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Rice pyramid in Nigeria and matters arising, by Prof M. K. Othman

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Re: The craze for easy money in Nigeria and the Hanifa story, by Prof M. K. Othman

Rice pyramid in Nigeria and matters arising, by Prof M. K. Othman

Deep Thought with Othman

In the early part of the year, 2013, the Agricultural Complex of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria received members of the Joint House Committee on Agriculture who came for an oversight function.

During the introduction of personalities, the then Executive Director of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Professor Balarabe Tanimu of blessed memory was introduced as professor of groundnut agronomy, and IAR, a research centre with the mandate of genetic improvement of groundnut among other agricultural commodities. During the opening remarks, the leader of the delegation, a distinguished senator enthusiastically challenged the distinguished scholar, Professor Tanimu, and the Institute to bring back the “great” Kano groundnut pyramid of the 1960s and 1970s. After eulogizing the tireless efforts of the groundnut farmers of that epoch, he pledged a sturdy House support to the Institute with enough budgetary allocation to achieve the challenge.

In his response, Prof. Tanimu appreciated the benevolent gesture of the House members for their keenness to increase the Institute’s budgetary allocation. He stressed the importance of adequate funding for agricultural research as the most viable means of decupling production, addressing production challenges, and/or enhancing crops’ nutrient content.

He assured the guests of IAR’s readiness to judiciously utilize the fund allocation for higher research outputs. He pointed out that even with the inadequate funding, IAR was able to develop new varieties of groundnut, which produced high yield and the quantum of production was much higher than what was being produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Similarly, the level of consumption was much higher due to population increase within the period (about 45 million people in 1960 and 170 million in 2013).

Nonetheless, Tanimu pointed out that reviving the groundnut pyramid was not the aim of IAR. Those pyramids served as aggregation centres for feed-stocking the Agro-industries of foreign countries. Professor Tanimu, an excellent diplomat cum academic, carefully chose his words not to hurt the feelings of the august visitors. Yet, the message was very clear; the groundnut pyramid was a symbol of colonial exploitation and underdevelopment.

Then, groundnut and other cash crops were being produced for exportation to European countries, which were processed and imported into the country at ten times the prices of the raw materials. The best way to produce agricultural commodities is to serve as raw materials to local industries whose products would be locally consumed and exported to other countries. In any case, the commodity pyramid has been one of the performance indicators for measuring agricultural productivity. The simple indicator for measuring productivity is crop output or yield per unit area of production with a unit of Kg/m2 or tons per hectare. So, what was the implication of the Abuja rice pyramid mounted some weeks ago?

Mounting a pyramid of an agricultural commodity such as rice in any part of the country cannot showcase the quantum of production of such a commodity. The associated costs of organising and transporting the commodity to the venue can be overbearing. However, the Abuja rice pyramid event, being the first of its kind, was marked with pomp and pageantry recording a huge success. Although, this success could not stand to represent a success story of boosting rice production but has uniquely packaged hopes for a better future. The presence of top government functionaries and high-profile personalities including President Buhari indicated the willingness of Nigeria’s leadership to support the country achieve food security. The commodity pyramid should not replace the annual agricultural show where innovations, ingenuity, and breakthroughs in the agricultural sector are being packaged and displayed. A few weeks after the rice pyramid event, where do we move? What are the matters arising from the Abuja event?

Fortunately, Nigeria is naturally positioned to achieve greatness in Agriculture; versatile fertile land, huge unquantifiable water resources, and virile and active human resources. In addition to these natural endowments, policies, and programs, over the years were designed to fast-track agricultural development. Theoretically, these programs and projects sound perfect but practically, their implementations have always been haphazardly done thereby retarding their successes. In the last three decades, so many funds were sunk in agriculture in the names of programs and projects without tangible impacts on the productivity of smallholder farmers who constitute ninety per cent of the farming population and contribute eighty-five per cent of national food production.

The major defect of these programs/projects is the lack of an agricultural extension component. Where extension component exists, there has always been incoherent roles and responsibilities because the front extension personnel belongs to the state government while the programs are mostly federal government-sponsored/supported. Today’s agriculture is driven by knowledge and the knowledge is solely facilitated by extension service delivery. In Nigeria, agricultural extension service is poorly funded and poorly manned. How do we move forward?

Agricultural extension entails knowledge transfer, utilization and feedback, market intelligence, skill acquisition and perfection, and productivity enhancement along the value chain of agricultural commodities (crops and livestock). Therefore, special treatment to agricultural extension can be made through fast-tracking the release of the National Agricultural Extension Policy. The policy was already developed and I am privileged to be part of the team that finalised the policy document. The development of the policy was a painstaking national assignment that was done over five years by agricultural experts, technocrats, and academics. Thus, the policy contains ready-made and holistic solutions to the challenges to agricultural extension service delivery.

It also considers what to be done to modernise agriculture holistically now and in the future. Fortunately, the structure of the agricultural extension system at the grassroots level, the Agricultural Development Program (ADP), developed between the 1970s and 1980s with the support of the World Bank, is still in place and robust but ineffective due to gross underfunding.

