I met rot in the research system – ARCN ES, Prof. Sharubutu

In this interview, the Executive Secretary (ES), Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) Prof. Garba Sharubutu spoke extensively on how he has been able to reposition the rot he met in the council and which has negatively impacted on the whole research system being the supervising Agency of all the agricultural research institutes, colleges of agriculture and federal Universities of Agriculture. He applauded the support of the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono that enabled the implementation of the approved blue print for the council’s repositioning towards research development across board.

Read his excerpts below with the Publisher of food Farm News Mr. Ayeni Oladehinde.

Prof, you are a well known seasoned and front liner advocate for the best agricultural practices, now how would you describe what you met on ground as the Executive Secretary (ES) of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) and its impact on the research system development and repositioning in Nigeria?

One of the things i met on ground that i felt we need to put in proper perceptive is stringent compliance to the provisional Act that establishes ARCN. I may want to recall that the council had come into being through a decree and legislation law of the Federal Government in 2004. The Act authorised the council to be secretariat of all the Agricultural Research Institutes and by extension those that are under the confined of the universities that are about fifteen in numbers. It is also our responsibility to oversee the activities of the eleven Federal Colleges of Agriculture as ARCN is expected to be in the custody of all the assets of these institutions, thereby ensuring constant inventory of human resources to ascertain a proper policy implementation of the Government. The mandates are specified to advise the Government on matter that has to do with agricultural researches and trainings. 

We are to design agricultural research even for the universities. We are also to advocate for funding for the advancement of valuable research for agricultural development in all these Institutes and federal colleges of Agriculture. We are expected to document, ensure publishing the activities and articles of these institutions for a synchronised view at a glance. We are expected to have an efficient international library where we are expected to have a whole department that is in charge of knowledge development and management. But like you have asked, we met the place functioning without compliance to the mandate given to the Council. Rather they were doing things haphazardly. Let me say this that the first Executive Secretary (ES) of this council, and one other actually did a lot of good work in order to make sure that the council had a sound footing until certain interest unprofessional personalities came in and distorted the whole process as they manipulated themselves to become head of the council.  You can imagine a situation when a whole ARCN at a time could not have a director that is holding a doctorate degree as PhD which is the basis for research work. Nothing falls short of this standard in any research work as our aim was not just to conduct research, but also to be able to mentor other people that are coming up. You can imagine a situation you have a council that is expected to monitor research Institutes that have professors and PhDs with 10-15 outstanding years behind them as directors not having a head holding PhD as basic criterion.

 How can you expect somebody with insufficient capacity and knowledge to monitor these set of directors? This is in fact highest state of mis governance and poor performance on the part of ARCN. Now this summarises the failure of the system and the rot in the council. Again, we cannot perform our right of giving Government a proactive advice on research development because of the council’s incompetency to undertake a pair view and proper accreditation of the various research Institutes. To also designate project for them also become a problem. How can you design a project for somebody that has a better knowledge than you? Apart from the fact that you may not appreciate what he is doing as research is knowledge based, it is not just about conducting and washing of test tubes. Research is about conceptualization, proposition, theory with the aims and objectives and a need for hypothesis where it must be presented. You will design methodology and bring out result with interpretation to bring about a solution at the implementation strategy. So it takes somebody who understands all these facts to appreciate a research work in terms of proper monitoring and the likes. So i was confronted with an acting Executive Secretary that read sociology with third class at my arrival who was expecting people with PhD and professorship from all these institutes to be paying him homage. 

There was a total rot in the system, and you can understand the disappointment of many especially the first ES of the organization who had done everything to ensure the council was put in right rooting. We looked at all these with the aim of preferring solution with all the council personnel, especially those that were humbled and disposed to moving the council forward. The first thing we did was to embark on staff auditing, and this gave us an insight into so many rot like people changing their designations from research officers  which they were being employed just because they are evading to study further to PhD level.  

Again this is contrary to scheme of service of the FG. They remove research from their names and converted themselves to agric officers at the detriment of people who read core science like physics and biology that were being relegated against their wishes. This summarises the whole problem aside the poor state of the infrastructure. If you do not have capacity, how can you establish a library and museum? If you don’t have capacity, how can foreign donors give you grants? This is because they don’t like people without capacity and knowledge. It got to a point that foreign donors were not ready to do business with us as a result of where we positioned ourselves in terms of research system. So the staff auditing was able to look at the staff with appropriate solution. One of the things we discovered was that out of the 26 organizations, 11 of the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) were in acting capacities, and some for upward of four years as registrar, acting buzars, acting librarian in our colleges and research institutes. Many of them were hurriedly given substantive executive director without any interview. So you can see where our problem really lies. Of course we had to start addressing these challenges with stiff opposition from people who felt we are threat to their undoing, and which they exhibited with all kinds of petitions just to ensure i was not given substantive Executive Secretary because they felt am out to take away their jobs without realizing the havoc their existence has done to research system. But for God’s grace and the timely intervention of the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji sabo Nanono who was passionate about the state of our research system having being a victim as a farmer now approved the blue print i presented to him saying the rot in the system must be changed. My Minister asked why our cocoa are no more in the market like others from the West African countries, why is our traditional crops disappearing like sorghum and millet, and why is cowpea and yam being rejected from Europe. So seeing the new blue print, the minister made a recommendation to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Muhammudu Buhari who now appointed me in April last year as the substantive ES of ARCN. I was immediately challenged to put to work the approved blue print. What was in the blue print? We insisted that the leadership appointment in all our research institutes must follow a diligent due process as that is how we can attain capacity building. Anybody aspiring to become Executive Director ( ED) of any research Institute must be subjected to aptitude test in the College or Institute they want to govern. For example if you want to become Executive Director of Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN), then you must go there to write the aptitude test which will now be complied for our transparent interview as mandated by the minister. In conducting the interview we have involved all the anti-graft agencies, Federal Character Commission and the House Committee chairman in charge of all the research institutes at the National Assembly and all the board members just to ensure transparency of the appointment process. That is why anybody who now gets to this post must be held accountable for the person is well qualified.

