18 -
V a nguard..
FRIDAY~
OCTOBER 19, 2 012
FORMER Chairman of the Peoples De mocratic Party. PDp, Ahmadu All. bas been ma ny things - Dire ctor Ge n e ral, South South H ealth Delive ry Services. Se na tor. Director Ge ne ral of th e N a tional Youth Service Corp~ fede ral Commissione r for Educa tion in 1976. a retired Coione l"of the Nig e ri an Arm y. and a m e dic al d octo r trained at the Unive rsity of lbadan. He was ne ve r a gove rnme nt critic until four years ago. having been in too many governments in the past 40 years and .ad.; mUtedJy part of the problem. He criticised a.tle mpts to privatise federal governme nt colleges. The n he h ad been pushed oU the revolving PDP chairmanship. Col Ali ma de a major contribution to political discourse in January 2007 whe n he said that politics in lbadan was garrisoned. Anyone who wanted In be part of it ba d .to Une up behind Chief LamidJ Aribiyi oAded.Ibu. a political gadfly who held the dty 10 ransom until be sacked the elected Gove rnor of Oyo State. As Chairman of the Petrole um Products Pridng Re gulato ry Agency. PPPRA. in
Vanguard --C OMM E NT~
Ali Rates FG Failure 2011 , he said. "The refin e ries are a proble m and governme nt cannot run this busin~" Ali said during an inspection of sto rage fa dliti es in 2011. "Gove rnment has failed. Let us call a spade a spade, governme nt has faile d. And that is why this proble m has continued. It is uine fo r all these companies startect" investing in the refin ing business In Nige ria because tb e country must re line its entire domestic products before it can get out of the proble ms of incessant scarcity of pefrole um products." Why w o u ld h e conside r gove rnme nt, wbiell his party, PDP, controlled in the past 13 yean, a failure! Wh at part did he play as party chairman in the failure! Was there
no fue l scardty the n ' Did the refine ries work' Whe n did he discover this failure! His thesl.s, days back., that bad governance was responsible for Boko..Haram. the mass'acres in Mubl and Port Harco urt create an impressio n that governments in which he served look care of those situa tions. Today's failures cannot be divorced {rom PDP over w bich Dr. All' presided wiUt prono unced certainty about the infallibility of Us a ctions. The PDP's domineering craze fo r power was an end in ilsell. Unless otiterwise p roven. Ule PDP was only intereste d In grabbing p owe r and s ba ring the spoilS of offi ce. PDP offidals who lose in this enterprise complain. Nobody bothers about the growing pains of ordinary Nigerians. It is more painful tha t a fonner chairman
of the PDp, who has held influe ntial positions in more than fo ur decades. does nol realise his own part in ·wastes tha i have been visited on Nige ria in those years. DL All's o utburst raises new con cerns about the fu ture of N ige ria llDde r POP's g uid-
ance.
52 'l'E"I>.R~ AFIER INVE('El'oI"DENCE
50
BY BEN NXEMAOIOR 6J UDE NNADOZIE
'T'-IE CI.I~nt government is m.alriDg very .1 conaerted efforts to tranrfonn the
Nigerian agricultural sector in .II. bid to make the nation sell-.suffident in food production. 45 wMI IlS to earn foreign uclraoge lrmn the exportation of agricultural products. This, indeed. iii very commendMle policy appllMcb given the voUt Mable land, grea.t · agricultural polentialt and abundant man~r the counbyisblessedwith. Agriculturehitberto used to be a IIlajor contributOf" 10 the nation's GOP, and .II. foteign-excbange earner, but the ,ituation wu revef5ed suddenly with the discovery of crude oil within the sborei of Nigeria in Ib.e late 6f.Iie!r; . The consequence WiU thai Nigeria became a nel importerof food commodities thai could have been produced locally. Any nation that is not able to produce enough food to feed bet population may, in rea.I lense, be courting calamity. The federal GoVemment'.1 Agrkultu.r.u Transformation Agenda andlored by the Ministry of Agric:ul.tull! is indeed an ackncrwledg ment oll.hi.l fad . Howeve r. to mw the nation sell-suftic:ii!nl in rood production will be no easy task ¢-n the [ad thai the b.4tu~ of most of our agricultural activities are still at the subsistena! lewL Tbeneed would be on t to move !ram sulxUteoc:e p roduction to comm.erdal production••. H ow to improve the value cb4io, reduce wutage, increase productmty, and bow to attract the
