“With
the downturn in the global prices of oil, we now have to prospect our solid
minerals. We have to return to agriculture. Mining and agriculture are our
hopes now. We will welcome investments in these areas. We will appreciate an
in-flow of more resources and expertise to help us achieve our
objective of economic diversification.” President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria
speaking to Council of Saudi Arabia’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Indeed,
Nigeria has no other choice than to “massively” invest in agriculture and solid
minerals so as to address the current oil downturns facing the nation. I
emphasised “massively”, because that means a considerable amount of money,
which we do not have now, considering that other economic areas have to be
funded. However, a great proportion of our income from other sources, e.g.
solid mineral and other non-oil income, including the little we currently get
from agricultural export, customs tariffs, taxes, external trade, etc., could
be utilised if we can plug the loopholes of corrupt practices that have been
draining the country’s blood away for decades. And yes, indeed, we need foreign
investment in these two areas, agriculture and solid minerals, for success to
be achieved and recorded within the shortest possible time.
The
agricultural sector in Nigeria is the segment most critical to the achievement
of the elusive goal of a diversified economy. If a fully integrated approach is
adopted across the value chain of various agricultural commodities for which
the nation possesses comparative advantage, Nigeria would rapidly emerge from
its current state of dependence on a single source of revenue -oil. It is
therefore of the utmost importance to encourage all sections of governments,
federal, state, local, executive and legislature to design strategies to
accommodate small farmers who account for over 90 per cent of output and
activities in the sector, and who have been ignored and neglected during
decades of mismanagement and visionless and bad governance.
They
(World Bank, IMF, FAO, European Union, etc.) have been advising successive
Nigerian governments since we found oil in the 50's that the oil money should
be heavily invested in Agriculture. Our governments, military and civilian
alike, never heeded these advices, from Gowon to Jonathan, including even
General Buhari’s short military intervention. Now, the reality has sunk in,
almost too late. If Nigeria had invested in agriculture in the 1960's, we would
have now been spending at 200 times less than what we will now be investing.
And believe me, Nigeria would have been number one producer of cocoa, oil palm,
rubber, cassava, mangoes, plantain, bananas, groundnut, sorghum, millet, maize,
teak, animal skins etc., and self-reliant on food production. Imagine the effect now. The country would by
now be the most industrialized in the whole of Africa, mainly based on
agricultural raw materials, and swell our exports to countries that need these
products.
So
when people start blaming foreign countries and IMF, World Bank, etc. for our
woes, I can tell you these foreigners have been advising (even if we accuse
them of selfish interests) our leaders for decades to reverse the reliance on
oil and invest in other areas such as agriculture, solids minerals and medium
scale industries. It is the raw materials from agriculture that will be used in
small industries to eventually service larger industries. Look at how many
agricultural research centres are located in the city of Ibadan alone; what
have been their contributions, uses and benefit to Nigeria’s agricultural,
economic and technological development? The professors and research scientists
there are just servicing their pockets due to many reasons, including
government’s ignorance and apathy, lack of funding, no motivation and the
general corruption malaise that crept up on us.
Yet,
remember that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo remained a lone voice in the
wilderness. His efforts in the South West of Nigeria, from Independence to the late 1960’s, when it comes to agriculture
and industrialisation, still remain a feat which no other leader, in any part
of Nigeria, including the South West, can emulate or rival till today.
We
are a visionless nation or a nation cursed with a bunch of clueless, greedy,
selfish, brainless and corrupt leaders. Since the discovery of the black gold,
rather than be a blessing, we've reversed it to be a curse, instead of investing
and revolutionising our mainstay Agriculture, we abandoned it and became
importers of virtually everything.
I
remember the fraudulent “wheat revolution” during the Shagari era that
continued far into the Babangida era. Billions of dollars and naira were
fraudulent spent on non-existent wheat farms in the northern part of the
country; and the same with the rice revolution in several parts of the country;
the Operation Feed the Nation, (I was one of thousands of Nigerian
undergraduates in those days who took part in it) which, as we would have it,
suddenly metamorphosed into Obasanjo Farms Nigeria Limited (so they say) and of
course, we know of the cassava bread of the immediate past administration. Many
people, in and out of government today, became immediate billionaires, nourished
on our money. Ex-leaders became great and very rich farmers, funded by
ill-gotten wealth.
Ironically,
with these farmer-turned ex-leaders, agriculture was never on their agenda,
vision and priority during their tenure; during the height of their powers;
during the time when they had billions of naira and dollars to play with; but
the moment they left office, agriculture became a passion for them. There was a
need to invest their loot in something, and agriculture became attractive to
them. The only positive being that they created some employment! There is something very wrong with their
brains.
For
having the present administration aiming high to resuscitate Agriculture,
Nigerians should be optimistic that the Groundnut Pyramid of Kano, the Cocoa Heaps
of the South-West, and the Palm Oil Rivers of the South-East will resurface
AGAIN. We must go back to the land; it is the source of everything a human
being exists on. Even the wealth they are looting is derived from the
land/soil.
Agricultural
diversification can take many forms, but the need to identify opportunities and
an extra source of income has become increasingly apparent. What are the
critical issues linking diversification into agriculture and international
trade? Are they competitive, or even antagonistic, concepts in the broader
context of food security and agricultural development? Are they complementary
and synergistic and, if so, how? Or are they two ships passing in the night
which have little if any linkage? There is no doubt that there is conventional
wisdom regarding divergence from oil to agriculture as a desirable strategy for
national and economic development.
What
are the effects on production, consumption and trade as well as the
implications for price and income variability and overall economic performance?
