Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, says food insecurity persists in the country despite trillions of naira spent on agricultural interventions in the past decade.
Abbas spoke through Ibrahim Isiaka, the deputy chief whip, on Tuesday in Abuja at an investigative hearing on agricultural subsidies, intervention funds, aid and grants programmes covering the period between 2015 and 2025.
The probe, carried out by an ad hoc committee of the house, is examining how public funds earmarked to boost agricultural productivity were utilised.
“There can be no national security without food security. A nation that cannot feed its people cannot guarantee peace, stability or sustainable development,” Abbas said.
“Between 2015 and 2025, successive governments, through the federal government of Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and development partners, committed several trillions of naira to agricultural subsidies, intervention funds, aid, and grants.
“These resources were appropriated, borrowed, or mobilised in the name of boosting productivity, ensuring food security, creating jobs, stabilising prices, and reducing import dependence.
“However, it is deeply worrisome and unacceptable that despite this massive financial outlay, the expected outcomes are largely not visible on the ground. Food prices continue to rise, food insecurity persists, rural poverty remains entrenched, and Nigeria is still heavily dependent on food imports.”
Abbas said the gap between “huge spending and weak outcomes” necessitated the probe by the house.
The speaker said the investigation is not an attack on any institution or individual, nor is it driven by politics or vendetta.
“Rather, they are a constitutional exercise aimed at interrogating the processes, outputs, outcomes, and impacts of these interventions, and determining the extent to which their stated objectives were realised or fundamentally undermined,” he said.
Abbas warned heads of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) against ignoring the committee’s invitations during the probe.
Citing sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 constitution, Abbas said the house will summon, sanction or issue arrest warrants against MDAs who fail to honour invitations, withhold documents, present false or misleading information, or treat this investigation with contempt.
Also speaking, Jamo Aminu, chairman of the committee, said the intervention programmes include the anchor borrowers’ programme (ABP), accelerated agricultural development scheme (AADS), agri-business/small and medium enterprises investment scheme (AGSMEIS), mechanisation acquisition scheme (MAS), national food security programme (NFSP), presidential agricultural scheme (PAS), rice seed support fund (RSSF), rural development fund (RDF), agricultural guaranteed credit scheme (AGGCS), among others.
Aminu said Nigerians are grappling with high food prices, unemployment, and economic pressure, adding that public funds spent on agriculture interventions must be justified.