Agricultural transfonnation agenda: A case for agri-hubs necess.uyinvertmenbandentrepreneurial .I1d1lJ to the sedor. The key will be to approach larming U a business that is viable and pto6table beyuod subsistence. Agriculture is believed by many to hold great economirpotenli4!.l for the nation but the right apptoitcb and the correct road map to thi.I destination bu rYlilined difficult to fully conceptualise in pc:ilicy terms. Successive govem!nentJI have tril!d differenl approacbe!l:: incentives 1m £umen. inputs distribution. fIIvourable land tenure ~em.stm~grain.teRrvesel~. butwith
limited success. in line with the Feder.u Government'sAgriculturalTl'llIlIfonnalion Agenda, the AGRJ-HUBS apprOlld:! is being proposed for CODsideration by the Ministry olAgriculture. Thill is .II. brain· d:!ild of a UKbail!d consultancy company, A Plus RuoutceS Ltd and Initiative or Diaspora Knowledge .Tnlnsfer, IOKT, an Abuja-based developmen t think-lank and policy advocacy orgllllilation. The p n!:mise ollhe conce:p l u thai public .lectorpartidpalion rather than ')'nlpath, is what is n~ed to set 0{J II. booming agricultural sector in Nig eria.. The Agrihubs IXIIlC'ept presents the agricultural indWlby as a p umy business p roceu capable of altrading profit-odented inVesltnf!:Dts on ill medL H ow il works is IhWl: The Agri-hub. .nn be ~t instilutiotu thai will crea.le meeting points for all major players and .It:akeholders within the agril:.ultural sedor while settirtg
Up,ltructures to address the following ~ 01 operations: (a) larming services and fanners organisations: (bl lustainable production and food security: {claccesl to finance and mllli::et information (d) policy engagemenl and genderin agric;ullUn!. The Agri.bubs will be an II.ggregation 01 apitaJ.. skilli and services in the fqun of grVwth cori:idOTll and agricultural dusters which address both the distance fllctorand the scarcity oflldlts and services in a mixed commercial/medium-scale model of production. The 'core' 011Ud:! a hub would be commercial agricultural production and -agro-prooeuing (vlllue addition ancl agribulineu entrepreneurial CIlpability) that<OU!d yidd financial returns 10 'pull' privale sector investments. If people II!<'lt food and use agriru.lturlll bye-products everyday, then ~intbesectorwillby nomea.n.sbea wasleoftime. lbeseeming1y inadequate investments in thesector could be a ttribuled to lack of attraction for inYestoc:s. The Aqri-bubs job will be 10 oeate :sud:! inlerests by organising releva.nt stakeh older meetingsand WOIbhop.l, providing inIonnation OIl ~tosuppotU. incentives, andfinance tOyoungfamM!Dl@D~~
creating extensive linJt.t,gll!.l be~D aU players in the industry and giving feedbadI: togovernmenta.nd~institutions .
attractive byoung entrepreneurs: lQVeston Illust be inten!Sled in invnting in the sedor; creWtors and lenders musl be ready to lend 10 agricultural venturu: inpUtJI iupp~rs and retailers within the industry must be ready to wt)rit acconting to global best practices. Nigerian agricu.1tural productJ must meet internatiorml standards in ord~ to Mmeu the UpoI1pOtentillls there-in. To achieve all these, a wMI-coordtnated plaHorml programme mUlt be· in p1a~ brought about by a well thought· Uuuu.gh concept - andthatistbeAgn.bubs.1lus wi11 be a central ' mmetplace' whe re organisauons, prolessionals, resources and knowledge come together to cn'ate lUI attradive space for stakeholders to meet. exdiange infonnation and connections, and find the &n.IWers tospecific questions This will be achieved through innovatioo. Learning, mentoring. aJoIIdung, COOftbn,IDan andharmooilationof~geUorts .
The Agri-hubs will be operalmg at different levels: feller.!, regional or state. .. the cue may be. It will be convened by NGOs with :support from relevant agenciH in order to pul the agricultural ledor in <1 m ore positive perspectige, rain communiques, .bolt term and.long tefl!l goa.ls and the roles of evety player willnn the II.gricultural sedor.
~ needs a roadmap to.lU.lt4inable
N
food production and leoJrity. Fa.rminga.ndaqri-businessesmwtbemade
·Messn ~or.Nn~dode~ from tbellI.