Headlines
Rice festival and Buhari’s obsession with agriculture, by Khalifa Nuruddeen Abande

President Muhammadu Buhari’s exclusive interview with Channels Television means different things to different groups of people across the world. In the interview, the President revealed so many things that have a deepening impact on the country. While the politicians concentrated on Buhari’s take on his successor, the Igbo about Nnamdi Kanu, National Assembly members about new electoral law, the governors’ state police, my take as an ordinary Nigerian was the president’s take on the economy and agriculture in particular.
Many Nigerians were appalled by Buhari’s bold, blunt and no-barrel insistence that agriculture is the magic wand that will catapult the country to the dream land – and Nigerians must go back to farm to make that a reality. He added that his administration in the last six years has invested trillions into agriculture financing. And Nigerians must key in to the project for the country to stand tall as an emerging world power.
Many think that the president is too obsessed with agriculture, that is he is herding everyone to the farm. The president wondered why only 2.5 percent of Nigeria’s arable land is being used for agricultural purposes. He told the Channels crew that, “If we invest more in agriculture, people won’t be shouting of unemployment.”
He explained that “Now in Nigeria, we produce the rice we need and we even export,” adding that, “we have to exploit our capacities.”
President Buhari never hides his plans to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production. On August 7, 2015, a few months into his administration, he reiterated this stance during a meeting with President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr Kanayo Nwanze, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The president said, “It’s time to go back to the land. We must face the reality that the petroleum we had depended on for so long will no longer suffice. We campaigned heavily on agriculture, and we are ready to assist as many want to go into agricultural ventures.”
It is an open secret that the president fulfilled that promise by investing hugely on agriculture through the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), superintended by Chief Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
What many Nigerians failed to do was to check how other countries with similar demographics as Nigeria’s are doing. For a start, it is an incontrovertible fact that the most populous nations on earth invest heavily on agriculture and deploy a larger percentage of their population to agriculture. Buhari is not saying anything new.
About 35 percent of China’s 1.41 billion population are directly involved in agriculture. This means that 490 million Chinese are involved in agriculture. The figure is higher for India, another super power in terms of population. Over 58 percent of 1.39 billion Indians are directly involved in agriculture. By this, 738 million Indians are into farming.
We shouldn’t crucify Buhari when he repeatedly said: “But as I said, look at the vastness of Nigeria, only 2.4 percent of the arable land is being used. We realized it rather too late. We have to go back to the land.”
Many of the president’s critics are oblivious of the demographic projections which show that the Nigerian population might experience a constant increase in the next decades. By 2050, it is forecast that the population in Nigeria will double compared to 2019, reaching over 400 million people, according to the World Bank. Who will feed these huge numbers if we don’t go back to land as Buhari is advocating?
Even the most developed nations like America are engaging more of its citizens into agriculture. The percentage of Americans involved directly in agriculture was just 1.3 percent in 2020, but another 8-9 percent was involved in the value chain of agriculture. Even a world power with all the technology is engaging at least 10 percent of its population into agriculture, why should Nigeria fold its arms and watch?
Unlike his predecessors, Buhari’s obsession with agriculture is real, not rhetoric. The president matched his words with actions as can be seen from the unprecedented investments he has been doing in the last six years through the CBN’s ABP. These investments are bearing fruits as evidenced from the millions of poverty-stricken peasants who have now been economically empowered.
As part of the agricultural revolution, President Buhari would on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, unveil the world’s largest rice pyramid in Abuja. This is no small feat to the country.
Through ABP, the president had invested billions on ABP through the CBN on over 15 agriculture commodities. These commodities include maize, sorghum, millet, cassava, cocoa, rice, cotton, ground nuts, sugarcane, tree crops, legumes, tomato, to mention a few.
Before Buhari’s election in 2015, it was an open secret that Nigeria’s local rice (the country’s staple food) production was 1.5 mts /hectare. Courtesy of ABP now, the local rice production has soared to 5 mts/hectare.
The impact of these soaring figures of rice production can be seen from the number of large-scale integrated rice mills which had increased from less than 10 in 2015 to nearly 100, 400 medium-sized mills and over 200,000 small-scale mills across the country, providing millions of direct and indirect jobs.
In terms of farming alone, there were about 1.5 million rice farmers six years ago, but the number has snowballed into over 20 million now – all thanks to Buhari’s ABP.
