By Gloria Ikibah
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Agricultural Production and Services has issued a warning, stating that agencies under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security could face zero allocations in their 2025 budgets if their Chief Executive Officers fail to appear in person to defend the proposals.
Chairman Senate Committee, and Bello Kaoje, his counterpart from the House of Representatives, expressed their dissatisfaction with the absence of agency heads, particularly given President’s directive that all heads of agencies should attend the budget defense sessions.
Their frustration was specifically directed at the absence of Dr. Vincent Isegbe, Director General of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service, during the budget defense for the agency.
Senator Mustapha told the DG’s representative that there was no valid reason for the absence of the accounting officer, and insisted Dr. Isegbe must appear to defend the budget by no later than Monday, January 20.
He said “We are not going to attend to you. When the President came to present this budget he made it clear that all heads of agencies must come to defend their estimates and should therefore call off any plan to travel. We are going to give him another time, but that may not be too convenient for him because we have a time frame to submit our report.
“We should all make this thing easy for ourselves. There is no need for us to drag what we don’t need to drag. Even if he is coming to take excuse, he should have been here to say these are the people that will do this thing on my behalf.
“At the end of the day, we will ask you certain questions and you will not be able to answer them. Are we supposed to be taking those kind of excuses? You may wish to excuse us and tell him that we are giving him 48 hours to report.
“The President made it very clear that nobody should travel when he came to present the budget and it is now that he will start traveling. So tell him that we are available tomorrow and the best we will give him to appear”.
Addressing the gathering earlier, Senator Mustapha said the projections by the World Food Programme that about 33.1 million Nigerians will be in acute hunger in 2025 is a clear indication that food security is not something that the nation should toil with.
“The projection by the World Food Programme that about 33.1 million Nigerians will face food insecurity in 2025 is an indication that food crisis is what we cannot allow to happen and we collectively need to avert.
“Given the critical role that agriculture play in ensuring food security, economic stability and rural development, it important that adequate budgetary provisions be made to address the challenges the sector faces today.
“The combined effect of climate change, desertification and other environmental challenges put agricultural productivity under severe threat necessitating improved budgetary allocation to the sector”, he asserted.
He reiterated the commitment of the National Assembly to passing the budget, but expressed concern about the sowering prices of agricultural produce across the country and the food is no longer within the reach of the average Nigerians, saying “this situation requires the readjustment of our focus and the policy we made and dedicate our energies to what will improve our yield and increase food production.
“Both the senate and House of Reps observe with concern the ratio of capital allocation to recurrent expenditure in the budget estimate before us. The responsibility and repositioning of the agricultural sector and returning it to its glorious days lies within us here”.
Also Speaking, Chairman of the House Committee on Agricutural Services and Production, Bello Kaoje warned against agencies failing to come forward to defend their budget.
Kaoje said “because of the importance of the budgetary provisions, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria appeared before a joint session of the National Assembly to present the budget. So, there is no reason for any Head of agency not to appear before the parliament at this critical time.
“You are not the accounting officer. If you are asked any question in the budget, can you defend it? We are giving your agency 48 hours to appear before the parliament or else, you will have zero allocation in your budget”.
Kaoje said food security is one of the challenges facing the country today, leading to the president declaring a state of emergency on food security in 2024.
He said “Sometime last year, Mr. President declare a state of emergency on food security. We have had a robust discussion with the Minister of Agriculture who enumerated alot of challenges before us and we assured him that the two committees will do something to make sure that the budget is enhanced.
“We will do everything possible to ensure that where you have challenges, we can assist. We will put our heads together with the appropriation committee to make sure that the renewed hope agenda of the President is achieved in the area of food security”.