Oxfam, a
development, relief and campaigning nongovernmental organisation that
works with other partners to find solution to poverty around the world
said that small scale farmers are being marginalised in the
implementation of policies that should impact positively on their
enterprises across Nigeria.

Ojobo Atuluku, lead
consultant of Development in Practice, engaged by Oxfam to access the
impact of the NGO0 programmes on some Nigerian farmers in the last one
year said the government would be able to go only so far in achieving
food security until the disregard of small scale farmers is erased.

Unfriendly policies

Presenting her
report at the annual monitoring and evaluation meeting of Oxfam and
partners in Abuja yesterday, Ms. Atuluku said “I have been in the field
looking at Oxfam work in the past year and by field, I mean the states
of Oyo, Ekiti, Nassarawa, Plateau, Benue, Katsina and FCT, and the
focus has been interacting with small scale farmers that Oxfam has been
working with as well as the partner organisations in those states and
all across it is so clear that small scale farmers find agricultural
policies very unfriendly.”

Ms. Atuluku said
that the complaints of the farmers remain that they are “invisible
within agricultural policy and that it is not possible for them to
benefit from those policies. The story across the country surrounds
issues of input, fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, tractors, credit
facilities. They do not have access to all these and so the challenge
becomes ‘why is this the case even as the federal and state government
are placing a lot of emphasis on agricultural issues?’”

Marginalisation of small scale farmers

Ms. Atuluku cited
the example of how the federal government came up with a scheme that
provides N200 billion for farmers. N40bilion out of this had been set
aside for small scale farmers, but the conditions are that the farmers
must provide collateral. Unfortunately, this excludes farms with low
value.

“All these are conditions that the small scale farmers have no clue or access to,” she said.

This therefore
means that even if that money is set aside for small scale farmers, it
will remain un-accessed or eventually be gotten by people who are not
small scale farmers.

Ajayeoba Ayodeji,
campaign manager of Oxfam, said the meeting was an avenue to validate
the report of the consultant and plan ahead for effective delivery of
their mandate.

“We have
commissioned a consultant to go into field to go and meet with partners
and Nigerian NGOs that we work with communities where we are working
basically to access the impact of the work we are doing, the challenges
and the opportunities and lessons we have learnt. We sit here and
verify it,” said Mr. Ayodeji.

He said all the
efforts are geared towards improving the productivity of small scale
farmers and engaging the government for improved agricultural
governance while providing opportunities for women that will help
reduce inequality and poverty and support Nigeria attain food
sufficiency.

Voices for food security

One of the farmers, Amina Bala Jibrin from Bauchi State, said Oxfam programmes have been very impactful.

“Oxfam constituted the voices for food security and they want the
small scale farmers to be heard,” Ms. Jibrin said. “It is a very good
idea because farmers in the rural areas are not given proper attention.
What is due to them is not given to them. They do not benefit from
inputs because it has to go through other channels before it comes to
the small scale farmer it is gone.”

Seven cities are to benefit from the
integrated solid waste management facilities to be established by the
Federal Ministry of Environment, Garba Ahmad, Deputy Director, Federal
Ministry of Environment, said on Monday in Abuja.

According to Mr. Ahmad the facilities
were material recovery facility centre, composing plant, incinerator,
plastic recycling plant and land-filling plant and will be installed in
Kano, Uyo, Onitsha, Lagos, Kaduna, Maiduguri and Otta in Ogun.

He said under the first phase of
programme, the federal government undertook feasibility studies of 15
cities faced with acute environmental challenges.

He said the second phase of the
programme would involve a Public-Private Partnership arrangement
between the seven selected state governments, federal government and
the private sector.

The challenges of
development and national unity has been described as some of the major
obstacles to the effective delivery of Nigeria’s foreign policy, the
Permanent Secretary in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Martins Uhomoibhi
said in Abuja on Monday.

“Nigeria, being a
developing country, faces challenges of development and national unity,
which often tend to undermine the effective delivery of the country’s
foreign policy.

“That is why there
has been a lack of coherence in the way our foreign policy has been
carried out over the years,” Mr. Uhomoibhi said. He however urged
Foreign Service officers and diplomats to always represent the country
in the best way possible, exhibiting a great deal of coherence and
logic in their policy presentations.

The Edo State
government has called on the police to ensure more proactive action and
save the state from threats of explosion attacks and criminal vices,
Anslem Ojezua, the state commissioner of information and orientation,
said in a statement yesterday.

According to Mr.
Ojezua, “The police must simply be more proactive and call a dog by its
name and treat it as such. The Inspector General of Police must fulfil
his statutory obligations to the people of Edo State by initiating,
without further delay, full criminal investigations into all these acts
of criminality that have become so notorious.”

