Editorial -Can we audit agric sector@ 61?

The president’s speech of October 1, 2021 to Nigerians as we celebrate Independence Day has different meanings to different people. But the most captivating among the clauses to us are the ones that border on the agricultural sector in view of food security matters that have never been much available, affordable, and accessible to most Nigerians as many still go to sleep with empty stomachs and hunger.

 

Although it’s only an insensitive person that will not appreciate the Federal Government (FG) for her efforts through most of its agencies in connection to agricultural development and food security in the last two decades as billions of Naira being expended to increase food productivity along the value chains with little or no impact due to selfish implementation which only auditing and evaluation can effectively identify for proper correction of all the ills in terms of commensuration to the expenditure in the sector in the recent time.

In view of the President’s identification of poor storage system and high pricing of foods alleged to the middlemen’ activities which he had ordered the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to checkmate through silos’ repair and restoration into good condition for more food storage as identified  solution may not be the real solution to present challenges confronting the sector.  To our mind evaluations and stock taking of government expenditure on the sector at all levels would have been the most appropriate measure to ascertain the right direction to channel resources in order to avoid repeating expenses on the same thing.

The clauses 51 and 52 of the President’s speech stated that ‘‘Unfortunately, as our food production capacity has increased, food prices have been going up due to artificial shortages created by middlemen who have been buying and hoarding these essential commodities for profiteering. To address this, I am hereby directing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to rehabilitate the National Food Reserve Agency and also work with security agencies, the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, and the National Assembly to find a lasting solution to these disruptive and unpatriotic hoarding activities’’

This directive as germane as it would have been lacked proper auditing of the sector which is why we are raising the consciousness of the Government at all levels to see reason on why auditing and evaluation of the sector have to be quickly carried out in order to be able to address the exact needs of the sector. We should know that the system created the middlemen, and at the same time we must not totally negate the activity of these particular people in the value chain logistic foods evacuation system from point of production to areas of needs and market.  

Our last check with the director of grain reserve under the FMARD confirmed the good condition of the silos nationwide with how the agency had been able to distribute foods to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other commodity associations like maize to cushion the effect of food scarcity during the Covid-19 pandemic disease, in the year 2020. It’s not a hidden secret that the farmers do not have sufficient capacity to move their produce to market places except an intervention of good roads, through government and middlemen logistic system channels are available, otherwise bulk of the produce will just rot away without getting to the market places. 

Of course we all know the appalling conditions of our road in the country coupled with insecurity and climate change impact on productions, all these have contributed to the huge food wastages and hike in prices.

In terms of government intervention, we quite agree there have been an increase on the part of government in view of her determination to ensure economic diversification to create wealth and job for the teeming unemployed youths in the country. But the question is how constantly we audit these interventions like the Anchor borrower of government through Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

How is this particular programme being monitored in terms of loans and recovery from different benefitting associations to achieve tonnage target to checkmating import bills while jobs are also created. So many cases of unfaithfulness and unpatriotic releases of Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) funds into individual private accounts through connivance are all over the places as the sector is still suffering many of its well known old challenges like lack of extension services to provide best agronomics practices in view of more improved technologies that are being released into the market cum poor inputs distribution channels which has called for the reason why the sector in general has to be audited in order to know the impact all government interventions had made, and to know the areas that needed more concentration in the sector for immediate attention.