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Nigeria: Food Scarcity - How Emirs, Senators, Got Tonnes of Grains
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Leadership (Abuja)
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Andrew Oota
Abuja
There were more startling revelations at the ongoing probe of the Senate adhoc Committee on Food Crisis as officials of the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday revealed that emirs and senators took possession of 65,755 tones of grains meant for masses.
The document entitled "2008 Grain Release Beneficiaries" submitted to the committee by officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, showed that two serving senators from the North were among the 79 other beneficiaries.
They are Senators Adamu Garba Talba ( Yobe State ) and Ibrahim Ida ( Katsina State ); each of them got 120 metric tonnes of grains.
The list also showed that five traditional rulers from the North, including the Etsu of Nupe, cornered 120 tonnes, while the Emir of Biu in Borno State got 60 tonnes.
The document also showed that the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), of which former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is a member, got 9,000 metric tonnes.
Others include the Emir of Biu 60 metric tonnes, Emir of Lafia 120 metric tonnes, Etsu Nupe 120 metric tonnes, Emir of Daura, Katsina State, 120 metric tonnes and Emir of Katsina, 120 metric tonnes.
Hon. Abdulkadir Mohammed Nasir 60 metric tonnes, Alhaji Gazali, Kano 120 metric tonnes, Alhaji Sanda Abdullahi , Jos, Plateau State, 60 metric tonnes, and Dr. Hassan Adamu, (Wakilin Adamawa), 120 metric tonnes.
Those allocated to the general public for sale stood at 680 metric tonnes.
The following are the order of allocations to states: Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara and Yobe got 2,700 metric tonnes each.
Other states such as Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Adamawa, Benue Nasarawa, Taraba, FCT, Kogi, Kwara Plateau got 1,200 metric tonnes each.
Other states that were allocated 600 metric tonnes each include Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Rivers, Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Imo.
Other allocations to associations are Minat Commodities, Wuse, Abuja, 120 metric tonnes, Artafat Network Gusau, 60 metric tonnes, Rima Gen. Ent., Sokoto, 60 metric tonnes, ENE-Nig. Ltd, Wuse, 120 metric tonnes and Foundation for Community Dev. Initiatives Wuse, Abuja, 120 metric tonnes.
Others are St. Mary's Anglican Church , Abuja, 60 metric tonnes, Arch. Bishop of Methodist, Abuja 60 metric tonnes, Rice Farmers Coop. Society Katsina State, 120 metric tonnes, Al-Umma Int. Poultry Services Ltd., Kano, 120 metric tonnes.
Director of the Department of Strategic Reserves in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Lawal Mohammed Ila, told the panel that some of the people collected the grains on behalf of their constituents.
Angered by the development, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Idris Umar, said, "Mr. Minister, I want you to honestly tell us that the grains distribution list contains the name of any ordinary Nigerian? I can tell you that from the investigations we have made and from our records, there is no ordinary Nigerian who benefited from that distribution. If we are serious, let us be serious because the list does not show the beneficiaries are the end users. We should not be sitting here in Abuja and applying for grain when the people who actually need it cannot access it."
Earlier, the committee had disclosed that its preliminary investigations showed that some N10.5 billion was released to the ministry by the Federal Government in 2005 as special grant and directed the minister to immediately provide explanations to the panel on the matter, especially on the source of the funds.
It also observed that the money exceeded the total budgetary allocation of N1.340 billion released for grain reserves between 1999 and 2007.
The panel also frowned at the non-compliance with the Public Procurement Act and other due processes in the procurement of grains.
The panel's anger followed the submission of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr. Ademola Rasak Sariki, to the effect that instead of informing members of the public about the need by the ministry for persons to apply to be selected for the procurement of the grains, it had been the practice that the ministry would simply ask any member of the public to supply the grains.
Sariki also said that the practice equally applied to the distribution of the grains, pointing out that if newspaper advertisements were carried out to call on people to call on people to apply for selection for the distribution exercise, prices of grains in the market would be inflated by marketers.
The panel also asked the minister to submit written explanations on why there were no procurement of grains between 1999 and 2007.
It was also disclosed to the committee that the country required not less than 2.5 million metric tonnes to meet its grain reserves requirement as against the present 300,000 metric tonnes it had at the moment.
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In his explanation, the minister said his ministry got presidential approval to procure grains without legislative approval.
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