He however also
alleged that some members of the Edo State House of Assembly from the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – Blessing Agbebaku and Frank Okiye
specifically – previously brought in dangerous and offensive weapons,
including battle axes and tear gas, which they freely used against
their colleagues.

March 8 is celebrated globally as the International Women’s Day.
It is a day that unites women across boundaries to celebrate their achievements
and examine their struggles to eliminate gender discrimination. Today, I bring
you the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon’s message for 2010.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are fundamental to the
global mission of the United Nations to achieve equal rights and dignity for
all. This is a matter of basic human rights, as enshrined in our founding
Charter and the Universal Declaration. It is part of the Organization’s very
identity.

But equality for women and girls is also an economic and social
imperative. Until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all
our goals — peace, security, sustainable development — stand in jeopardy.

Fifteen years ago at the Fourth World Conference on Women,
Governments pledged to advance equality, development and peace for all women
everywhere. The landmark Beijing Declaration has had a deep and wide-ranging
impact. It has guided policy making and inspired new national laws. It has sent
a clear message to women and girls around the world that equality and
opportunity are their inalienable rights.

There are many examples of progress, thanks in large part to the
resolute efforts of civil society organizations. Most girls now receive an
education, particularly at primary level, and more women are now more likely to
run businesses or participate in government. A growing number of countries have
legislation that supports sexual and reproductive health and promotes gender
equality.

Nonetheless, much work remains. Maternal mortality remains
unacceptably high, too few women have access to family planning, and violence
against women remains a cause for global shame. In particular, sexual violence
during conflict is endemic.

The Security Council last year adopted two strong resolutions on
this issue and I have just appointed a special representative to mobilize the
international community to address these crimes. My “UNite to End Violence
against Women” campaign and the recently launched Network of Men Leaders are
striving to expand our global advocacy efforts.

One key lesson of the past decade-and-a-half is the importance
of addressing broader discrimination and injustice. Gender stereotyping and
discrimination remain common in all cultures and communities. Early and forced
marriage, so-called ‘honour killing’, sexual abuse and trafficking of young
women and girls are disturbingly prevalent and, in some areas, on the rise.
Whether looking through the lens of poverty, or in times of disaster, we see
that women still bear the greatest burden.

Lead by example

Another lesson is that the United Nations must lead by example.
Emphasizing that women are central to peace and security, we are working to
deploy more women military and police officers in our peacekeeping operations.
We have more women in senior United Nations posts than at any time in history,
and we hope soon to have a dynamic composite entity within the UN system to
provide more coherent programming and a stronger voice for gender equality and
women’s empowerment. I urge the General Assembly to create this new entity
without delay.

The Beijing Declaration remains as relevant today as when it was adopted.
The third Millennium Development Goal – to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment
– is central to all the rest. When women are denied the opportunity to better
themselves and their societies, we all lose.

On this International Women’s Day,
let us look critically at the achievements of the past 15 years so we can build
on what has worked, and correct what has not. Let us work with renewed
determination for a future of equal rights, equal opportunities and progress
for all.

These are hard times; “Times that try men’s souls,” as Thomas Paine
said in ‘The Crisis’. We are working at our jobs harder than ever. Salaries are
being cut or delayed as companies struggle with the economic climate. Parents
are faced with uncertain incomes and increased fees at nurseries to
universities. Bosses, landlords, suppliers, contractors and school proprietors
are less tolerant as they too suffer financial strain. Transport fares are up,
fuel prices are up, fuel supplies are down, debts are piling up and jobs are
disappearing fast in previously top industries. Na wa o!

At times like these, many turn to sources of comfort, inspiration
and spiritual appeasement. I read a passage from a religious inspirational book
called ‘Don’t be sad’. One of the strategies the author proposes to prevent
depression is to accept ourselves wholly as we were, and in our behaviour to be
like ourselves and not someone else. It seems a simple advice. Yet, while
ruminating on it, my mind started exploring diverse paths and directions.

It occurred to me that if you are yourself and you accept your
strengths and limitations, you will not try to “betta pass my neighbour” or
spend unwisely in order to “keep up with the Jones”. If we accept our cuisine
and not try to eat like Westerners, we would only eat freshly made meals, or
proteins preserved by deep frying or salting and drying. We would eat a heavy
meal in the morning if our work involved manual labour, or a heavy meal at
midday for everyone else. And we would eat something light before sunset for
dinner.

We would also almost always eat in company and not in solitary
isolation. We would wait for the ‘food is ready’ sign, indicating freshly
cooked food, at roadside bukkas and not buy ‘food has been ready since last
night’ fast food. We would eat fried chicken but without the artery-clogging
batter that coats so many of them. We would rarely eat rice and cereals,
focusing instead on staples from cassava, yam, millet, and other naturally
occurring roots, tubers, leaves and vegetables. Seasonal fruits and vegetables
would form a regular and desirable part of our diet. Our local cuisine is good,
varied and healthy.

