Protesters at the offices of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing
System For Agricultural Lending NIRSAL, have been exposed as paid agents
who were recruited from Abuja by corrupt interests fighting against the
successful agricultural reforms by the President Mohammad Buhari’s
administration.
Some individuals have been staging protest outside NIRSAL’s offices in
Abuja.
They carried placards inscribed with unsubstantiated and allegations
against NIRSAL, NIRSAL’s Managing Director and the Central Bank of
Nigeria.
The colourful flyers and placards accused NIRSAL and the CBN’s Anchor
Borrowers Programme of “diverting farmers money” and “killing farmers” –
a totally baseless claim.
The messages on the placards and flyers included: ANCHOR BORROWERS IS
PROGRAM IS A LIE, CBN NIRSAL IS DIVERTING FARMERS MONEY.
However, when they were engaged by NIRSAL staff, some of the protesters
who looked dirty and unkempt and spoke in Hausa language revealed that
they knew nothing about NIRSAL’s operations and admitted that were
sponsored to protest against NIRSAL.
They also admitted that they have no information about NIRSAL’s
operations, the Anchor Borrowers Programme and the Central Bank.
According to them, they were at NIRSAL to do a job they were paid for by
their sponsor(s) who got them a police permit.
Reacting to the incident, NIRSAL’s Head of Corporate Communications,
Anne Ihugba described the sponsored protest as a failed attempt to
distort the facts about verified contributions of NIRSAL such as over
N100 billion facilitated from the financial sector into the agricultural
sector which is improving the lives of farmers across the country.
She added: “Though NIRSAL found the inauspicious visit as an opportunity
to engage and enlighten more young people on its agribusiness
initiatives and the promise they hold, the protest smacked of
witch-hunting and a well-crafted agenda to smear the organization.
Questioned individually, the boys admitted to belonging to no ABP
tickets and were in fact recruited from Abuja and environs, particularly
from areas such as Mararaba, Mabushi and Jabi. This negates the claim
that they are farmers from Kebbi State.
“To be absolutely clear, all successful ABP applications for the 2019
farming seasons have been honoured by NIRSAL. As required by the
guidelines issued by the Central Bank, farmers with incomplete loan
documentations are prevented from accessing the funds in their accounts
until they meet the obligations.”
She said the attempt was bound to fail because “facts do not lie” and
the effort to discredit the institution by persons who do not mean well
for the sector and the country was bound to fail.