Abba Kyari is President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of staff and he enjoys wielding his power of influence on the President in any way that pleases him.
Osinbajo’s April 19, 2019 memo to President Buhari, seeking approval for funds to execute projects for the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) was intercepted by Kyari.
Kyari delayed this memo for a month before passing it on to the President. But not before reworking the memo to include his unsolicited recommendations.
According to a report obtained by Premium Times, Kyari submitted the April 2019 VP’s memo to President Buhari on May 16, 2019. One cannot help but wonder why it took a whole month to pass a memo written by the Vice-President to the President.
In the memo, Osinbajo requested for N32bn out of which 12bn had been already been released for “the construction of ranches for Fulani herders along designated grazing routes” which was to resolve the crisis between farmers and herdsmen. The crisis that led to the loss of 4,000 lives between 2016 and 2018
The remaining N22bn were funds for long term RUGA projects, to establish the internally displaced persons in Niger, Zamfara, Kebbi, Kogi, Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa, Benue, Kaduna, Katsina and Adamawa states. Osinbajo proposed the money be secured and managed by CBN and would only be withdrawn with approval.
Unfortunately, Kyari had other plans. He told the President that the earlier released N12 billion was yet to be utilized as there were no visible results since its approval.
“Given that the president has approved N12 billion for intervention for the Ruga Model, through the National Food Security Council (NFSC), we respectfully recommend that we first evaluate the development impact of this particular project before releasing further amounts for the NLTP,”
Osinbajo also proposed that a committee be inaugurated to oversee, execute and monitor the livestock transformation projects but Abba Kyari shut him down saying that would be a duplication of efforts.
“This plan may not be an effective strategy due to the overriding importance of farmer/herder issues in the National Food Security Council, which Mr President is the chairman”
The Chief of Staff suggested the NLTP be scrapped, an initiative that ought to serve as intermediary between Violence-affected state Governors and VP Osinbajo. President Buhari specifically asked Osinbajo to head the committee.
“To avoid duplication of efforts, we respectfully recommend (with emphasis) that Mr President retains oversight of the farmer/herder issues under the NFSC,” Mr Kyari said, adding that the council includes all heads of security and intelligence agencies as well as representatives of governors from the six geopolitical zones.
However, it came as a shock when Kyari proposed the establishment of a National Livestock and Fisheries Commission which would be responsible for “formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating all projects relating to ranching, fisheries and other related issues.” as reported by Premium Times.
The President approved Kyari’s proposal and scrapped the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) headed by VP Osinbajo.