In fiscal terms, before Buhari’s coming, the federal government spent huge money to stop rural-urban migration. Now ABP makes urban-rural migration cost-free.
ABP’s beneficiaries are traceable and verifiable. All the millions of farmers that benefitted from ABP can be traced through their genuine house addresses, NIN-registered mobile phone numbers, BVN, photographs, transaction history, among other incontrovertible data.
Before the introduction of ABP, the CBN was spending about $1.8 billion forex on rice import alone every year. This translates to about N747 billion in today’s official exchange rate of N415/$. By this, the CBN, courtesy ABP, is saving the trillions of naira that were hitherto expended as import bill. This is a breakthrough that even Buhari’s bitterest enemies are saluting him.
By foregoing, if not for anything, Nigeria was saved from the challenge of sourcing forex or devaluing our currency to finance this monstrous import bill.
Official data indicate that the ABP has added six million metric tons to rice supply in the country and created nearly six million direct jobs in a year; at the same time, about two million indirect jobs are created in a cropping season. Nigeria now has three cropping seasons in a year, all of them fully funded by the ABP loans.
These jobs are restricted to only the production side of the rice value chain, and does not include millions of other jobs created in the processing, packaging, transportation, marketing sectors of the rice ecosystem. Not the least of which is the jobs and wealth created in the input supplies segment.
On the international scene, Buhari’s agricultural revolution has burnished the country’s image more than any diplomatic adventure so far. It was a source of pride for all Nigerians that in 2021 our country topped South Africa and Egypt – as Africa’s number One Rice producer, and emerged 29th on the list of Top 50 biggest contributors to the global GDP, leaving UAE, Norway, Israel, others behind.
Buhari’s obsession with agriculture saved Nigeria from food calamity, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic that shut the entire world. There would have been mass starvation and numerous deaths. Many experts were worried when the unprecedented horror of COVID -19 pandemic permeated all contours of the world, leaving mass fatalities, which necessitated lockdown of borders and cessation of shipment of commodities and goods.
With Buhari’s foresight and political goodwill, however, Nigeria like other nations shut down its borders and banned rice importation. It was on record that despite the global lockdown, Nigeria was still feeding itself with the food produced by its farmers and even exporting to other African countries.
This is a milestone that Nigeria must sustain and improve upon. Imagine if we had relied on food imports, where would the 200 million Nigerians get food from when the entire world was on lockdown for nearly a year?
Through ABP, the CBN, also funded the supply of farm inputs that include fertilizer, herbicide, seeds, pesticides, among others.
As a result of the agricultural revolution championed by ABP, the farm inputs sub-sector in Nigeria has witnessed unprecedented growth. For instance, in fertilizer manufacturing alone, Nigeria has since achieved self-sufficiency.
From a mere three comatose blending plants in 2016, Nigeria now boasts of over 47 state- of- the- art fertilizer blending plants across the country. Fertilizer importation is now ancient history.
In the area of herbicides, Nigeria is better off now compared to 2015 before the ABP’s regime. The country has indigenous mega herbicide manufacturing companies that include Wacot, Candel, Jubaili, Saro, Marshal, among dozens others.
Consequent upon this major breakthrough, is the creation of millions of herbicide distributors spread across the 36 states and 774 local governments of the federation and the FCT, serving farmers and creating wealth.
This brings to the fore the reasons why Nigerians must embrace President Buhari’s clarion call to embrace agriculture and return to farm.
Mr Nuruddeen, writes from Kano, and can be reached at aasiia@yahoo.com
Headlines
NCBN, OISD Seek Strategic Partnership with ASR Africa

NCBN, OISD Seek Strategic Partnership with ASR Africa
By Matthew Eloyi
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Customs Broadcasting Network (NCBN), Mr. Jamilu Yusuf, has led a delegation on a courtesy visit to the Managing Director of the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa), Dr. Ubon Udoh, to explore areas of mutual collaboration.
Mr. Yusuf, who also serves as the Executive Director of the Organisation for Innovation and Sustainable Development (OISD), commended ASR Africa for its transformational impact in critical sectors such as education, healthcare, social development, and institutional strengthening across Nigeria and the African continent.
He highlighted NCBN’s commitment to promoting institutions and initiatives that drive sustainable development, noting that a strategic communication partnership with ASR Africa would help amplify the organisation’s achievements and further inspire positive change.
