Civil Servants’ Vested Interests, High Personnel Cost, Bane of Nigeria’s Food Security

Dike Onwuamaeze

Agro experts that featured at a recent webinar  organised by the Institute of Directors Nigeria (IoD) have identified vested interests by civil servants, lack of synergy among  agencies and departments of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), high personnel cost and recurrent expenditure as major hindrances to Nigeria’s quest for food security.

The experts, who spoke on the theme: “Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector Allocation Relative to the National Budget: Implications on Food Security,” also said  a collaboration between the FMARD and ministries of agriculture at state government level would be an important strategic step for the promotion of agricultural development in Nigeria.

They also tasked the incoming government to appoint a seasoned professional with firm grasp on issues affecting the agricultural sector as Minister of Agriculture, adding that agriculture should be the topmost priority of the next administration because the opportunity cost of neglecting agriculture is already telling on the Nigerian economy.

According to the President of IoD Nigeria, Dr. Ije Jidenma, the budgetary allocation of N228.43 billion for 2023, and N291.4 billion for 2022, which were 1.05 per cent and 1.78 per cent respectively were too small and too far less than the Malabo Declaration that Nigeria was a signatory to.

Jidenma said: “There is need to address funding challenges in order to address growth in agricultural output. I am advocating upward budget review of the sector’s budgetary allocation across all levels of governments.” 

The CEO of Iproduce Africa, Mrs. Aisha Umar, who was a former Senior Special Assistant to the President Goodluck Jonathan, said that the vested interests of civil servants constituted a big clog on Nigeria’s search for food security.

She said:  “I am sorry to say that there are some vested interests who do not want the status quo to change. And these vested interests, I have to say with all due respect, are the civil servants who are benefiting from the current budgetary system that we have.”

Umar, who had served as legal consultant to the FMARD that help the ministry to create the legal framework for the setting up of certain agencies and departments in the ministry, alleged that unaccounted money in foreign currencies are going into the sector from the World Bank, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), etc. 

“We have not talked about the foreign money coming. You know that Nigeria is a member of many international food orgnisations like IFAD, FAO and the World Bank are giving us a lot in foreign exchange and nobody knows about them except the civil servants.

“I think the budget is not the problem. My solution is that we need a minister that has no vested interest who and who will be able to control the civil servants. 

“It is very convenient for us to continue as we are because of the vested interests, especially the civil servants. They know how to feed new ministers with information that suits them.

“To be honest, most of the funding ends up being fretted away on meetings, training, and very little per cent of the allocation gets to the farmers. They take so much in running their day to day expense that they leave very little for capital development.”

The Managing Director of Nigerian Agriculture Insurance Commission (NAIC), Mrs. Folashade Joseph, who was represented by Mr. Jerome Olowoyeye, said that we have to look beyond budgetary allocations to monitoring their utilisation of funds allocated to the sector.

She said: “I want to agree that more budgeting for agriculture is necessary but first it should be target based budgeting, not budgeting for budgeting sake. It must be goal oriented budgeting.

“The bane of Nigeria’s underdevelopment is throwing money at problems while ignoring the fundamental issues. Even though the allocation may seem to be small, what has been its utilisation?  

Former Hon. Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Ekiti State, Dr. Olabode Adetoyi, who is also the CEO Value Ingredients, said a professional was needed as minister at the FMARD because agriculture is a science based profession.

“It is very important to have a professional agriculturalist at the top of the ministry who knows his onions and his attention will be focused on targets like ‘what is our policy on crop production?’”

Also, a former Chairperson of the LCCI Agricultural and Allied Group, Mrs. Edobong Akpabio, who is the executive director of Greenport Impact Cluster Nigeria Limited, observed that there is no synergy among the departments and agencies that are under the FMARD at the federal level. “Also the coordination between the federal and state ministries of agriculture is almost non-existent,” she said, adding that so much is being spent on recurrent expenditure that there “is absolutely no basis for an expectation of improvement in the sector nationwide.”

But the President of AFEX, Mr. Akinyinka Akintunde, said government should put prioritise agriculture for it to attract appropriate financing from the private sector through innovative ways. 

He said: “The priority that agricultural ecosystem needs is not being given the appropriate attention. That is where the new administration needs to start from. We need also to find out ways of attracting capital into the sector.

“Credit to agriculture from commercial banks is less than five per cent. 

“Most of the budget goes to personnel, leaving out critical areas like research and investment in agriculture infrastructure. The new government should put agriculture in its high priority list in terms of budgetary allocation.

“The government needs to be innovative in attracting the appropriate capital and finance that is required to drive activities in the ecosystem.”