By Polycarp Onwubiko
Daily Sun Editorial June 4, 2024 captioned: Nigeria’s rising food imports" misfired by not lambasting the federal government from not yet seen the need to practice the principles of federal system of government as obtained in the First Republic and other countries that practice federal system of government like US, Canada, Australia, etc.
The question is: does the
federal government has lands; are lands by the Nigeria Constitution NOT
controlled by the state governments? What has the Federal Ministry of
agriculture achieved since its establishment contrary to the principles of
federal system of government? Common sense dictates that state governments ARE
IN THE POSITION to operate Ministry of agriculture, health, education,
security, and agencies like Motor lisencing and issuance of motor plate numbers
Daily Sun Editorial in the
relevant areas contended as follows:
"The Tinubu administration
has acquired about 500,000 hectares of land across the country for aggressive
agricultural cultivation. And the African Development Bank (AFDB) has pledged
financial aids to spur agro industries. Nigeria has over 84 million hectares of
arable land for agriculture. No doubt,
the contribution of food importation to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) is relatively high, at more than a quarter per cent of per capita income".
In this section of the
Editorial, the advice is best carried out by the state governments. It says
inter alia: "There is need for more agricultural programmes that should
encourage smallholder farmers to produce food with low interest credit facilities. Let the government invest so much in food
processing.
"With adequate food
processing methods in place, the country can reduce post-harvest losses of
crops such as tomatoes. Nigeria currently produces 1.5 metric tons of tomatoes
per annum with a reported 700,000 metric tons post-harvest loss. This can
explain the high cost of tomatoes in the market. Though Nigeria is the 13th
largest producer of tomatoes in the world, and second in Africa".
Until the Landlord of Aso Villa
sees the need to embark on immediate Restructuring of the lopsided Federation,
nothing tangible will be done to transform the living standard of the people.
Heterogeneous society the world over practice federal system of government. It
was done so in the First Republic with the Republican Constitution which was
suspended by the military autocrats.
Who is sore afraid of returning
the country to the Republican Constitution and dump the contraption referred to
as the 1999 Constitution supposedly under Amendments ostensibly to pander to
the preferences venality and inanities of the supposed “Fulani Feudal Oligarchy
and Northern Political Emirate Establishment ".
The deliberately lopsided
National Assembly embarked on the so-called "Amendments of the
Constitution" and since it has majority members from the North , the
Committee on amendments of the constitution dumped State Police because it
would truncate the Islamization agenda of the Fulani Feudal Oligarchy and stop
their foot soldiers, terrorists masquerading as herdsmen imported from the
Sahel region of West Africa from ethnic cleansing and territorial expansion to
swell the population of Moslems in Nigeria preparatory to the dream
Islamization agenda.
They don't want state police
because the state governments will make laws banning open grazing and compel
cattle owners to purchase lands (as cattle business is a purely private
business) and establish ranches as obtained in other West African countries in
particular and other civilized countries of the world in general. Who is fooling
whom?
President Tinubu should close
the Ministry of agriculture and send the Staff to their respective states for
absorption into their civil service. This is what Restructuring is all about.
To this end, there is immediate need for a review of Statutory Revenue Sharing
Formula with respect to the envisaged new Minimum Wage, state police and
closing down of many MDAs in the Federal Government.
Polycarp Onwubiko is a
political analyst writes from Awka, Anambra State
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