The former minister of agriculture and rural development to the immediate past president, Akinwumi Adesina has lambasted the Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, for describing the agricultural programme of Goodluck Jonathan as dismal failure.
The new president of the African Development Bank said it was unbecoming of Oshiomhole to tag Jonathan’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda, ATA, as a total scam, Vanguard reports.
Adesina said this in a statement signed by his special assistant on media, Olukayode Oyeleye, adding that it was most uncharitable for the governor who was in a better position to know the success of the ATA to attempt to discredit it for reasons best known to him.
The claims by the Edo state boss that the programme was sham dissented as the former minister insisted that it was a real success story.
Part of the statement read: “Foremost, it is a bad public relations stunt, not expected from the governor. Secondly, his comments detract from the ATA – a reform that was vigorously pursued and implemented by Dr Akin Adesina, now president elect of African Development Bank.”
“For reasons of safeguarding the economy and strengthening the confidence of the international community in Nigeria, genuine efforts towards ensuring food security and diversifying the economy away from oil should not be subjected to cheap politics as the negative impact that follows such public comments could be to the nation’s detriment.
“Governor Oshiomole ought to know better that, under ATA, efficient distribution of subsidised farm inputs – also known as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS), reached 14.3million farmers with 1.3million MT of fertiliser, 102,703 metric tons of improved rice seeds, 67,991 metric tons of improved maize seeds, 6,171 metric tons of improved cotton seeds, 130 million stems of cassava, 45.5million seedlings of cocoa, nine million seedlings of oil palm amongst many other crops between 2012 and 2014.
He said that those inputs helped produce an additional 21million MT of food that has acted as a buffer against inflation with the devaluation of the Naira.
Adesina noted that as the chief executive of a state so blessed with natural resources so highly favourable to productive agriculture, Oshiomhole ought to think rather on how to make Edo more enterprising and that in doing so, an area he is expected to be more interested in, should be agriculture.
He said for that reason, the governor ought rather to be keen on how the intervention that brought agriculture from policy oblivion to a sector that is now widely embraced could be replicated in Edo State within the remaining number of months he has to spend as a governor.
“He ought to have been asking, for instance, the erudite, resourceful and hardworking former minister, how he was able to achieve so much within so short a time,” he said.
The former minister noted that if Governor Oshiomhole knew how to play the politics well, he should have been thinking of how to leverage on his (Adesina’s) growing relevance at the continental level as the new head of the biggest development financial institution in Africa.
He said Oshiomhole is supposed to be expressing interest in the increased investment in the fertilizer sector totaling $5billion from major companies such as Indorama, Dangote and Notore.
“He should have been asking his special assistants to study how usage also rose from 13kg per hectare in 2011 to 80kg in 2014, or how seed companies in Nigeria grew from 11, producing 14,000 metric tons of improved seeds, to 134 companies doing 174,000 metric tons of seeds.
“The governor should be asking how Nigeria become the world leader in the use of ICT to reach farmers directly with farm inputs and how the World Bank is trying to scale out this efficient system of ensuring high productivity of small holder farmers across Africa.
In the statement, Adesina lamented saying that it is grossly unfair for Governor Oshiomhole not to recognise that ATA of 2011 to 2014 was Nigeria’s equivalence of the ‘green revolution’ that took place in Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, where new highly productive varieties of rice and wheat, and the chemical fertilisers that helped them achieve their potential, led to a doubling and tripling of yield and self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole had explained that his government was forced to secure a loan of $75million from the World Bank because of former President Jonathan’s looting.
Adesina said this in a statement signed by his special assistant on media, Olukayode Oyeleye, adding that it was most uncharitable for the governor who was in a better position to know the success of the ATA to attempt to discredit it for reasons best known to him.
The claims by the Edo state boss that the programme was sham dissented as the former minister insisted that it was a real success story.
Part of the statement read: “Foremost, it is a bad public relations stunt, not expected from the governor. Secondly, his comments detract from the ATA – a reform that was vigorously pursued and implemented by Dr Akin Adesina, now president elect of African Development Bank.”
“For reasons of safeguarding the economy and strengthening the confidence of the international community in Nigeria, genuine efforts towards ensuring food security and diversifying the economy away from oil should not be subjected to cheap politics as the negative impact that follows such public comments could be to the nation’s detriment.
“Governor Oshiomole ought to know better that, under ATA, efficient distribution of subsidised farm inputs – also known as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS), reached 14.3million farmers with 1.3million MT of fertiliser, 102,703 metric tons of improved rice seeds, 67,991 metric tons of improved maize seeds, 6,171 metric tons of improved cotton seeds, 130 million stems of cassava, 45.5million seedlings of cocoa, nine million seedlings of oil palm amongst many other crops between 2012 and 2014.
He said that those inputs helped produce an additional 21million MT of food that has acted as a buffer against inflation with the devaluation of the Naira.
Adesina noted that as the chief executive of a state so blessed with natural resources so highly favourable to productive agriculture, Oshiomhole ought to think rather on how to make Edo more enterprising and that in doing so, an area he is expected to be more interested in, should be agriculture.
He said for that reason, the governor ought rather to be keen on how the intervention that brought agriculture from policy oblivion to a sector that is now widely embraced could be replicated in Edo State within the remaining number of months he has to spend as a governor.
“He ought to have been asking, for instance, the erudite, resourceful and hardworking former minister, how he was able to achieve so much within so short a time,” he said.
The former minister noted that if Governor Oshiomhole knew how to play the politics well, he should have been thinking of how to leverage on his (Adesina’s) growing relevance at the continental level as the new head of the biggest development financial institution in Africa.
He said Oshiomhole is supposed to be expressing interest in the increased investment in the fertilizer sector totaling $5billion from major companies such as Indorama, Dangote and Notore.
“He should have been asking his special assistants to study how usage also rose from 13kg per hectare in 2011 to 80kg in 2014, or how seed companies in Nigeria grew from 11, producing 14,000 metric tons of improved seeds, to 134 companies doing 174,000 metric tons of seeds.
“The governor should be asking how Nigeria become the world leader in the use of ICT to reach farmers directly with farm inputs and how the World Bank is trying to scale out this efficient system of ensuring high productivity of small holder farmers across Africa.
In the statement, Adesina lamented saying that it is grossly unfair for Governor Oshiomhole not to recognise that ATA of 2011 to 2014 was Nigeria’s equivalence of the ‘green revolution’ that took place in Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, where new highly productive varieties of rice and wheat, and the chemical fertilisers that helped them achieve their potential, led to a doubling and tripling of yield and self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole had explained that his government was forced to secure a loan of $75million from the World Bank because of former President Jonathan’s looting.
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