Mr. Yusuf also proposed a collaboration between OISD and ASR Africa in areas including education, digital literacy, and economic empowerment, aligning with both organisations’ shared vision for inclusive growth and capacity building.
In response, Dr. Udoh welcomed the partnership proposals, expressing ASR Africa’s readiness to collaborate with NCBN on strategic communication initiatives. He also affirmed the initiative’s interest in working with OISD on education empowerment programmes.
Dr. Udoh further used the occasion to congratulate the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, on his recent election as the Chairperson of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), describing the achievement as a testament to Nigeria’s growing influence in global customs administration.
Headlines
Akpabio Hails Okpebholo’s Supreme Court Victory, Calls It Triumph of Democracy

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has congratulated Governor Monday Okpebholo on his affirmation as the duly elected governor of Edo State by the Supreme Court, describing the ruling as a “triumph of democracy and the will of the people.”
Akpabio, in a statement personally signed and released on Friday in Abuja, applauded the apex court’s decision, saying it validated the mandate freely given to Okpebholo in the September 2024 gubernatorial election.
“What the apex court in the land has done is to affirm the will and wishes of the overwhelming majority of the people of Edo State. It shows that the election was transparent, free and fair,” Akpabio stated.
He added that, “The declaration by the Supreme Court in favour of Sen. Okpebholo against Mr Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has proven that elections are won at the ballot and by people who have identified with the grassroots.”
The Senate President said the judgment reaffirms the strength of Nigeria’s democratic institutions and the popularity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State.
“This judgment has again reaffirmed the fact that democracy is at play and the people of Edo have wholeheartedly embraced the All Progressives Congress (APC) and popularly elected their preferred choice of Senator Okpebholo as their governor,” he said.
According to Akpabio, the ruling not only confirms Okpebholo’s mandate but also “paves the way for him to continue delivering exceptional service to the good people of Edo.”
He praised the governor’s performance in the past seven months, expressing confidence in his capacity to deliver more during his four-year tenure.
“My distinguished brother, His Excellency Senator Monday Okpebholo, on behalf of my family and constituents, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I extend my warmest congratulations to you and the wonderful people of Edo on this landmark victory at the Supreme Court.
“I wish you success and I assure you of the Senate’s support and collaboration in ensuring the state’s progress and development.
“Congratulations once again, Gov Okpebholo. I look forward to a robust working relationship with you,” Akpabio added.
In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Mohammed Garba dismissed the appeal filed by the PDP candidate, Mr Asue Ighodalo, for lacking merit.
The apex court upheld the earlier rulings of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, both of which declared Okpebholo of the APC as the valid winner of the election.
The court ruled that the appellant failed to provide credible and admissible evidence to support claims of electoral malpractice, including over-voting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
It further held that the PDP candidate failed to call relevant witnesses to back up some of the evidence he tendered, particularly those involving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
Some of the documents presented, the court noted, were simply “dumped” on the tribunal without demonstrating the alleged irregularities in 432 of the 4,519 polling units across the state.
Education
NELFUND Begins Upkeep Payments to Over 3,600 Students After Bank Detail Update

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has commenced the disbursement of upkeep payments to students who successfully updated their bank account details from digital wallets to commercial bank accounts.
This was announced in a statement released on Friday in Abuja by the Director of Strategic Communications of the Fund, Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.
Oluwatuyi described the development as a significant breakthrough in addressing earlier disbursement delays.
“Over 3,600 students, who previously registered with digital-only banking platforms, have now successfully received their backlog of upkeep payments after updating their details to conventional commercial bank accounts on the NELFUND portal,” she stated.
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of all affected students during this period. Your resilience and cooperation have made this progress possible,” she added.
The NELFUND spokesperson advised students who have yet to update their bank details to raise a support ticket via the official NELFUND portal to request access for the update.
She further urged affected students to report through the IT office of their respective institutions, which would compile and forward all related cases to NELFUND for prompt resolution.
“NELFUND remains committed to ensuring that no eligible student is left behind. This resolution process is part of our broader effort to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and student-centered delivery of our support services,” she said.
Oluwatuyi encouraged students to continue engaging only through official NELFUND channels and to assist their peers who may need help navigating the update process.
She also provided contact options for inquiries, stating that the fund can be reached via email at info@nelf.gov.ng or through its official social media handles: X (formerly Twitter) @nelfund; Instagram @nelfund; and Facebook & LinkedIn: Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND.
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