Delta state commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Austin Chikezie, has said that former governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, failed in the area of boosting the ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, even as he said that all that were said to have been achieves only existed on papers.
Mr. Chikezie who made this disclosure recently while playing host to members of the Indigenous Newspaper and Magazine Chapel (INMC), of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists (NUJ) in his office in Asaba,
noted that “When we came there was no Ministry of Agriculture, it was not in
existence in Delta State, it was just existing on paper.”
According to the commissioner, “When I say there was no ministry of agriculture, maybe the structure has been there, I met the structure but there was nothing on
ground to show that this is an agriculture ministry that is prepared to work. That is what I mean and you can find out from the workers of visually everything including the painting of this place, there was no
functional vehicle; not even functional office in this place”
Mr. Chikezie said when he assumed office, he cried to the incumbent governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Okowa who also served the state during governor James Ibori’s
administration as commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources
“between July 1999 to April 2001, and because agriculture is the focal point of his agenda, he came to our rescue. I am not talking of past administration but other administrations too because our extensions services were ignored”.
He said it was not good for any government to have ignored that part of the agricultural sector that brings the outbreak of any disease to the knowledge of the ministry and government in general, noting that because there was oil boom, past governments including his current boss who was in the ministry ignored agriculture for oil to make quick money, “There were things that were supposed to be in the past that they never did maybe out of omission or commission.” Chikezie said.
The commissioner also alleged that the Fish Laboratory in Warri which belonged to the state government has been moribund under the Uduaghan’s administration.
But countering Mr. Chikezie’s claims, a renowned Veterinary Surgeon and
Agriculturist who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Phed Breeder Farm and Hatchery Limited, Philip
Okwuada, noted that “having realized the importance of agriculture as a robust
alternative to oil, the Delta State
Government under the leadership of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan in no measure shown tremendous interest in the sector.
The Veterinary Surgeon who disclosed this in an interview with HardReporters correspondent said, “Just few months after Uduaghan came on board in 2007 as the executive governor of the state, he conveyed an Agricultural Summit where all the agricultural stakeholders in the state were invited and the outcome of the summit was a well-designed Agricultural Roadmap for food security in
the state.”
“As part of the transformation agenda of the Uduaghan-led administration
in the agricultural sector of the state economy aimed at creating jobs
for the unemployed youths in the state gave birth to the concept of Youth
Empowerment Through Agriculture (YETA).
The Uduaghan administration has actually made farming more attractive to
the youths through the YETA scheme.
“One of the fundamental objectives behind the programme (YETA) was to systematically replace the ageing farming population with a younger generation of farmers in the state. There is massive agriculture infrastructural built-up across the 25 local government areas in the state for the YETA programme where youths
who were trained in poultry, piggery, fishery, oil palm, potato, yam, cassava, maize and melon among others are displaying the skill that they acquired during their training by the state government.
“Apart from the YETA programme, the state government also supported old existing farming population in the state through its
Farmers Support Programme (FSP), the state government had provided improved high quality yielding seedlings and subsidized fertilizers to farmers among others. The state micro credit scheme was
another effort of the Uduaghan government towards the realization of socio-economic self-sufficiency of Deltans.”
