Farming used to be an important sector in the Nigerian economy butsince the discovery of oil in the country, less attention has been paid to it. This morning, we take a look at some of the biggest farms in the country owned by politicians.
Below is a short list of the farms and their owners, in no particular order.
OLUSEGUN OBASANJO (OBASANJO FARM)
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is not only a retired army officer, former head of state and politician, he is also a successful farmer. He owns Ota Farm, which is also called Obasanjo Farms. The large farm was formally opened on October 8, 1979, a week after Obasanjo handed over power to a civilian administration on October 1, 1979. At inception, the farm took off as Temperance Enterprises Limited (Farming Venture). It later became Obasanjo Farms Nigeria Limited.
Obasanjo Farms indeed took off in grand style, indication that Nigeria’s former president meant serious business. This probably accounts for the growth, expansion, sustainability and consolidation witnessed in the evolution of the farm, considering how it started and where it is now.
The farm took off with two layer houses containing 100, 000 birds each and five broiler houses of 12,000 each, in addition to two feed mills of three tons per hour each. The large farm, which has up to 7,000 workers started with four bulldozer operators. Today, Obasanjo makes up to N34million daily from Ota Farm, which has branches in Ibadan and Igbo-Ora, Oyo State. This is no small earning for the former president whose farm has played a significant role in the development of agriculture and food production.
Obasanjo also uses the farm complex at the Agbe L’ Oba House, Ota, the Ogun State headquarters of the farm, to hold political and diplomatic meetings.
ABDULSALAMI ABUBABAKAR (MAIZUBE FARMS)
What makes General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) significant today in Nigeria and beyond is not just his successful military career or the fact that he willingly handed over power to a democratically elected government in 1999 to usher in the Fourth Republic. He has a stake in the Nigerian agricultural sector, being the owner of Maizube Farms Limited, which is helping to cater for the food needs of many Nigerians today.
Maizube Farms Limited is located at Km 26, Minna-Bida Road, Minna, Niger State, where General Abubakar is from. The 500-hectare multi-product farm has both livestock and crop sections and today, it is proudly one of the stable sources of crop and animal products upon which Nigerians depend for food and other uses.
Just as General Abubakar gives appreciable time to his peacekeeping mission across the African continent, so also does he give a great deal of time and attention to his Maizube Farms.
MURTALA NYAKO (SEBORE FARMS)
Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd), the executive governor of Adamawa State may be more popular from the political perspective to many, but he is one of the most successful Nigerian farmers today. Few know that he is the owner of Sebore Farms in Mayo-Belwa, Adamawa State.
Murtala Nyako was born at Mayo-Belwa, to Alhaji Hamman-Yero, a notable merchant and Hajiya Maryam Daso who was keen on Islamic studies and herbal medicine, on August 27, 1943.
Nyako was born a cattle owner, as his mother had been allocated some cows for her offspring before his birth. So he started what has snowballed into an integrated commercial farm today as a cattle farm. Even throughout his career, in the Navy and in politics, Nyako was never distracted from developing and expanding his coast in the agricultural sector, the result of which is his success story today.
He commenced a sustainable crossbreeding programme of his local cattle with exotic superior sires in 1990 with very satisfactory results. He also got involved in the production of horticultural crops and his first commercial export of muskmelons to Europe, using a chartered aircraft, took place in January 1990. Nyako owns the largest mango farm in Nigeria, leading to his being popularly known as Baba Mai Mangoro (BMM). Exotic mangoes from his mango orchard of 50, 000 trees were first exported to Europe in 1993. He is also presently involved in the modern production of dates, passion fruit and bananas, pasture development breeding of Boer goats and farming.
Nyako is the president of the Horticultural Crops Growers Association of Nigeria, the Practicing Farmers Association of Nigeria and the Apex Farmers Association of Nigeria. He is the patron of numerous farmers’ commodity associations in the country.
ABDULLAHI ADAMU (NAGARI INTEGRATED DAIRY FARM)
Nagari Integrated Dairy is one of the farms currently being operated in the country on a commercial level. It is reputed to be one of the largest single integrated dairy farms in Africa. It covers 1,200 hectares of land and has 7,000 Holstein cattle. In view of the quality of the products it churns out, the claim that it is among the top suppliers of high quality farm and dairy products in Africa is justified.
Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State and now a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is the man behind Nagari Integrated Dairy Farm. Although his fame on the political scene has overshadowed his agricultural exploits, Abdullahi can be described as an accomplished farmer. The success story of Nagari Integrated Farm is the result of the enterprising nature of this farmer, lawyer, engineer, technocrat and consummate politician.
Over the years, Nagari Integrated Dairy has invested in research and development, and in state-of-the-art dairy farming technology. The company has developed its own proprietary dairy farming expertise and methodologies. This has made it a benchmark for the efficient production of high quality dairy products.
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