Kehinde Fajobi
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Agricultural Production and Services has vowed to deny budget allocations to agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security if their heads fail to appear for 2025 budget defence sessions.
Senator Saliu Mustapha, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agricultural Production and Services, issued the warning on Thursday in Abuja after several agency heads sent representatives instead of appearing themselves.
“We are not going to attend to you,” Mustapha told a representative of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) after its Director-General, Vincent Isegbe, failed to show up.
“When the President came to present this budget, he made it clear that all heads of agencies must come to defend their estimates. Tell him we are available tomorrow.”
Mustapha emphasised the urgency of addressing food security, citing projections by the World Food Programme that 33.1 million Nigerians could face acute hunger in 2025.
He said, “Food crisis is what we cannot allow to happen, and we collectively need to avert it.”
Bello Kaoje, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Agricultural Services, called for enhanced budgetary support to achieve President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda on food security.
“Last year, the president declared a state of emergency on food security. We assured the Minister of Agriculture that we will ensure the budget is enhanced where there are challenges,” Kaoje said.
The session also revealed funding and operational challenges faced by agencies.
Dr Ishiak Khalid, Director-General of the National Agricultural Seed Council, said, “Only 9% of our 2024 capital allocation was released, making it difficult to fulfil our mandate.”
Similarly, Muhammed Ibrahim, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Agriculture Development Fund, disclosed that his agency received no capital funding in 2024 and suffers from manpower shortages.
“Fifteen months after assuming office, we are yet to have a salary scale,” Ibrahim lamented.
The Joint Committee assured the agencies of its support in addressing funding and staffing challenges but maintained that heads of agencies must comply with budget defence requirements.