The Director,
Human Resource Management Department,
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security,
FCDA Secretariat, Area 11, Garki – Abuja.
Subject: Re: Circular on Prayer Session for National Food Security
Dear Sir,
I write in reference to the internal circular dated 11th June 2025 with Ref No: AGR.12/S.27/1091/I/12, inviting staff of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to participate in a series of prayer sessions themed “Divine Intervention for Protection and National Development.”
While I fully acknowledge the place of spiritual reflection in our national life and do not discount the power of prayer in seeking divine guidance, I am, however, compelled like many concerned Nigerians to express deep disappointment that such a critical ministry would prioritize spiritual rituals over the concrete, strategic, and data-driven interventions urgently needed to address Nigeria’s alarming food insecurity.
Nigeria is at a tipping point, our agricultural value chain is suffering from chronic underinvestment, poor infrastructure, outdated extension systems, insecurity, and ineffective policy implementation. The solution to our food crisis does not lie in fasting alone but in bold, visionary, and sustained government action.
What Nigeria needs from your Ministry at this critical time is not symbolic gestures but functional leadership and performance in the following areas:
1. Policy Reform and Implementation: Enforce and scale smart agricultural policies that promote mechanization, land access, youth inclusion, and private sector participation.
2. Extension and Innovation Systems: Strengthen the agricultural extension architecture to bridge the gap between research, innovation, and farmer level productivity.
3. Financing and Investment Access: Expand farmer access to affordable financing, insurance schemes, and targeted subsidies that will reduce risk and increase productivity.
4. Infrastructure and Value Chain Development: Invest in rural roads, storage, irrigation, and market linkages to reduce post-harvest losses and stabilize food prices.
5. Data Driven Research and Decision Making: Embrace real time data, geospatial intelligence, and climate-smart analytics to guide production and risk mitigation strategies.
6. Insecurity Mitigation in Agrarian Zones: Collaborate with security agencies and local communities to create safe corridors for agricultural operations, especially in the North and Middle Belt regions.
7. Monitoring, Accountability, and Transparency: Create a performance dashboard to transparently track budget implementation, impact metrics, and development outcomes.
It is unacceptable that in the face of widespread hunger, youth unemployment, and inflation-driven food costs, the Ministry responsible for agricultural transformation is dedicating official work hours to activities that, while spiritually valid, do not substitute for policy execution, institutional accountability and evidence based solutions.
We must not reduce national development to ritualistic symbolism. Leadership demands vision, strategy, and results. I call on your office and the Honourable Minister to reorient efforts toward real sector transformation and demonstrate a commitment to the heavy lifting that development requires.
The time to act is now. Nigeria deserves more than hope, we deserve impact.
–Ballin James, is an agroeconomist and food security specialist, she writes from Gombe.