There are two supposed advantages of a policy of diversification - expanded
sources of income/revenue and employment. In a world of economy-wide reforms,
including trade liberalization, deregulation and privatization, is
diversification from oil to agriculture a relevant policy objective? I conclude
that such diversification as a policy goal is very relevant and will eventually
save Nigeria and Nigerians.
Nigeria’s
unworkable and non-working agricultural policy must be revisited and
overhauled. I will take the liberty of refering to the Agricultural Research
Council of Nigeria (ARCN)’s summary of Nigeria’s agricultural policy, the first
of which was in 1988, and was expected to remain valid for about fifteen years,
that is, up to year 2000:
“The
Agricultural Policy
Nigeria's agricultural
policy is the synthesis of the framework and action plans of Government
designed to achieve overall agricultural growth and development. The policy
aims at the attainment of self-sustaining growth in all the sub-sectors of
agriculture and the structural transformation necessary for the overall
socio-economic development of the country as well as the improvement in the
quality of life of Nigerians.
The
Broad Policy objectives Include:-
·
Attainment of self-sufficiency in
basic food commodities With particular reference to those which consume
considerable shares of Nigeria's foreign exchange and for which the country has
comparative advantage in local production;
·
Increase in production of agricultural
raw materials to meet the growth of an expanding industrial sector;
·
Increase in production and processing
of exportable Commodities with a view to increasing their foreign exchange earning
capacity and further diversifying the country's export base and sources of
foreign exchange earnings;
·
Modernization of agricultural
production, processing, Storage and distribution through the infusion of
improved technologies and management so that agriculture can be more responsive
to the demands of other sectors of that Nigerian economy;
·
Creation of more agricultural and
rural employment Opportunities to increase the income of farmers and rural
dwellers and to productively absorb an increasing labour force in the nation;
·
Protection and improvement of
agricultural land resources and preservation of the environment for sustainable
agricultural production;
·
Establishment of appropriate
institutions and creation of administrative organs to facilitate the integrated
development and realization of the country's agricultural potentials.
Features
of the Policy
The main features of the
policy include the evolution of strategies that will ensure self-sufficiency
and the improvement of the level of technical and economic efficiency in food
production. This is to be achieved through the introduction and adoption of
improved seeds and seed stock, husbandry and appropriate machinery and
equipment. Efficient utilization of resources, encouragement of ecological specialization
and recognition of the roles and potentials of small scale farmers as the major
production of food in the country, Reduction, in risks and uncertainties were
to be achieved through the introduction of the agricultural insurance scheme to
reduce natural hazards factor militating against agricultural production and
security of credit outlay through indemnity of sustained losses. A nationwide,
unified and all-inclusive extension delivery system under the Agricultural
development Programme (ADP) was put in place in a joint Federal and State
Government collaborative effort. Agro -allied industries were actively
promoted. Other incentives such as rural infrastructure, rural banking, primary
he21th care, cottage industries etc. were provided, to encourage agricultural
and rural development and attract youth, including school leavers, to go back
to the land. The agricultural policy is supported by sub-policies that
facilitate the growth of the sector”.
A
very well-articulated, focused and committed document, produced by the best brains
in Nigeria at the time, but which remains just what it was – a strategy;
implementable but unimplemented due to the “Nigerian factor” of materialistic, self-seeking,
dishonest, indolent bunch of military rulers, politicians and civil servants.
Please
go over the seven broad policy objectives above, and fathom out which of them
have been, or are being put into practice now, full-heartedly or are working to
the best interest of the nation. Where are the fertilisers, the mechanised
farms, irrigation projects (the unproductive River Basin Authorities, where
many staff have made their fortunes doing nothing), the tractors, the low
interest agricultural loans, the improved seeds, the hybrid animals, the rural
roads, the rural electricity, the agricultural extension workers, the research
institutes results, etc.?
In
their paper, “Economic Diversification in Nigeria: Any Role for Solid Mineral
Development?”, Olumide .S. Ayodele, Sabastine Akongwale, Udefuna Patrick
Nnadozie, (Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, Vol 4, No 6, 2013) posited
that “the
Nigerian economy has mostly depended on proceeds from the sale of crude oil, at
the expense of other sectors such as solid minerals and agriculture that
hitherto, contributed significantly to the economy of Nigeria and showed that
the solid mineral sector in Nigeria has the potential to contribute immensely
to the economy of Nigeria”. Specifically, the paper reveals that the
development of the solid mineral sector could help to combat poverty in Nigeria
via job creation; especially, given its forward linkage with other sectors of
the economy. Most importantly, it could help alleviate some of the problems
associated with “enclave” nature of the Nigerian economy that has for too long
being vulnerable to fluctuations in global oil prices. To realize these
potentials, the paper highlights the need for a strengthening of Nigeria’s
existing solid mineral development policy. It also points out the need for the
government to create an enabling environment for the private sector to take the
lead in the sector.
“Nigeria
is at a point in her history, when unless she becomes creative, the economy
will collapse completely because it has depended too long on oil and we know
what has happened to it at the international market. The other alternative for
the country is agriculture and we have all it takes for agriculture to thrive:
good soil, vast land and people, who are willing to take any available
opportunity to put food on the table and also make money”. This was a speech delivered recently
by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adeshina.
The
rallying cry of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must now be “BACK TO THE LAND”. In my town, it is
completely normal to keep chickens in your backyard, and have a vegetable patch
at the backyard. I frequently see a pair of goats wandering up the road even in
cities as urbanised as Ibadan, Benin, Port Harcourt, Kano and Lagos. We have
had Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) before, now let’s have the “Back to the Land Movement”, this time
as a large scale, government-funded and motivated Agrarian Revolution, led by sincere, knowledgeable and skilled
people from all sectors of Nigeria and the common thread for a call for people
to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land on a small-scale basis,
whether for themselves or for others.
BACK TO THE LAND!!!!
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