Is Adesina telling lies about growth in Agricultural sector?

While many Nigerians may agree that the country’s Agricultural sector has greatly improved under the watch of the current minister, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, a former Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Adamu Bello, has said that the claims of performance of the current minister were unjustified as they cannot be verified from the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS).

Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina

Bello, who was Agriculture minister between 2001 and 2007, said that according to data from the NBS, the last time a growth rate was recorded in the sector was 2007 with a rate of 7.20 per cent.

According to Bello’s document, published by ThisDay Live, between 2008 and 2011, the growth rate was 6.30 per cent, 5.90 per cent,   5.60 per cent and 5.60 per cent respectively. In 2012 and 2013, even though a target of eight percent was set, the growth rate was 3.97 and 4.50 percent growth.

His words:

“From the performance levels indicated, the growth rate of the Agricultural sector has been on the decline since President Olusegun Obasanjo left office.

“I have however noticed that the achievements being mentioned at various fora especially by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, have no basis except that they were stated by the minister in charge of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

“I have personally spoken with the SSA as to his source and he gentlemanly told me that he got all he said from the minister. I reminded him that there are independent government agencies especially the National Bureau of Statistics that he should check with, and he promised to take up the issue with the minister and revert back to me.”

On fertilizer, Bello said:

 “It is only God the Almighty that will judge the unfair way past administrations are being portrayed. To claim that there was subsidy of N870 billion spent on fertilizers since the use of fertilizers was initially encouraged by the government about 40 years ago is most unfair, as I doubt if the entire agricultural budgets for the whole period was up to that sum,” he said.

 “For a fact, from 1999-2007, the total subsidy on fertilizers was under N25 billion. This can be verified from the Budget Office of the Federal Ministry of Finance. However, according to Adesina the subsidy which was abused and corruptly taken was claimed to be N26 billion annually over a period of 40 years.

“He further claimed only N2.9 billion reached the farmers annually.  Any discerning person can see clearly that under Obasanjo’s administration, we had only N3 billion on the average per annum for fertilizer subsidy. How can N26 billion be corruptly taken annually when only N3 billion was allocated annually?

“And where did the figure of N870 billion subsidy on fertilizers come from when only about N25 billion was committed in eight years, which represent 20 per cent of the 40 years mentioned? It is clear that there is no basis for the claim being made by Adesina except for the purposes of getting unearned awards at the expense of those who served in previous administrations,”

While many believe that Adesina may have stopped 40 years of corruption in the agricultural sector, Bello maintains:

 “This statement is misplaced, as over the purported period, he had not overseen the purchase of a single bag of fertilizer. This can only be accepted as a statement of intent and not an achievement. 

Adesina can only claim this as an achievement if there was successful supply of fertilizers to farmers during that period.”

 “It is a great pity that Adesina keeps on making claims instead of doing his job and allowing to be judged afterwards. I would not have had any problems with his false claims except that it tends to disparage those who served before him and their respective Presidents.”

He called on the government to investigate the “spurious claims  on the agricultural sector by the minister to stop the embarrassment of the country, particularly when his bogus statements are easily dismissed with highly reliable and readily available data from NBS.”

Source: ThisDay Live