Kogi State Commissioner
of Agriculture, Hon.
Oloruntoba Kehinde a man of tact and
wit, whose wealth of experience has brought about notable changes in the
ministry, recently had a chat with our Correspondent, Bishop Aturu on the
prospect of agriculture in the state. Excerpts
Can we meet you as a way
of introduction?
My name is Oloruntoba
Kehinde, Commissioner for Agriculture in Kogi State, before this very
appointment, I was the Commissioner for Budget and Planning in the state, I was
equally at a time Special Adviser on Budget Monitoring all under this current
administration of Governor Yahaya Bello. I am an indigene of Kabba/Bunu Local
Government Area, before I went into politics; I was a banker for thirteen years
with UBA. I started working with UBA in 2001 and left 2013. As a matter of
fact, during my time in the banking sector, I was able to manage three (3) UBA
branches in Lokoja here. I am a graduate of Industrial Chemistry from
University of Ilorin, I also have a degree in Law, Masters’ in Business
Administration and finally I am married with kids.
Coming from the private
sector, how have you been able to fit into the political landscape of Kogi?
I must say it is quite
not easy, because the way things are being done in the private sector is quite
different from the public sector. For example, in the private sector where I
came from, when instruction are issued out, it is carried out with immediate
effect without any delay bearing in mind the repercussion of not carrying out
the instruction. It is however a different ball game entirely in the public
sector, it is observed that people in the public sector just want to come to
work and collect salary, in situation when some of this workers come to work,
they cluster to gossip on unnecessary issues.
When I first joined the
public sector, as the SA Project Management, I discovered people coming to work
at their own convenient, this actually baffled me because for a banker who is
coming from a sector where I have to resume nothing less than 7:30 in the
morning from Monday to Friday and a minute late from 7:30 will warrant a fees
of #5,000. In such environment, you will agree with me that you will not need
anybody to monitor the punctuality of the staff as everyone would be conscious
of coming very early to avoid being fined. So that self-discipline is there in
the private sector.
As a way of improving
what I met, I had to make it mandatory for my workers to resume work before 8
o’clock in the morning which before long they adapted to it, we started
experiencing most of them gradually becoming punctual and effectively carrying
out their duties. Same situation when I was posted to Budget and Planning as a
Commissioner then, workers were not taking the work very serious since it was a
government work, we were also able to change such mentality before I left
there, even now as I am talking to you, if you go to budget and planning now
you will still see that they are maintaining same standard we taught them. Coming
to the Agricultural sector where I am currently the Commissioner, we have also
tried to institutionalize discipline, you can see to the glory of God to a very
large extent, the workers here have also keyed in. I try as much as possible to
inject work ethics and discipline anywhere I go. As a way of doing what I
preach, I equally resume here 8 o’clock in the morning and ensure I go round to
monitor the attendance register. You will also want to agree with me that the
ministry now looks better and healthier than what it used to be before. Unlike
before, you will find those hawking and selling food inside the ministry as if
it was a market ground, then most of the spoilt tractors were packed inside the
ministry as if it was a mechanic workshop. All this has been taken care of and
as you can see, the place is looking more or less like a ministry. Hence, we
are using private sector mindset to reform the public sector.
Looking at your success
so far from budget and planning to Budget monitoring and then the Agric sector,
how have you been able to effectively play them politics?
Firstly, I had to
separate politics from governance, that is, when it is time to play politics I
go back to my LG which I do go to every weekend to meet with my people and
further sensitize them on what the current administration is doing and make them
see reasons why they should support the government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello. But
when it comes to work itself, I don’t really care what other commissioner are
doing, because I have been given an assignment to carryout and I have to succeed.
For example, the budget
we did in 2017 for the state is a radical departure from what it used to be in
the past. For the first time we did a budget that we know will move Kogi from
what it used to be and where we want it to be, a budget that is as realistic as
possible, a budget that emphasized on capital expedition, we did a budget that
we know will bring development across the 239 wards we have in the state and we
used the same hands that has always been there to achieve this. Hitherto, it
was copy and paste from the previous budget we have been seeing. As a matter of
fact, our 2017 budget was ranked among the best eight in the country in terms
of content and packaging. It was a budget that was well discussed on social
media, we chose not to hide anything right from the first day we started
preparing the budget, and this was done to get the contribution of the people
since the budget was meant to serve them.
Even before the coming of his Excellency, he had already sent a team to
go round the 21 LG to find out the needs of our people which are contained in
the blue print agenda which now formed what we translated into the budgets.
