….want prompt removal of less performing ministers

By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

AFTER 24 hours of President Bola Tinubu’s attaching portfolios to Ministers that would be inaugurated soon, farmers under the auspices of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Thursday, expressed hope over the newly appointed Ministers for the sector and renaming of the Ministry from Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

This was contained in a statement signed by the President, AFAN, Arc Ibrahim Kabir, while maintaining that the country supposed to be self-sufficient in most food value chains.

Kabir said the agricultural sector will be a leading sector of the economy if people oriented projects and programmes are conceived and executed appropriately with real sector players.

He said: “The President’s decision to rename the Federal Ministry and Agriculture and Rural Development as Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, MAFS, speaks volumes of the Administration’s desire to make Nigeria food secure within a short time.

“Appointing relatively young people to drive the quest for the attainment of food security is also a step in the right direction.”

However, the AFAN boss pointed out that there are myriads of challenges in the food production and security sector, and the panacea is to ensure relevant ministries synergize to surmount them to achieve the Tinubu-led administration’s policies, programmes and projects for the nation’s agricultural sector.

“The myriad challenges of insecurity,flooding largely due to climate change, inadequate finance, challenges of inadequate inputs,low level of mechanization and reliance on rain-fed production, lack of processing, absence of seamless distribution of produce and its storage as well as consumption are obvious threats to our food system and call for synergy among all MDAs with cross-cutting responsibilities.

“The Ministries of Water Resources, Defence, Environment and Ecological management, Aviation, Transportation, Power, Finance, Trade & Investment as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Works and the new Ministry of Housing and Urban Development must work lockstep with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to fast track the attainment of food security in Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, he (Kabir) call for incentives that would motivate Nigerians to upscale food production that would boost food security.

“Above all, the most critical stakeholders, the farmers comprising youth and women among them need to be incentivized to work assiduously to scale their productivity for any rapid attainment of food Security”, he said.

He also added that, “A periodic monitoring and evaluation of all policy implementation by Mr President is absolutely necessary to ensure success in the effort to attain food security.

“The nexus between food security and economic stability is an ‘absolute’ for Nigeria’s progress especially in these challenging times.”

However, he called Tinubu to show the way out for less performing ministers in order for his administration to succeed in all the sectors instead to allow them be a clog in the wheel of his government.

“While we congratulate President Tinubu for the appointment of relatively young cabinet members we implore him to closely monitor their performances in implementing the Policies of the administration.

“Any appointee found performing below average, perpetrating inequity or promoting corruption should be promptly removed or reassigned but anyone performing creditably well should be publicly acknowledge and adequately applauded”, he said.