If we do not try to live and work like people from other cultures,
our occupations would reflect roles beneficial to the health and prosperity of
our community.

Everyone would play a role. These days, it is often hard to see the
link between our jobs and quality of life benefits to self, our families and to
our communities. Often, the benefit goes to individuals or organisations
outside the various boundaries of our lives. How does our work touch us, other
than in terms of remuneration? What role do you play in your wider family and
in your community? And in our lives, happiness would be measured by the number
of close and healthy family members, caring friends and cordial relationships a
person has; not by the number of air-conditioners (this is debatable!), cars,
entertainment systems, designer watches, trips abroad, houses, etc.

Giving back

Yes, material possessions provide an environment of ease and an
appearance of success. Yet, even as those things bring us pleasure, they do not
make us happy. The rich tend to be less happy than the poor. There is so much
mental and physical stress, and battling with one’s conscience, associated with
sustaining a high standard of westernised living.

I am sure the abject poor will ask us to taste the mental and
physical stress and battling with one’s conscience associated with the daily
struggle to find a meal, and shelter from the elements to sleep in!
Traditionally, wealth and happiness are measured in the wealth of
relationships, both in number and in quality. In the number of devoted wives (I
don’t agree o!) and obedient children to farm one’s land. Happiness can be
measured in the sight of children making themselves useful by running errands,
and the sound of them playing happily; in the sight of a breadwinner returning
home triumphant after playing his or her role in the community; in the sound of
cooks singing cheerfully around the fire or in the kitchen; in the comfort of
desultory talk or animated debate during a shared meal.

A family friend recently lost her husband, a person dear to us all,
and someone compared the aftermath of the tragedy here to the aftermath in the
western world. The steady stream of family (and old and new friends) coming
through her home, supporting her in day-to-day tasks, providing listening ears,
and shoulders to cry on. For those who seek solace in company, the community
response was humbling and uplifting.

The ‘good old days’ are not generally as good as they are remembered. Yet,
there are many great things about the ‘Way we Were.’ Start patronising local
seasonal fruits today and use that to promote the health and prosperity of
yourself, the farming community and the nation.

Last week, my journey from Lagos to Ibadan, along the Lekki peninsula through Ijebu Ode, afforded me the nostalgic opportunity to view the coastal swamp forest of western Nigeria, maybe for the last time.

These rich habitats will not survive the chainsaw and bulldozer. So much is the frenetic pace of anthropogenic conversion into housing estates, factories, farms, export-free zones, and highways, all in accommodation of urban spillover from Lagos metropolis.

Every state in Nigeria has generated some design of projected mega industrial parks, housing estates and shopping plazas replete with 5-star hotels, night clubs, spas, conference centres and international airports.

Some would even like to host the next Olympic Games! But few have a documented benchmark for addressing food insecurity, malaria or HIV/AIDS. In the south-east, sanitation, waste disposal and creation of forest reserves are unheard of.

Governors all over the Federation remain conspiratorially silent on progress towards attaining the UN MDGs, the Multilateral Development Goals by 2015 or even within a moratorium 10 years further! The picture is the same everywhere – hordes of unemployed young men and women moving about like loose molecules in a very unstable fluid, a fluid that is on the verge of igniting.

From the bridge, l looked into the placid waters of Lekki lagoon at Epe, and knew that even this habitat would face the dangers of industrial and domestic pollution, siltation and saltwater intrusion when the mega-projects of Lagos State are in place. Unlike the more shallow and brackish lagoon at Lagos, Lekki is mainly freshwater and the source of the coveted catfish, tilapia, and diverse edible shellfish.

Is it too late for considerations of environmental impacts to be made? I think not. The signs are however
ominous! Nigerians may not live on the fault lines of earthquakes or in the paths of Tsunamis, but what
is the preparedness for disasters in our built environments? We cannot take comfort from watching the horrors in Haiti and Chile on television, and then repeatedly thank God for not being exposed to the same fate.

By doing so, we make the dangerous mistake of complacency and overt fatalism, foolishly believing it could not be our turn some day, in one form or the other.

Overt fatalism

In Abuja, one of the amusement park attendants declared, “God forbid that it should happen!” My question was what manner of contingencies they have should a bunch of kids plunge from the heights of the roller coaster.

Nigerian beach waters harbour unpredictable sharks, barracudas and camouflaged stingrays. The authorities have no arrangements to do something in the
case of drowning or fatal attacks.

Game wardens and guides in our national parks accompany tourists with ancient machetes and
muskets. There are no anti-venom medicines around in forests with a range of non-poisonous, but also highly venomous reptiles. Why kill a carpet viper in revenge after it has struck? Its victim could most likely pass away within a week. In the case of a mamba,or cobra, even much earlier!