Tinubu: Agric Policies Under Fire, River Basins Under Attack

 President Bola Ahmed Tinu­bu has seized every avail­able opportunity to reit­erate how dear Nigeria’s food security is to his heart. He has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to addressing food security concerns in the country, driving down the cost of living for the citizens and reducing, if not eliminating, the amount of for­eign exchange Nigeria wastes in food importation, especially in im­portation of the sort of food items that could be produced easily and abundantly in Nigeria.

He said on the 11th of July 2024 during the public presentation of Chief Olusegun Osoba’s book “My Life in the Public Eye” in Lagos, he listed some measures that were specifically aimed at tackling food shortages and improving food af­fordability for consumers. “We are taking steps to address food shortages by temporarily remov­ing tariffs on imported grains and other food items,” President Tinu­bu stated.

Owing to the above, the little incident but with immense and prodigious consequences, so far poorly reported by Nigeria’s mass media, which took place in Edo state recently, foretells of great and present danger to President Tinubu’s agricultural policies aimed at achieving food sufficien­cy for Nigeria. We will leave well alone that subtle challenge to Pres­ident Tinubu’s authority as Pres­ident of the Federal Republic, the nastiness of that obnoxious stance in a multi-ethnic Federation such as Nigeria, and focus strictly on its cruel impart on the other 11 Riv­er Basin Development Authorities across the land and on their mis­sions and mandates in a country that is being whacked by hunger and insurgency.

While those interested in the nation’s food security and the im­portance of increased local pro­duction of food materials for the Nigerian economy and the citizen­ry’s well-being have been trying to decipher why the new Boards of the 12 River Basin Develop­ment Authorities which were an­nounced on 12 December 2024 have not been inaugurated by the end of the second week of February, something stranger than fiction happened.

On Monday, 10th of February 2025, an incredibly diabolic spirit seized some mad and maddening elements of the otherwise sleepy Obayantor II, Ekosa, Agbomwo­ba, and Awanoba communities that make up the host communi­ties of the headquarters of the Benin-Owena River Basin Devel­opment Authority (BORBDA). Armed with cudgels and other dangerous apparatuses they marched as soldiers to war to sack the federal agency that they were lucky enough to have in their com­munity. Their reason? Oh, the heck of it! They made Nigeria a laugh­ing stock as they challenged the legitimacy of President Tinubu’s administration and the authority of the Federal Government as they announced to the whole world that they had rejected the appointment of the new Managing Director of (BORBDA) the Benin-Owena Riv­er Basin Development Authority.

To show that they meant their nefarious business, they sacked the entire outfit and prevented both workers and visitors to the headquarters of the (BORBDA), on Monday, could not gain access to the office as protesting host communities blocked the entrance gate to the agency, chanting war songs. So, for over a week, the en­tire activities of BORDER have remained frozen.

Again, the reader could ask why some of the members of the host communities could descend to this unruly and very shamefully condemnatory behaviour. Without an iota of shame, the protesters, comprising elders, women and youths poured opprobrium upon themselves but ladled out national disgrace to Nigeria by announcing to the whole world that they were protesting to end what they called 43 years’ marginalization of the host communities in the appoint­ments to the board of BORBDA, and promotion of indigenous peo­ple to positions of senior manage­rial cadre.

Despite their protest-speak, and their choice of an ultra-unclear language loaded with the need to obfuscate and mislead as well as miss-inform and dis-inform the public, their grouse was that a member of the host community was not crowned the BORDER Managing Director. This much is obvious from their earlier action, when they made the seemingly civilized move and took their case to a court of law. The court did the right and civilized thing by adjoining the case till March this year when the management of BORBDA should be in court to represent the organization. What the protesters have not told the world is that it was after this ruling that the members of the host communities decided to take matters into their own hands as though the rule of law is alien to Nigeria.

