NAN-AE-11
Accountability
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, Feb. 10, 2017 (NAN) The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, on Friday urged the Managing Directors of the River Basin Development Authorities to shun corruption and promote transparency in their duties.
The minister gave the charge at the opening of a two-day retreat for the newly appointed Managing Directors of the River Basin Development Authorities in Abuja.
He said that the river basin agencies had failed to fulfil their statutory functions because of poor management, corruption and lack of governance structure.
According to him, the river basin agencies have veered off from their traditional roles and responsibilities regarding the management of water resources for human and agricultural activities.
He said that the Federal Government’s goal was to ensure that the river basin authorities were primed to boost food security and promote socio-economic development.
According to him, the re-positioning of the sector is central to the thrust of the Federal Government’s agricultural policy.
He said that the overhaul of the river basin authorities would also go a long way to create new opportunities for employment generation.
Adamu said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was committed to repositioning the river basin authorities for quality service delivery, as the blueprint and action plan for the revival of the agencies were ready for implementation.
He said that part of the action plan was to restore agricultural services and extension in all the river basin authorities, while initiating the Graduate and Youth Empowerment in Agriculture Programme.
Speaking, Mr Aliyu Pategi, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Water Resources, reiterated the National Assembly’s commitment to supporting policies and programmes aimed at improving the living standards of Nigerians.
He urged the participants to redouble their efforts at boosting the internally generated revenues of the river basins authorities as well as their service delivery.
Pategi, however, called for full implementation of the water resources roadmap, which was aimed at scaling up the citizens’ access to water and promoting food security through agriculture.
Prof. Godfrey Nzamujo, the proprietor of Songhai Farms, Benin Republic, delivered a lecture on “The Songhai Model and the Graduate and Youth Empowerment Scheme as a Recipe for Food Security’’.
He urged the three tiers of government in Nigeria to adopt the Songhai model of agriculture.
Nzamujo said that the Songhai model was an innovative approach that could be used to tackle challenges such as food insecurity and poverty, environmental degradation and unemployment, which were facing African countries.
“Nigeria needs to key into this new vision of making agriculture a weapon of mass construction, instead of mass destruction. Agriculture, if it is done in the Songhai way, will be a weapon of mass development.
“We need to wake up and see that there is hope in this country; we should begin to invest in agriculture by harnessing the myriad opportunities available in our river basin development authorities.
“The Songhai model is the mother of all commercial farming techniques; it promotes sustainable farming for food, entrepreneurship and so on,’’ he said.
Nzamujo moaned that African countries were still living in poverty in spite of their abundant natural and human resources.
He said that with sustained investments in agriculture, the economy of African countries, particularly Nigeria, would improve appreciably.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that President Buhari in January approved the reconstitution of the executive management of river basin development authorities under the aegis of Federal Ministry of Water Resources. (NAN)
TAK/JEO/OOK
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