Makinde’s ‘Hungry and Angry’ Blame and the Parable of a Lazy Farmer | Morufu Smith

Farmer M is lazy. He is allocated raw resources to cultivate his farm. But he fritters away the raw resources he receives. Farmer M loves life but hates work. He junkets around with his overfed cheeks and protruded belly, belching out air he swallows while eating greedily. Farmer M refuses to deploy his allocated raw resources to grow his farm. Yet, when hunger overtakes his family, Farmer M blames another farmer for allowing his family to be hungry and angry.

The parable of a lazy farmer is the apt description of Governor Seyi Makinde’s grandstanding during the flag-off of the Upgrade of Ladoke Akintola Airport in Alakia. By the way, Governor Makinde immersed himself in twin ironies at the event. He was talking about hunger and anger at an occasion where he chose to neglect stomach priority of his hungry subjects to satisfy the flying priority of his high-flying subjects with ₦42 Billion that the State’s 2024 Budget does not seem to capture. He was also taking a swipe at the Federal Government which laudable gesture to approve the upgrade of the airport to international standard led to the flag-off event.

Knowing that he was addressing citizens docile in analysing statements, Governor Makinde exonerated himself from the rot of our present economy that ensures that hunger pervades the land. He does not think that he has a sizable share in the blame of why his Oyo citizens are hungry. He was surmising that his hungry subjects, on behalf of whom he collects increased monthly allocations from the federation account, should be angry with the Federal Government not him. It doesn’t matter to Governor Makinde that there is a Ministry of Agriculture in Oyo State, and a Commissioner overseeing the ministry. The same Governor Makinde established an agency headed by one Debo Akande to stimulate investments in Agriculture and to make food abundance for the people of Oyo State. There is a huge budgetary allocation for Agriculture in 2024 Budget, in which Governor Makinde claimed that budgetary allocation for Agriculture was increased by 4 Billion Naira. Our ‘unblemished’ Governor re-awarded Moniya-Iseyin Road, increasing the contract sum by several billion of naira from what the administration of Late Senator Abiola Ajimobi initially awarded it on the strength that reconstructing the road would ease transportation of food items from Oke-Ogun to other zones in Oyo State.

While presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bill to Oyo House of Assembly, Governor Seyi Makinde has this to say:

“Second, this budget is a chance for our administration to show our responsiveness to the current economic headwinds. You will agree that the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy and dollar-Naira currency by the federal government have brought hardship to our people. Therefore, this budget proposal will cover specific projects, policies, and actions that, when implemented, will cushion the impact of the economic issues that we are currently faced with.”

The above statements were made by Governor Makinde who is shifting blame about hunger and anger. Where are the ‘specific projects, policies and actions’ he claimed would ‘cushion the impacts of the economic issues that we are currently faced with’? Governor Makinde tagged 2024 Budget ‘Oyo State Budget of Economic Recovery’. In the same budget, Agriculture got an allocation of ₦15.85 Billion, representing 3.65 percent of the total budget. Though the allocation for Agriculture, an important part of Makinde’s Roadmap to Accelerated Development, is paltry for a budget aiming to trigger economic recovery, it is also not clear yet what the budgetary performance for Agriculture is as we approach the last quarter of the year. Yet, the economy of the state is yet to show any sign of recovery, reason Oyo people are hungry, and angry. The governor, forgetting that he is in the saddle to prevent hunger from afflicting his subjects, casts blames of hunger and anger on the Federal Government.

At the Inception of Seyi Makinde’s first administration in 2019, he borrowed a sum of ₦7 Billion to resuscitate the nine farm settlements in Oyo State. Apart from Fashola Farm Settlement, said to have become a hub for agribusiness, other farms settlements are still in their comatose condition. Every promise of improved agricultural outputs in form of food abundance by Seyi Makinde is yet to manifest almost one and a half year into his administration. While presenting this year’s budget on the Oyo Assembly floor, Governor Makinde painted a hope of prosperity in Agriculture when he said:

“Mr. Speaker and the Honourable members of the 10th Assembly, you will note the same marginal increase of about N4bn in the allocation to Agriculture. You will recall that we have initiated an input distribution package for our smallholder farmers under the SAfER initiative. We also work with the World Bank to provide input for our smallholder farmers under the Oyo State Cares programme. We plan to build on various interventions we have introduced to help them. At the same time, we will, in the next few months, be completing work on the Fashola Agribusiness Industrial hub. I am happy to report that the work done has further revealed the economic benefits of locating projects around our areas of comparative advantage. Because of this project, the Oyo Zone has been opened up for more business as this axis now hosts large and medium-scale agribusinesses. The Oyo-Iseyin Road construction, which was commissioned in September 2023, is also driving businesses to this zone.”

With all these grand promises and so-called interventions, Governor Makinde could still locate blame of hunger and anger elsewhere but not at his doorstep. Banishment of hunger in the federation is not the sole duty of the federal government. State governments also have roles to play since the levers of controlling local economy are in their hands. In a state where local governments are allowed to breathe, they also have essential roles to play in relieving local populace of hunger through investment in agriculture which outputs can be subsidised for the people. Do Oyo people need National Orientation Agency to sensitize them that the purpose of having agricultural institutions and mechanisms at state level is to mitigate against incidence of famine and hunger and that their state governor should be held responsible for inflicting hunger on them? Or does one go blind when hungry not to know where to direct anger?

Maroof Asudemade, an Editorial Consultant and Book Publisher, writes from Ibadan.