In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted to collapse of global oil price, the place of agriculture and its research institutes is very paramount in contributing to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). JULIANA AGBO writes on the need to revive Nigeria’s agricultural research institutes.
The Coronavirus pandemic has had enormous economic repercussions. The situation has been worsened by the current crash in the international price of crude oil. This portends a great danger to the fragile economy but also has the potential of being a blessing in disguise for the country through agriculture.
While agriculture dwells on research to increase its productivity for the growth of the sector, the place of Research institute is very Paramount in the development of the agriculture sector.
Over the years, the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), which is the coordinating body of all agriculture research institutes in the country has become dormant and unable to coordinate the institutes effectively.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Alhaji Mohammad Nanono once lamented that most of the research institutes were underfunded, adding that they have big buildings but lack funds for research.
While harping on the need for effective research institutes, he gave an instance of a professor paid N500,000 monthly but is not given up to N200,000 for research yearly.
However, Nanono reiterated the need to revitalise the research institutes and make it more cost-effective and more productive.
Corroborating this, ARCN Acting Executive Secretary Garba Sharubutu said the Council was almost moribund due to the defunct Management in place before his appointment by the minister in September 2019.
According to him, when he was appointed, he looked at the facilities that are available and realised that the Council does not have a library, no Conditions and Schemes of Service as stipulated in the Act establishing the Council.
He said: “This is regrettable because the ARCN should be in comparison with Research Institutes in Kenya, Ethiopia and Mali. It was also learnt that audit reports from 2012 until 2019 was not available in the Council.
“Most of them were satisfied with that because it made the system vulnerable to manipulations, lack of transparency and provided the platform for mediocrity.”
ARCN’s function
Sharubutu, who said the principal function of ARCN is to advise the government on policy issues that bothered on agriculture and draw up a master plan for running the Research System, said the Council is committed working towards achieving improvement s in the production of agricultural goods and services.
The Professor of Veterinary Medicine said before his appointment, the various Research Institutes were like children without parents.
While noting that he was appointed by the minister to resuscitate the Council, he expressed commitment to solving the leadership crisis in the various Research Institutes.
“On assumption to duty, I discovered amongst others crowded workplace (about seven Agricultural Officers lumped together in an office); Lack of capacity in Council’s staff (with Diploma, NCE, HND, Third Class First Degrees and a few with Masters and PhD Degrees). To address the issue of staffing structure we decided that we must build the capacity of our staff”, he noted
He said the Council insisted that staff must go to school because there was no way they can become a research officer and keep on moving around with NCE, Diploma or First Degree (Third Class).
Furthermore, he said that the second mandate in the Act says that they must design a structure and a plan for the Agricultural Research Institutes and provide fund for them.
In other world-class research institutes like EMBRAPA-Brazil, ICAR-India, majority of our lawmakers have visited there to make the ARCN better, unfortunately, the Council hitherto could not produce the required capacity of Leadership to realise this dream.
Last year, the Senate drove away from the ARCN when they went for budget defence because the council was said to be operating a defunct Management without the required capacity of Leadership.
“So, with my coming, we restructured the place and tried to see how we can boost capacity. We initiated a programme where we are to have a museum just like it happens in EMBRAPA and others so that all the 26 Institutions that are under the Council would have their profiles mounted in our office complex,” Sharubutu said.
The reason for this is that the first point of call for anybody who wants to research this country is supposed to be ARCN, so the Council can look at their research interest and direct them to the appropriate Research Institute that is going to be of benefiting them.
Resuscitating ARCN
Speaking on resuscitating the Council, he said: “We have built an extended arm to the office complex in the Council from the meagre resources allocated to us in 2019 Budget. The building was designed to accommodate 21 office accommodation for staff; a National Museum; a National Radio to reach out to farmers on research innovations and technologies nationwide.
“Hitherto, going on Monitoring and Evaluation by staff was more of jamboree without any outcome report to show for it and a platform to syphoning funds, but we have developed a template like in the National University Commission (NUC) for more realistic monitoring and desired output,” he said.
Sharubutu said: “For now, the minister has given one serious directive that all our research findings must be moved from the shelves, that he wants to see them on the ground, and we have successfully submitted a proposal to him on each of the research institutes, we have been able to look at their potentials, what seed they have generated, how much they have in stock, what tractors they have, what are their capacities, and we have submitted that to the minister.
“I think what the minister wants to do is to key into how we are going to alleviate the problem of the post-COVID-19 pandemic because people are not likely to be encouraged to go to the farm and we are not likely to import foreign seeds to boost our agriculture. Therefore, the Minister asked me on what we can do as Research Institute, I told him we have developed improved seeds and gave the total number of the details from the various Research Institute under our purview.
“Hitherto, it was leadership crisis we had in all the Research Institutes, but you don’t hear them now, everything has been settled because we followed due diligence and transparency to get competent leadership in our research Institutes.”
Speaking about Professors who left the Council, he said: “the first thing we have to do is that there is a clog in the wheel of progress here, those that don’t want to improve their capacity, have frustrated many Professors out of the Council, preferring a Sociologist to take over from a renowned scientist through collusion and manipulation of co-conspirators.”
On the allegations of corrupt practices against him when he was the Provost of Federal College of Animal and Production Technology, Vom, Professor Sharabutu said: “I saw those allegations on the social media, and I think specifically, what they were saying was that I have a company and that I was giving the contract to my company.
He said: “When I came on board, the College’s first capital grant was N32 million, the second one was N7 million which was grossly inadequate for any meaningful development. So I said we must look for revenue, and we took a decision as management to run what we call College of Animal Health Consultancy Service and we went for registration. We were told that an object cannot register a firm; you need to have human beings to register, so the Bursar became one of the directors, I became one of the directors, and then the entrepreneurship officer became one of the directors.
“Immediately we registered that company, we put a clause there that this company is solely owned by the college and I can tell you that is the beginning of our breakthrough because all constituency projects were handled by the consultancy firm because it was agriculture-related, and our area of competence. We decided to handle those projects like training in abattoir, design and construction of abattoir, lecture; in fact, we are registered with the Central Bank of Nigeria to be running programs for their loan programmes. “So, I was even perplexed when people ascribe the company to myself, but what people need to know is that if you have a company, the dividends of that company is supposed to come to you, I want people to go through my bank account and see if any money from that company had come to my account.
“It was through that company that we were able to boost our revenue. We constructed a whole department, all the vehicles that are been utilised now (from the provost vehicle to those of head of departments were all bought by that company, about 13 vehicles).
“We were able to build two classrooms, fisheries department, extension, we were able to build a complex made of 2 large halls, a computer centre with 2 offices by that same company”. “If you go there, you will see modern desks that were bought by the company, I did not meet a college with a guest house, I bought a guest house worth about N17 million using proceeds from that company for the college, not for me, my accounts can confirm it.
“All these accusations are a product of ‘push him out of the way’. The target is that we must continue running this place the way we want, but this one that came to perfect this place, get him out of the way so that we can continue with our nefarious practices, so it is a battle for leadership (leadership tussle).”