Just in: Uzodinma’s Ministry of Livestock Development ‘pregnant’—Analysts

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Disquiet has greeted the creation of Ministry of Livestock Development by the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma as all the 23 new commissioners and over 90 aides were sworn-in today, Monday, 23 March 2020.

The ministry, which many Imo State citizens described as ‘very strange’ in the state considering the fact that the state has little or no history of livestock industry, is assigned to Mrs Obiageri Ajoku as commissioner.

Some analysts, who barred their minds on the imports of the new but strange ministry, said Governor Uzodinma owes the state full explanation and reasons why the administration created the ministry when the state had no history of such industry before now.

They argued that such a creation is a strong indication that the administration may have a hidden agenda to resurrect dead Rural Agricultural Settlement (RUGA) which was roundly resisted when it was surreptitiously smuggled in by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development even before the appointment of the current ministers of the Federal Republic.

During the controversy of RUGA, the observed silence of the presidency before the suspension was announced, worried many Nigerians into suspecting that the policy was intended to be used as soft landing for killer foreign Fulani herdsmen across the federation.

According to Dr. Uzoka Amaefule, a senior lecturer in one of the Federal Universities, “Livestock farming deals mainly with rearing of animals and Imo State has no clear history of such business as to warrant a creation of a ministry unless Governor Uzodinma had concluded secret plans to unleash Fulani herdsmen in the state which must be roundly resisted.”

“Am worried on the real target of the ministry because I cannot guess what is the brain behind it in a state like Imo. If ever there should be an agro related ministry, it should have been Ministry of Root Tuber Crops because research has shown that yam and cocoyam, for which the state had been known for, are going extinct as yam barns have disappeared in every part of the state.

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Dr Uzoka therefore called on the information managers of the governor to immediately begin a state-wide explanation campaign of the real meaning or what the governor has in mind for establishing the strange ministry to avoid crisis.

Another agricutrual expert, who pleaded anonymity argued that “Imo State currently does not possess massive land that will be avaliable for grazing in case the governor is thinking of creating grazing area in the state unless he wants to cause trouble between indigenes and foreign Fulani herdsmen, who are notorious for casuing mayhem and killings wherever they found themselves in southern half of Nigeria.”

According to the expert, “With this highly suspicious ministry, no doubt, this administration in Imo State is pregnant for what I do not know. Only time will tell”

However, speaking at the swearing-in of Commissioners and inauguration of other appointees of his administration at the Ahiajoku International Convention Centre, Governor Uzodinma called on the appointees to see their appointments as a privilege they could not afford to abuse.

He charged the newly sworn-in Commissioners, Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants to bring to the fore, their wealth of experience to drive the shared vision of prosperity of his administration which is anchored on the 3Rs of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Recovery.

Business Hilights South East Bureau Chief reports that the event was graced by the Deputy Governor, Prof. Placid Njoku, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chiji Collins, Secretary to the Government of Imo State, Chief Cosmas Iwu, members of the Federal and State House of Assembly and top Government officials (past and present) and traditional rulers.

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