By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has cleared the air on the leaked internal memo on a 3-day prayer session, saying it was not meant to seek divine intervention on food security, but a normal routine to address the wellbeing of staff members.
Recall that on Tuesday, June 11, the Human Resource Management Department in the ministry had issued a memo mandating staff members to take part in a 3-day prayer session on food production.
But the Assistant Director of Information in the ministry, Ezeaja Ikemefuna, in a statement yesterday, claimed that memo was misunderstood.
According to him, the prayer was to address the apprehensiveness of staff over the recent untimely and successive deaths of management staff of the Ministry.
The statement read in part, “The ministry’s attention is drawn to the internal circular of the Human Resource Management Department being circulated by online media.
“In this regard, the ministry wishes to inform that the prayer session is an initiative of the Human Resource Management Department to address the wellbeing of the staff, just as the already existing monthly aerobic exercise and establishment of the gymnasium in the ministry are for physical fitness, as the regular medical check-ups of staff are for their health.
“The prayer was to address the apprehensiveness of staff over the recent untimely and successive deaths of management staff of the Ministry.
“The staff also deemed it not out of place to pray for the country, hence the theme of the prayer sessions ‘Divine Intervention for Protection and National Development’.
“It must be emphasised that this is NOT an official policy by the Ministry to address agriculture and food security issues in the country. But in response to the yearnings of staff who are apprehensive following the deaths of some of their colleagues in recent times.”
He noted that the Minister “has been working assiduously to ensure food and nutrition security for the country in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration.
“The ministry has taken delivery of over a thousand tractors to support farmers and has signed the commercialisation phase under the supervision of President Tinubu;
“Another of his initiatives is the Strategic Grain Reserve and Market Stabilisation of prices, where about 42,000 metric tonnes of grains and an additional 58,200 metric tonnes of milled rice grains were distributed;
“Also, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 2,150,000 bags of fertilisers were donated by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Ministry. They were distributed to farmers to reduce food inflation;
“The president has approved the recapitalisation of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) to the tune of N1.5 trillion, a historic financial intervention to scale up access to affordable finance for Nigerian farmers;
“The Ministry launched the National Electronic Extension Platform (NEEP), a digital initiative designed to improve agricultural extension services;
“The Ministry initiated a revitalised cooperative sector by organising training and workshops for stakeholders at the Federal Cooperative Colleges in the North and South.
“This effort is aimed at strengthening the cooperative societies and enhancing their role in economic development;
“The Ministry, in collaboration with the World Bank, earmarked $600 million to rehabilitate 200,000 kilometres of rural roads under the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP);
“The Ministry procured and distributed free agricultural essential inputs to farmers, which include fertilisers, agro-chemicals, seeds, and other critical inputs to enhance food production and support farmers during the planting season;
“The National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket (NAGS-AP) registered farmers across the country to receive essential farm inputs, and the project has provided subsidised agricultural inputs to farmers across the country;
“The Ministry wishes to emphasise that the prayer session is an internal initiative of staff to address the concern over sudden deaths in the Ministry and not intended to replace or downplay the remarkable efforts and achievements of the Ministry and other stakeholders in achieving food security in the nation.”
