- That 33 silos rust away across the country is a pointer to agric practice here
THEY have been 10 years in the making; 33 grain silos, spread across the country and costing over N280 billion. Only about three are fully completed and delivered. The silos comprising 10 of 100,000 metric tons capacity and 23 with a storage capacity of 25,000 metric tons are today in various stages of rust and decay.
According to a newspaper report, the huge national assets are largely occupied by snakes, lizards and rodents. Not one ounce of grain has been kept in the completed facilities and in fact, some of them are falling apart.
It was a laudable idea conceived and initiated by the Umaru Yar’Adua administration in 2009 as part of the Strategic Grains Reserve Silos Projects around the country to store excess harvest of grains like rice, beans, maize, millet, soya and sorghum. The objective is to reduce post-harvest wastes, preserve surplus harvest, help farmers earn more money and bolster food security.
President Yar’Adua, guided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), released funding totalling N280 billion up to 2010 to ensure completion. But only three were reportedly completed while the others are near 85% ready.
These gigantic sites have remained for many years, forlorn and forgotten places manned by a couple of MARD staff on guard duties. Neither officials of state nor Federal Government’s visited these places and throughout the era of President Goodluck Jonathan, no action was taken on them. Even the one sited in Yenagoa, the former president’s home state could never really get off to a good start and has stalled badly.
Some of the silos are in Abuja, Ado-Ekiti (Ekiti State); Ilesa (Osun State); Akure (Ondo State); Okigwe (Imo State); Igbariam, Anambra State; Saki, Oyo State; Dankande, Kaduna State and Ikenne, Ogun State. Work on these sites was stalled upon the demise of President Yar’Adua.
After years of neglect, the present administration is said to be considering the option of concession of the silos to private operators who would in turn pay rent to the government. But this idea is yet to materialise. And whether it is the answer to the questions remains to be seen.
This failed grains silos project is the clearest testament that governments in the country have only been paying lip service to agriculture and rural development. For instance, during the Jonathan administration, so much heavy wind was made of massive rice production and a target of self-sufficiency in that commodity was set for 2015. Yet the facilities to take up the new boom were totally neglected. This was the era of the much touted rural telephone wallet capturing over 10 million farmers in Nigeria as well as cheap and available fertilizer. This is a proof that it was all grandstanding and no substance as suspected.
Even the current government which had positioned agriculture as a major source of resources in a time of dwindling oil revenue has been slow in responding. After about two years into its first term, such crucial facilities still lay waste. And there is no chance that they may eventually be deployed to desired use.
In spite of the current sustained hoopla about increased agric production and diversification, there is still a lot of post-harvest wastes of commodities like grains, tubers, fruits and vegetables across the country. There remains food insufficiency in the land as the bulk of staple food in Nigeria like rice, poultry, fish, cooking oils and milk are either imported or smuggled into the country.
Nigeria’s government at all levels must resolve that integrated and extensive modern production is the panacea to the country’s underdevelopment.
