N50 billion contract tears First Lady, Minister apart

Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma, Minister of Agriculture

Nigeria ’s First Lady, Hajiya Turai Musa Yar’Adua, is again in the news over a closely guarded serious rift with the administration Minister of Agriculture on who should benefit in a Fifty billion Naira ( ₦ 50B) for construction of facilities for the country’s Strategic Grains Reserve.

Turai Yar'Adua

The silent war between Hajiya Yar’Adua and the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma is now threatening the long existing two hitherto close families from Katsina State. The Minister has come a long way as a friend of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He was the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) of Katsina while Yar’Adua was the state Governor.

And desperately brushing aside criticisms from the extended Yar’Adua family and other powerful caution any influences with the administration, Mrs. Yar’Adua is allegedly said to be consolidating her “on a consistent knack for intrusive decisions” to now say that she must be allowed to recommend those who must benefit, as a matter of both business and partisan patronage, in the ₦ 50b Silos contract.

The Federal Government had planned constructing Silos in all the 36 States of the Federation including Abuja. The contracts already awarded have been abandoned by contractors while some contractors have absconded with several millions of Naira collected for the projects.

The House of Representatives had on March 26 invited the Minister over the Silos contracts and irregularities in the procurement of fertilizers for farmers. The outcome of the meeting with the Lawmakers is yet unknown.

Pointblanknews.com learnt that the issue has become a serious “power horn-locking game” and that the Agric Minister, has refused to bulge. The scandal in this serious comic disaster is that as a First Lady, Mrs. Yar’Adua’s role is not expected to extend to awarding or recommending companies or individuals for contracts awards. She is traditionally expected to make ceremonial and symbolic appearances as a pillar of support for her husband and strong motivational force for the nation.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture controls about thirteen percent (13%) of the total budget of Nigeria, which approximates to close to One Hundred and thirty five billion naira ( ₦ 135b).

Sources told pointblanknews.com that Hajiya Yar’Adua says it very loud that “she was instrumental to lobbying and winning concession that led to the increase in Agricultural funding” under the present administration.

Apart from the construction of Silos across Nigeria, the Ministry also has the brief of making sure that Federal Universities of Agriculture are well funded, Agricultural research institutes as well.

Past reckless dabbling by Mrs. Yar’Adua led to contract awards that were either poorly implemented or outrageously abandoned.

She allegedly rails against governmental institutions at will. Her recent foray into the affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) led to the sacking of some officials and eventual installation of her preferred protégés.

About ten Silos construction projects for which payments were made but work remains undone are in Suleja, Yola, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Sokoto and Owerri. Others are Oyo, Abuja all with about 25 thousand metric tons capacity.

The contracts were awarded at the sum of £1.9Million (About ₦ 460 Million) for off-shore components of each Silo while the local components were awarded in naira ranging from ₦ 16 to ₦ 24 Million each bringing a total sum of the already awarded contracts to about N6.2 Billion naira.