Nigeria: #BuhariOneYearLater - Agriculture and Solid Minerals

Throughout his campaigns and inaugural address, President Muhammadu Buhari talked about how he wanted to use agriculture and mining to create jobs for Nigerians and diversify the economy.

How far has he gone in fulfilling the promises?

The ministry of agriculture and rural development, headed by Audu Ogbeh, a minister of agriculture during the era of former president Shehu Shagari, is still on the drawing board as far as delivery of campaign promises made by the government is concerned.

The minister has been credited with at least one controversial statement, which drew public opprobrium on the administration, importation of grazing grass from Brazil. The minister later explained that what the government wanted to do was to import seed of the high breed grass to help solve the problem of farmers/herdsmen conflict that usually occur due to lack of enough grazing areas.

Another controversial issue concerning the ministry was the recent report alleging that the government had removed subsidy from fertilizer. But the ministry has denied the report as untruth.

The country's tomato industry is already reeling from the impact of a disease called tuta absoluta which wrecked havoc in many tomato farms in northern states making a basket of tomato cost about N42,000 in Kaduna state. Dangote's tomato paste factory in Kano had to close down because of the dearth of tomatoes caused by the disease.

On the good side, the government has managed to secure a $15 million loan from China for the establishment of 50 demonstration farms across the Nigeria which observers believe will help in transforming agriculture from a mere way of life into a business that will attract Nigeria's unemployed youths.

President Muhammadu Buhari personally flagged off dry-season farming in Kebbi state in November last year. His interest in protecting local farmers from effect of dumping is also seen in his appointment of a no-nonsense retired army officer, Col. Hameed Ali, as customs boss.

As the government is about to start implementing its first budget, Nigerians who gave it government the mandate to manage their affairs for four years will begin to have a feeling of how far it can go in fulfilling its promises.

In his inaugural media briefing, the minister of solid minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, identified limited infrastructure, insufficient geological data, weak institutional capacity, insufficient funding, illegal artisanal mining and limited cooperative federalism as key internal challenges being faced by the sector. He promised to resolve these issues as they impact on how the country chooses to compete in the market.

One year down the line, the current administration is yet to bring to fruition some of the promises made concerning the economic diversification agenda. As President-elect, President Buhari had emphasized that solid minerals and agriculture were the sure ways the country could ensure economic diversification.

Consequently, between the end of 2015 and now, stakeholders in the sector have made several commitments to see to the revitalization of the solid mineral sector, which fortunately falls within the diversification agenda of the President.

For the minister, getting the nation's solid minerals sector back on track is already work in progress. As such, he highlighted some short term actions which the ministry will begin to embark upon as : revenue generation, formalizing artisanal and small scale miners, geosciences, regulation as well as partnership with relevant stakeholders that would help fix some of the moribund steel companies in the country, notably the Ajaokuta steel company.

To give all of these promises the needed bite, the minister had set up a 17 member committee to produce a 25 years action plan document for the transformation of the solid minerals sector. The document is to contain a short-term action plan of 24 months, mid-term plan of 10 years and long-term plan of 25 years. The committee has since submitted its report.