As though they are impervious to any sense of shame or deco­rum, they have refused to men­tion that they have been agitating that a son of the soil (their imme­diate community being that soil) should have been made the Man­aging Director. This is not only outrageous as the person being so projected is on the staff list of BORDER, but why the person con­cerned has not warned his com­munity that only non-members of staff of the Federal and state civil service are to be appointed into Boards remains a mystery. Second, the protesters have even refused to embrace the concept of reason or logic. Displaying no iota of shame, they have been making the wild claim that non-members of the host community have been appointed Managing Directors in the decades old history of the agency.

As nasty as this argument is in a multi-ethnic federalism like Ni­geria, it is a surprise that nobody has drummed sense into the pro­testers by letting them know that Abuja Ministers are not appointed based on whether a person is of the Gbagi ethnic stock or not. Soon, only Kaduna indigenes would be welcome to be the Commandant of the Nigerian Defense Acade­my, simply because it is based in Kaduna, if this illogicality gains traction. Stretch that devil’s logic further and soon, only indigenes would be found suitable to occupy any state’s Government House or even the Presidential Palace – Aso Rock – Abuja.

And if these obnoxious host communities have their nefarious ways, then only sons and daugh­ters from the host communities would be appointed to head the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Indus­try or even the refineries for that matter.

Please, appreciate the fact that Edo state indigenes have been Managing Directors of River Basin Development Authority in question, BORDER, not just once or twice but for five times. In a sense, what appears to be playing out here is caused by the mere fact that though the River Basin Development Authority Boards were reconstituted on paper on 18th December 2024, that is over a clear two months ago as at the time of writing, the members have yet to be sworn in. Had the Boards been sworn in, it would never have occurred to the protesters to be­gin to blow against the wind or to bail water from an already sunken ship. This is because no sane per­son would begin to bolt the door after the horse has escaped from its stable.

This columnist does not know if the members of the preceding Boards are still at their desks awaiting the resumption of the new Board members. If so, the level of nefarious activities those without conscience among them would be engaged in would be bet­ter left to the imagination. And if they have stopped coming to work immediately when the new ones were announced, that would mean that there is a big vacuum in those development authorities. Either way Nigeria and Nigerians are the losers. No matter the problem ob­structing against the swearing in of the members of the new boards, that matter must be addressed forth with and the members should be sworn in immediately for sanity to reign and Nigeria’s loss be curtailed.

The second plank on which the protesters who sacked the BORBDA headquarters rested their case was that the illustrious Oba of Benin specifically recom­mended someone from the host communities for appointment into the Board. Yes, the Oba of Benin would be doing his fatherly duty if he actually recommended someone for appointment into the Board.

But if my source is correct in the fact he recalled to me that the person so recommended is actu­ally on the staff list of BORBDA, then the good Oba was misled be­cause such appointments are not for serving and extant civil ser­vants. The Oba of Benin is among the most educated among the mon­archs not only in Nigeria but in the entire globe, so he knows what is obtainable and what is against the Nigerian laws. And the Oba of Benin would never knowingly go against the laws of the land. Actually, it is a disservice to the much-respected Oba for his highly acclaimed name and palace to be dragged into this matter in such a way. The protesters should be ad­vised to show more respect to the Benin throne, a throne that enjoys world-wide respect.

Now, going beyond the petty politics to the serious matter of food production, the River Basin Development Authorities make up an indispensable part of what Nigeria needs to increase food sup­ply. They have the largest amount of acres of arable land and the wherewithal it would need to make Nigeria a food basket. The River Basins have the dams, for the irrigation of rice and beans farms, vegetable farms, etc, need­ed to make for a food production difference in Nigeria. But so far, the new boards are in limbo as the members have not been sworn in, so the boards have not been inau­gurated. So, the River Basins are comatose. No wonder protests have engulfed the host communi­ties and other places as protests have spread to other states in the BORBDA case.

Unfortunately, soon, the rainy season will kick in. If the boards are not inaugurated soon, they would not be able to stand on the two needed feet to take the kind of actions that would benefit Nigeria to the utmost level. The result is that the “immediate state of emer­gency” which President Tinubu declared on the agricultural sector last July would have lost some tre­mendous oomph.