications? appeared first on Vanguard News.