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Nigeria: Blame Fertilizer Cartel for Food Crisis, Says FG
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This Day (Lagos)
17 July 2008
Posted to the web 17 July 2008
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Abuja
Federal Government said yesterday that it had uncovered a cartel that hijacked and diverted fertilizer distribution, thus raising the spectre of food crisis in the country.
Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma, articulated government's position when he appeared yesterday before the Senator Idris Umar-led Senate Ad-Hoc Committee probing food crisis.
He declared that the Federal Government has been able to break the cartel and improve fertilizer distribution in the last one year, pointing out that government was able to distribute fertilizer to farmers at the right time to meet the farming season.
Ruma said that the distribution of fertilizer had experienced 71% progress as against what was achieved in 2007 when only 56% progress was achieved.
According to him, "I discovered this cartel after conducting an investigation on why state would always cry that their fertilizer was not received by them which I found out that it was true.
"Like the (committee) chairman rightly said, every administration had come up with one programme or the other for us to produce enough food. And yet those programmes have not worked really well. Some worked, other s worked half-way, others didn't work at all."
He told the Committee that the fertilizers hijack sometimes took place at the point of importation, explaining that this made it difficult for fertilizers to get to the end points in states while also making it difficult for the Ministry to keep a tab on their movements.
Declaring the public hearing open, Senate President, Senator David Mark tasked the government to find lasting solution to food crisis in the country.
He also called on government to ensure that fertilizer racketeering is addressed and made a thing of the past.
According to Mark, "This is also an opportunity for us to review those programmes and see the areas where we think that the current administration, because agriculture is one of the seven point agenda, where the current administration can then make sure that they do those things that would be result oriented or that would bring us the required result."
He said that fertilizer was crucial to food security in the country, stressing, "On this issue, fertilizer is a serious problem in the country, whether we can get individuals to produce fertilizer locally here or whether through importation we would be able to meet our fertilizer requirement."
He said further, "How fertilizer gets to real farmers in his real locations is also important. Usually, from my experience you find out that sometimes by the time the fertilizers get to the farmers on the ground, the season is all over."
He continued: "Whatever committee we set up to look at any of the ministry is not designed in any way to witch hunt anybody, either past or present. The ideal is for us to at least know why there are problems, what the problems are, and what the possible solutions could be.
"And I think all of us here will agree that a nation that cannot feed her people would always be in crisis for one reason or another. If we cannot get food at an affordable price for every Nigerian, then we have a serious problem on our hands."
And at the moment, I don't think every Nigerian can get at least two-three square meals at an affordable prices.
"So it is an inward search for us to know exactly what our problems are. Because when we know the problem then we are 50 per cent there.
"We can then find a solution. But if in the course if these exercise, we see it as a defensive exercise where everybody is trying to make sure that he doesn't say anything that would land anybody in trouble, or is behaving as if there is something to hide, and then we will never get to know what the problem is.
"It would be like when you have malaria then you are prescribing for typhoid some other sickness, I think the important thing is to know what our sicknesses are and then we try a find a solution. I believe that at the end of the day, the committee would be able to make long term recommendations and find long or short term measures that can address the current food crisis.
"There are obviously problems in agriculture, there is no running away from that, whether we can survive with the peasant farmers at the moment or whether we have to go for large scale agriculture by few individuals , whether it would amount to monopoly, you know, the way to really manage our agricultural sector.
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"Whether indeed even the federal Government should get involved completely with agriculture the way we are going or we should leave it to local governments. These are truly areas where we need to address and I believe that this public hearing will address those critical areas to see exactly what is happening."
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