The policy has taken good care of how to source alternative and sustainable funds to support and develop an agricultural extension system in the country. If the policy becomes operational, it will automatically increase public and private investment in agriculture with special attention to extension services. This will spontaneously escalate agricultural productivity in geometric proportion. The increase in agricultural productivity will cover both crops and livestock farming with positive implications on the livelihoods of the farmers and herders.

In conclusion, instead of having commodity pyramids, efforts should be geared towards adequately funding extension services through legislation of agricultural extension policy. This will sooner than later bring the desired result of achieving food security, reducing poverty, and creating jobs for millions of Nigerians.

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With Fury of a Tempest, Alau Dam Flood 

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With Fury of a Tempest, Alau Dam Flood 

By: Balami Lazarus 

Who wants to be a millionaire? a television quiz program anchored by one Frank Idoho, which I hardly missed. I recalled a question once asked: Where is Lake Alau? In the options, there was Borno state among other states. The young man on the hot seat gave a wrong answer. I believe because Lake Alau was then not popular, unlike its cousin, Lake Chad. 

Not much is known about the Lake, Alau, and the dam known and called Lake Alau Dam put together. Let me first start with the lake as a natural geographical feature, a large body of water surrounded by land. However, and to the best of my findings, there is no available written document on the history of this lake in question. But it held that the Lake was there many years traceable to the period of the Kanem- Borno Empire. While the present Alau was a small settlement that emerged during the formative years of Shehu’s dynasty from 1846 to the present day. It later grew into a village with people of Kanuri extraction. 

Alau is today part of the Konduga Local Government Area of Borno state, some few kilometers away from Maiduguri city center. For the purpose of providing portable drinking water and to improve agriculture through irrigation farming and fishing, a dam was constructed by the past administration of the state from 1984 to 1986. The project was tagged as Water for Borno. Thereby, Lake Alau Dam has become part of the people’s lives, for its importance cannot be quantified. 

The recent Alau Dam flood that nearly swept away the city of Maiduguri came with a raging fury of a tempest in September 2024 I will liken to one of the works of William Shakespeare—”The Tempest.”TheTempest”. That of the play was simply and deliberately raised to humble palace traitor Antonio and his co-conspirators, who ousted Duke Prospero, whom they marooned on a deserted island, leaving him to his fate. But ours came with devastating destruction and killing with ravaging effect from head to tail, which has caused unestimated damage. 

The flood was not because of the heavy rainfall experienced last season but from the overflow of the dam and subsequent breakoff of its decks. My last visit to Lake Alau Dam with some friends was years back. What was observed and saw were obsolete facilities that were outdated, old, and weakly decked. There was nothing to show that the dam is being cared for. But while growing up in Zaria as kids, we were so used to seeing Kubani and the University (ABU) dams being opened up to let out large quantities of water to avoid overflow and flooding. Has Alau Dam ever experienced that? Has it been dredged? 

Therefore, the 13-man committee led by Mr. Liman Gana Mustapha, a professional town planner, may wish to consider these questions as an inroad to finding a lasting solution to the flood matter. 

Balami, a Publisher/Columnist. 08036779290

With Fury of a Tempest, Alau Dam Flood 

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The Rise and Fall of Garkida, a Social Decline

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The Rise and Fall of Garkida, a Social Decline 

By: Balami Lazarus 

In my recent visit to see my aged mother in Shaffa, a small rural town. In a chat with some of my peers, Garkida came up, and one of us immediately informed the group that the town is socially dredged. I made some findings, and you may wish to agree. I believed students of history my generation were once taught about the rise and fall of great empires, kingdoms, rulers, warriors, and other historical events during our secondary school days. In the cause of those lessons, our imaginations were always taken far to other lands. 

We never thought that someday there would be a fall or decline of our own, which could be a town, village, or settlement, but never like the fall of the known historical empires/kingdoms of Oyo, Jukun, Fante/Ashante, Kanem-Borno, Songhai, etc. To rise is a difficult task in life or in the course of growth, be it individual, town, or city. But to fall is easy. Garkida has rose and fallen, or, to say, declined socially. Once a bubbling rural town in Buraland, being in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State has nose-dived from the social ladder. 

As a historian, I will not subscribe to the use of the term fall; it will defile my histo-journalistic sense of reasoning because Garkida is a proper noun and is there real. So it will rather go well with me and perhaps some readers of this essay to accept Declined as a better use of historical language for the purpose of this work. I am not a native of Garkida and have never lived there, but it was the home of my cousins and nieces long before now. 

As a young man, I had it well with friends when the town was in her social chemistry and apogee. In spite of her decline, the arrears in our kitty, notwithstanding the flow of time, are the mutual friendship, an indelible mark in our social life. I remember clearly as a holiday-maker with my grandmother at Shaffa, Garkida was the in-thing in our youthful days because of the mass social activities that used to take place there. 

There were social interactions with friends and relatives from different places, parties of all kinds—a social front burner. And to most of my peers, it was the center of today’s mobile social handle—Facebook, where you meet and make new friends. That was Garkida for us. As a rural town, it flourished with glamour, elegance, and pride, triggered by the social engineering of Who is Who? The creme de la creme of her sons and daughters who made nane in their vocations or professions that promoted and spread the name of Garkida as social lighthouse. 

