By Hillary Asemota
The Minister of State, Federal Ministry Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, has flagged off the distribution of farm inputs to members of national agricultural cooperative apexes to enhance food security and job creation.
The Minister demonstrated the gesture at the Cooperative Intervention in support of the Federal Government declaration of state of emergency on food security in Nigeria, held at Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) Building, in Abuja recently.
He stated that, it is a message of Hope that the Cooperative Sector will be reformed, rebranded and revived, pointing out that the Cooperative laws was obsolete, not updated, and has not taken note of the recent dynamics.
Abdullahi, stressed that poverty is on the increase, and there is a need to step it down, noting that cooperative is governed by trust, mutual beneficial interest, and not by self-interest.
According to him,” it means that you must be tolerant, accommodating and be ready to allow someone get food out of the plate”.
He highlighted that trust deficit was one of the reasons why cooperative has not grown in Nigeria compared to other countries.
He, therefore, appealed to the leaders of the sector to change the narrative to suite the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, assuring that he will be the number one promoter of the Cooperative and also assured that the Minister will be number cooperator too, while the President will be the grand commander of cooperator, emphasizing that a lot has to be done to rebuild the sector.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr. Temitope Fashedemi, represented by Federal Director of Cooperatives, Alh. Idris Sanni, stated that the Minister was in support of the Cooperative’s intervention in the distribution of farm inputs to Members of National Agricultural Cooperative Apexes to enhance food security.
He noted that the initiative was in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s mandate to ensure food security, poverty eradication, and economic growth.
In his remarks, the President, Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, International Cooperative Alliance-Africa and the Vice President, International Cooperative Alliance-Global, Chief Tajudeen Ayeola pointed out that he assumed duty as the President, 7 years ago, having worked with the former Minister, Audu Ogbe and now the present Minister.
He commended the Minister, pointing out that his appointment was an example of a right peg in the right hole. “
He conferred on him the cooperative champion and recalled that in the meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, the challenges of Cooperatives were raised to include lack of attention, trust deficit, sharp practices amongst others.
He stated that cooperative is an instrument of development and has a lot to do, pointing out that by his experience as cooperative movement in Africa, he travelled a lot and for the past seven to eight years, he noted that the Cooperative Movement of Kenya has been contributing between 40% and 43% for the GDP of Kenya, stressing that we can do better in Nigeria.
Speaking further, he pointed out that the Cooperative contribution in Nigeria is not captioned in the GDP and emphasized that the issue of gross deficit and sharp practices by some members, is something that is over estimated, “people think that it is the movement that is responsible for it, Cooperative movement is well structured and regulated”, the Cooperative President added.
He pointed out that those involved in sharp practices are not registered members of the Cooperatives and as such, government itself has a lot to do, by coming up with programmes and more attention to the Cooperative movement.
In attendance were President of Women in Cooperative, National Agricultural Cooperative, NACO, NIWCOFA, amongst others.