Hence, it is what we called the peoples budget. Governance is different from politics,
when you combine the two you will get it all mixed up. I must point out that
this government led by His Excellence is doing all that is required to ensure
the welfare and safety of the people in the state. Our resources are being
prudently managed and being accounted for. This is being made possible by the
regular account being made by the Ministry of Finance and the constant post on
the social media to further carry people along. We on our part are doing our
best to turn the tides around, we have water everywhere in Kogi State, we also
have good soil in the state, we also have able bodies and the location we find
ourselves is an advantage, because we are the heart of the nation, connecting
the North, South, West and the East. It is now important we harness our
resources and also engage in farming so that we can become the food basket of
the nation. That is, all those hitherto abandoned project are going to be
brought back to life. For instance in Momi, Yagba West LG, we have one of the
biggest dams over there, which has been lying down fallow for long. As we speak
now if you go to Owinme, we are cultivating over 80 thousand hectare of rice,
we are building rice in 50thons per day in Owinme. When next we are going, we
are going to call the members of the press to see and report what we are doing,
so as not to look as if we are just making empty noise. The Federal Government
approved the cultivation of 10,000 hectare of cashew which work will soon
commence on that. Another Federal Government initiative is also coming in
regards to value process in cashew, cassava and rice, Kogi has been selected as
one of the six states to benefit from the initiative. As we speak now all the
equipment and resources will be brought from Abuja.
Any moment from now, we
shall be empowering youth, women who are interested in agriculture, by the time
we have been able to effectively carry out this, we would have been able to
increase our IGR, reduce unemployment and put food the tables of many. As we
speak, work is in progress in Olamaboro, Dekina, and Adavi, am mentioning all
these places so that you can equally make your enquiry and confirm all what I
have been saying. With the way we are going and with the support of His Excellency,
am more than convinced that our laid down project and desire for the state
would be meant. Of course you should know that agriculture is one sector you need
to have patience to see result, because you don’t plant today and begin to
harvest the next minute, it takes time. But am assuring you by the special
grace of God that in the next one year, we would be able to stand tall and tell
Kogites that we have been able to add value through Agriculture in the state.
The melon planted along
Lokoja-Okene road has been taken over by weed; don’t you think farmers settling
along that road should be given the place for proper maintenance?
That we did not put the
place in the hands of the farmers settling along that road would be a
disservice to our ministry, as a matter of fact, before work was commenced on
that road, we met with all the farmers settling along that road, they were part
of the entire process and we even planted the melon together. One thing you
cannot take away from weed is that, no matter how you spray it or clear it, with
time it will still grow, especially in raining season. As we speak now, we have
concluded arrangement to go and spray the melon farm with selective herbicide
that will kill off the weeds and spare the melon to grow. Let me also make this
known, the reason for planting melon was not basically for commercial purpose,
the reason was just to keep the place clean so as to stop bush from returning
back to the road and to enable us see far and wide for security purpose. We are
assuring you that it is not an abandoned project; it is not something we must
be doing everyday, we must allow the weed to grow to some certain extent before
we take action, because it cost a fortune to keep the place clean and cleared.
The state has been
witnessing private investors coming to invest and partner with the government
on agriculture, what has the synergy been like with those investors?
We are synergizing very
seriously, the project taking place in Momi is a PPP arrangement, our people
are in Osara now working on the site for
our agric house, we have an Ethanol company now in Jamata which will be operating
and process all our cassava, this is also a private sector driving agency. We
have Christago who are also starch and ethanol factory, these are some of the
end results of our synergy with PPP. We shall be launching Getrova very soon,
which is also a PPP arrangement. Like I said earlier, agricultural programmes
are not something you will start today and begin to see immediate result, it
takes a little time before you will begin to see and appreciate the works done.
When I was in Budget and Planning, the blue print agenda pertaining to what
private investors must contribute are, private sectors in the state will
provide 30% funding for project in the state, multilateral company will provide
30% funding also and money from the IGR will be 40%. So, the case of private
investors in the state is so important that we cannot but collaborate with
them. In no distant time, the result of all this will be out for everybody to
see.
Lastly, FADAMA project
has been the talk of the town especially from farmers, how will you rate the
success so far?
FADAMA is a Federal
Government initiative, to empower its citizens. FADAMA is working on two
products in Kogi, cassava and rice. FADAMA has been able to empower 7,000 Kogites
by supporting them to cultivate their farms with mechanized farming tools,
since we are no longer talking about subsistence agriculture and also the usage
of our traditional tools such as hoes and cutlasses. FADAMA story in Kogi has
been successful because when you have a scheme that has been able to empower
over 7,000 people, then such a scheme is no longer a child’s play. To also
complement what FADAMA is doing, His Excellency also graciously approved
procurement of other farm tools that will be made available to farmers in the
state for better and easier agricultural farming. This will also attract youth
and give them the notion that it pays more to be a farmer than to be a civil
servant that will work from morning till night and get stipends, and by the time
you divide what you earn by 12months, you will realize that your earning is
actually nothing. But for a farmer, if you properly cultivate and plant on a
hectare of land and apply all the principles of farming, you can get over a
million naira which you can get within six months or less. For instance, if you
go into fish pond, within the space of six month you would be able to make over
a million naira. In the real sense, it pays to be a farmer than to be a civil
servant and even being a banker. I put it to you that, mechanized farming is
the real MMM.
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