It was the abode of top military brass in the ranks of generals. Her businessmen once made the town tick as a cluster of has.  It was the nerve of vogue and socialites in Buraland. There was declined in this capacity. Historically, Garkida came to the limelight and appeared on the colonial map of Nigeria in 1923, when the white Christian missionaries of CBN/EYN first settled there and made it their home on the 17th March of the aforementioned year. The beginning of her social mobility started in the 1970s, through the 1980s, to the dawn of the 1990s, her zenith. 

I doff my hat for the united daughters of Garkida; credit goes to them; their exposures, taste, beauty, love, elegance, sophistication, unity of purpose, and social agrandisement made them wives of husbands of men from far and near who are of different walks of life. The women of Garkida were a central force, once the venus de milo of the town before its social decline. I cannot conclude this article without appreciating the fact that Garkida was the center of learning and vocational training and once the hold of good and efficient healthcare services in Buraland and its neighbors. Today, Garkida is no longer in the vantage position. 

Balami, a Publisher/Columnist, 08036779290.

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Kashim Shettima, Leadership, and the Flood in Maiduguri

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Kashim Shettima, Leadership, and the Flood in Maiduguri

Kashim Shettima, Leadership, and the Flood in Maiduguri

By Dr. James Bwala

These past few days, I have been thinking back on the flood in Maiduguri. I have spoken with at least thirty people who have been impacted by the flood, and their responses and comments regarding the flood and Vice President Kashim Shettima’s leadership struck me as something people had never observed at the worst of this natural calamity. In addition to highlighting the environmental issues the area is facing, the recent flooding in Maiduguri has also highlighted the leadership style of Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima. Due to excessive rainfall, a section of the Alau dam broke, and insufficient drainage systems, the region’s already preexisting socioeconomic vulnerabilities have been made worse by the floods. In light of this, Shettima’s reaction and crisis management techniques are worthy of close scrutiny.

Shettima’s proactive attitude to governance, especially during times of crisis, has frequently been described as a hallmark of his leadership style. During his term as Borno State’s governor, he made large infrastructural improvements meant to increase the state’s resilience to severe catastrophes. Notwithstanding these endeavors, Maiduguri’s persistent shortcomings in urban planning and emergency preparedness are brought to light by the latest floods. It is admirable how Shettima can organize resources and interact with the community in times of need.

The former Borno State governor and current vice president of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, has taken the lead in resolving these crises. His proactive approach to leadership is marked by a desire to both build community resilience and lessen the effects of natural disasters. Shettima has advocated for long-term infrastructure improvements in addition to organizing resources for emergency relief operations in response to the flooding issue. Through collaboration with several entities, such as non-governmental organizations and foreign agencies, his objective is to furnish those impacted by the floods with basic amenities like potable water, food, and medical support.

Nigeria’s VP Kashim Shettima

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Severe flooding has caused serious problems for Maiduguri and made the humanitarian crises already plaguing the area worse. Kashim Shettima’s prompt action has been essential in meeting the impacted communities’ urgent needs. He took preemptive steps to deliver relief supplies such as food, medical supplies, and shelter for displaced people by organizing local resources and liaising with national agencies. This prompt action not only demonstrates good leadership, but it also emphasizes how crucial leadership is in emergency situations.

The Vice President’s strategy included a thorough evaluation of the flooding damage, which made it possible to identify the most vulnerable groups for focused actions. Through his interactions with local officials and citizens, he made sure that relief efforts were appropriate for the setting and sensitive to cultural differences. By encouraging a sense of ownership among local stakeholders, this participatory technique improved confidence in government activities.

Different stakeholders in the state have responded differently to the visit of Nigeria’s vice president, Kashim Shettima, to address flood victims. Numerous localities have experienced devastation as a result of the extraordinary floods, which has resulted in property and human casualties. Many of the victims Shettima spoke with expressed hope that his presence would spur government action to provide desperately needed relief and to begin rehabilitation efforts. The significance of direct involvement from high-ranking officials was underscored by community leaders, who saw it as an indication that their predicament is being recognized on a national scale.

Kashim Shettima spoke about the suffering of flood victims who have been badly impacted by unusual flooding while on a recent visit to Maiduguri. His words were meant to be comforting, but they also served as a guide for healing and restoration. Shettima underlined the necessity of unity and group efforts to address this environmental catastrophe. He emphasized that in order to ensure that relief efforts are efficient and timely, the government would mobilize resources to aid individuals who have been displaced by the floods.

Shettima’s speech also emphasized how crucial community resilience is to surviving tragedies like this. He asked residents and local authorities to work together with government organizations to identify high-risk locations and put precautionary measures in place to avoid similar flooding incidents in the future. Shettima sought to empower communities while easing their immediate pains through coordinated relief activities by encouraging a sense of shared responsibility.

Dr. James Bwala, PhD, writes from Abuja.

Kashim Shettima, Leadership, and the Flood in Maiduguri

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