Corruption allegations against NIRSAL handiwork of detractors - HURIWA, others

Corruption allegations against NIRSAL handiwork of detractors - HURIWA, others

By Lanre Oloyede

 Coalition of Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, led by the famous Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has declared as baseless and unfounded, the allegations of corruption levelled against the leadership of  Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL PLC.

The group has, therefore, demanded that the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu  commence immediate  investigation within seven days by inviting  for interrogation, "these bunch of detractors, traversing the entire length and breadth of the media industry in their campaign of calumny against the Management of NIRSAL PLC  under its Managing Director,  Mr Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed."

In a press conference addressed by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the Coalition which consists of 16 organizations drawn from  across Nigeria but led by HURIWA claimed that some  faceless elements who hide behind compromised social media platforms are responsible for the vicious and sustained campaign of calumny against the institution that is playing a key role in the transformation of Nigerian agriculture sector.

According to the group, the allegations which ranged from mismanagement of funds by its current leadership to claims of discrimination and favouritism is nothing but falsehood.

 The Coalition  urged the Presidency not to be deceived by this evil campaign against the person of the MD of NIRSAL PLC  because those making these baseless allegations are working hard to scuttle the government's agenda for agriculture revolution.



 The group added that the perpetrators have forged fake documents, organised fake protests, sponsored fake farmers groups and induced unprofessional media platforms which lack integrity to publish unverified falsehoods against the institution in order to achieve their nefarious objectives.

The Coalition saw it as totally incredible  that an institution that is working so hard for the country, without any budgetary appropriation by the Federal Government nor allocation of funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria, yet achieving solid results in a critical area of national development such as agriculture, can be subjected to endless attacks in pursuit of nefarious political goals and negative economic interests.

While providing reasons why the allegations against the agency should be discountenanced, the group said, "First, the efforts to distract and even disable NIRSAL PLC  is not in the interest of the nation because this 5-year-old institution’s mandate as given to it by the Central Bank of Nigeria, its sole shareholder, is central to the focus on agriculture by the Buhari administration, the sector that is the number one employer of labour and the lynchpin of the nation’s plans for a post-oil future.

"Second, there is clear evidence that NIRSAL PLC  is doing justice to its mandate. It is an established fact that the institution, in just a few short years of its corporate existence has facilitated about N110 billion from the financial sector into agriculture. In the process, it has contributed to the creation of millions of jobs and the improvement of the lives of smallholder farmers across the country.

"Third, NIRSAL PLC  is adding significant value in other areas, notably agricultural insurance where it is working with partners to create and popularize innovative insurance packages that will reduce the risks faced by Nigerian farmers and help them to benefit more from their toil.

"Fourthly and related to the above, the institution is making brisk progress with its AgroGeoCoops scheme which is projected to create about 16,000 farmer-cooperatives on 4 million hectares of farmland, enrol about 8 million farmers to produce about 12million metric tonnes of Grain Product Equivalent annually, across Nigeria."