Again we have designed a self study form as approved by the minister that we are going to send to all the Institutes for staff auditing. This will enable us to ascertain who are the animal and crop breeders, who are the extension officers, the entomologists, crop protectionists, preservationists and people who produce bacterial vaccines.  We are insisting that the process must be in form of pair review so that experts from research Institutes and the university will be able to move from one system to the other to prevent shortfall of capacity from one institution to the other. Also we have institutionalised competency over favouritism in terms of promotion and alleviation of staff to leadership post in the research system both in administration and accounting.  All appointment now must pass through the due process, and no longer by favouritism as we will look at people’ antecedent through their files to check for past records before any recommendation for any appointment.  And this has restored a high confidence into staff in the whole process. Before now, we have had colleges with PhD materials that are relegated, because they do not belong to power that be, while somebody with just Higher National Diploma (HND) will be brought to become head of department over a PhD holder. The minister gave us the order to ensure that the best candidates are appointed in all these institutes within this short period of time. Another thing we have taken very serious is the issue of data documentation having realised that most of the profile of our researchers are not documented for any sponsor to view at a glance. Right now what we have done is to develop and generate data that will accommodate researchers, cleaners, drivers, laboratory technologists and administrators in the system and all these data compilation will be put in a museum so that anybody that comes to sponsor any research can just click a bottom to get all information on that particular research concept. Take yam for an example, the museum will be able to give you information about anything relating to yam under National Root and Tuber Research Institute, Umudike. To ensure overcoming the challenges of electricity towards this data documentation, we have engaged the services of a government approved provider which is Galaxy Backbone who is already fixing the right equipment that will enable us enjoy easy retriever of any information as when needed, and this will also help us to checkmate duplication of research work. Once a particular work has been done, sponsor will not want to dwell on that again, but rather look at other things.

Also, the first ES had introduced what is called competitive agricultural research grant which was during the era of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua when six billion naira was proposed for it with only one billion being released in the first instance.  Most of our research institutes that got the grant got stocked because the rest of the money was not released. Now, we have re-introduce the grant with little amount of money for the key areas to sponsor research. The key areas according to the minister’s suggestion are on quick maturing crops that will be able to mitigate challenges of covid-19 pandemic disease against hunger. Other areas mentioned include milk production and prevention of food spoilage. So the first round of the research grant of about 90 million through the budget were given to Nigerian Stored Products Research ( NSPRI) who are responsible for crops protection against spoilage, we give grant to Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research ( NIFOR) for palm oil processing and National Animal Production Research Institute ( NAPRI) to develop a breed of animal that will be able to give more milk. Also National Veterinary Research Institute ( NVRI) were also given to produce quick diagnosis to a disease called brucellosis. For evaluation of the performance of the grant given we have constituted a team from ARCN and other private organizations who are our constant critics to go into all these institutes to verify the performance of the grant given to them. All these are to show our commitment to transparency in our research system drive towards food security. In our spirit to ensure that people are well informed of what we have been doing in the research institutes and the colleges of agriculture that we are establishing a radio and television stations to save cost and disseminate frequent information that is becoming more expensive using the media including the government owned radio and television stations. We have got the approval of the board members, minister and National Assembly to establish the two stations as we speak the studio is ready, the mask is erected and the licence has been granted to us, remaining payment that will be done before next Monday if not done today which is Friday.

What is the bigger picture of what you are looking in ARCN and other Research Institutes and Federal Colleges/ Universities of Agriculture in the next 2-4 years?

You see my minister; Alhaji Nanono has signed a mandate with President Mohammudu Buhari on deliverables, and of the most interest is the issue of food security which cannot be achieved without good inputs. The improved seeds development lie within the purview of our own activities, as i am seeing a situation where in the next 2-3 years we will be able to proffer solutions to viable inputs. We are ready to encourage those that want to stay in the research system with efficient performance, and let go those that want to leave as we are ready to motivate people to read more as money will be provided for those who want to carry out meaningful research. We have a minister that is ready to go and seek for intervention for research that will move Agriculture forward. We have advised all the Executives Directors to ensure that their workers are motivated with the right environment. So in the next two years i can assure you there would have been a total turn around in terms of food security with efficient research system in the country.