Deep Thought

 Ahmad Babba Kaita: Former Senator with a Difference By Prof M.K. Othman At the height of the 2015 political campaign, Katsina State APC governorship candidate Masari decided to spend a night in each of the 34 local government headquarters as a strategy to interact with the local people and indicate he was one of their kith and kin. Many of us blindly following the Buhari campaign train were not only in support of the strategy but also expended our limited resources to advance it. When it was the turn of Bindawa Local Government to host Masari for a night's sleep, many people were afraid of hosting him to avoid the wrath of the then-governor Shema. I was then approached to provide my house to accommodate Masari, which I promptly did with enthusiasm against the advice of my friend, who felt I should not be seen opposing the Shema's government. Bindawa and 11 other LGAs are located in the Daura Senatorial Zone, with six LGAs each under Katsina and Daura emirates, respectively. Th...

 Emergency on Food Security: Policy Dereliction, Consequences and Possible Solutions By Prof MK Othman President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) declared a state of emergency on food security on July 14, 2023, to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal and address the precarious food shortages and hunger that have defied all efforts and continued ravaging the country with reckless abandon. BAT is the only President to have made such a declaration on food security, the most critical security for human survival. I can imagine BAT's feelings when he declared a state of emergency on food security as a quick fix to address the monster of hunger and squalor. He was virtualizing every hand to be on deck to make agrarian Nigeria achieve food security in a matter of months with excess for exports. He was so confident that we all thought his aggressive strategy could trigger the transformation of the agricultural potential into reality. Now, food insecurity is worse than a year ago, and the ...

 Inaccessible Democratic Dividends: Unwieldy Power and Sins of State Governors By Prof M.K. Othman Three months before the demise of Dr Abba Sayyadi Ruma of blessed memory, the former Minister of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources invited me to his Kaduna residence and sighted his digital empire, which he was about to deploy to achieve his lofty dream of revolutionizing Nigerian agriculture. Abba was an ideologue of digitizing agriculture and supporting services to boost productivity and remove poverty from smallholder farmers altogether. I was so fascinated listening to his splendid idea that I did not know when I requested that he vie for the position of governor to uplift people's livelihoods. He pretended not to hear me, but I persisted with my request. Ruma said, "Prof, aspiring for governorship requires huge financial resources; the delegates for the primary election are like a bag of potatoes, when you buy it from the market, transport it, and take ...

 Re: Engr David Umahi-The Minister in my Heart By Prof MK Othman My article last week was a simple admiration of a personality occupying the exalted position of Minister of the Federal Ministry of Works who displays zeal in performing his responsibilities, making the unscrupulous contractors perform their duties. Still, I did not know I was opening a can of worms. Three high-ranking construction experts talked to me with some exciting expressions- "all that glitters is not gold….," "Corruption in the road construction industry in Nigeria? Prof, your piece only scratched the surface; the decay in the industry is scary," and disturbing statements. Road construction, rehabilitation, modernization, and the like are done in the forest, away from the public gaze, where insecurity discourages people from watching what transpires. So, only the contractors, their supervisors, and God know what goes on in the industry; the financial hanky-panky is better imagined. So, Engr Um...

 Engr David Umahi: The Minister in my Heart By Prof MK Othman A round peg in a round hole may not perfectly describe Engr David Nweze Umahi's appointment as the Minister of the Federal Ministry of Works. A round peg with a correct diameter inserted in a round hole with a fitting diameter best describes Engr Umahi’s appointment as the current Minister of Works. Nigerians cannot ignore his superb performance in the ailing Ministry of Works, bedridden with supersonic corruption since his assumption of duty. It is the ministry responsible for the construction of the federal roads nationwide. The systematic and gargantuan corruption has made road construction per kilometer in Nigeria the most expensive compared to developed and developing nations globally.   As far back as 20 years ago, a report published by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) indicated the cost of constructing a kilometer of road to be between N400 million and over N1 billion from the study conducted by the World ...

 Re: Economic Hardship- Nigeria Should Have No Business with Hunger By Prof. MK Othman Dr. Godwin Atser, the Country Director of Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), Nigeria, was invited to the Kadaria Ahmed Program on African Independent Television to participate in the panel of discussants on the live program held on Wednesday, 24th, 2024. The subject of discussion was “the Nigerian Food Security situation.” There were three discussants: Dr. Atser, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Minister for State, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and Hajia Halima Njobdi, COE of “Give Agriculture a Voice,” an agriculture-based NGO. As a consultant and friend of SAA, the CD invited me to join the event's audience. Madam Ahmed, the program's anchor, made it a soul-searching occasion where agricultural policies and government programs were subjected to the reality on the field.  The Program, codename “Pivotal,” commenced with interviews of farmers on agrarian programs for food se...

 Economic Hardship: Nigeria Should Have No Business with Hunger II By Prof. M.K. Othman How can we triple or quadruple the current irrigable land? This question was posed in the first part of this piece last week. In 1998, out of Nigeria's 320,000 hectares planned for irrigation, only 97,000 hectares were developed, and only 70,000 hectares were used for irrigation under the public irrigation system. Twenty years later, not much was achieved; available information from the work of Ocheja indicates the existence of 92 irrigation schemes, with 57 in the north and 35 in the south. The 92 irrigation schemes have 413,394 hectares of irrigable land, but only 100,300 ha were developed, with 35,127 ha under irrigation, indicating 35.02 percent capacity utilization. In addition to public irrigation schemes, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated a total irrigation potential at 2.0 million ha under fadama (floodplain areas) nationwide. However, less than 25 perc...