By Alexander Aghedo
I woke up this morning expecting to see news headlines announcing the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, especially after that controversial ‘prayer session’ memo that went viral. I still struggle to find the words to describe the sheer incompetence on display at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. Not since the darkest days of military rule have we witnessed such a mismatch between a national crisis and the calibre of leadership assigned to address it. The recent revelation that senior officials saw fit to organise prayer sessions to tackle food insecurity would be laughable were the consequences not so dire.
Their behaviour likely mirrors what the minister drills into them, after all, any rational person knows governance depends on policies, not prayers. When the only tool in a ministry’s shed is a prayer mat, even the rats go hungry.
Consider the facts. Nigeria currently faces one of its worst food crises in the last decades according to available statistics by the World Bank. In 2025, Nigeria is projected to face a severe food crisis, with an estimated 33 million people experiencing acute food insecurity. This represents a significant increase from previous years and is driven by a combination of factors, including economic hardship, the climate crisis, and ongoing conflicts, particularly in the northeast and Middle Belt.
Staple crops recently have become unaffordable luxuries for ordinary families. Thanks to Mr. President who saw the need to open the borders temporary to ease the price of rice and other commodities. Farmers across the Middle Belt live in constant fear of violent attacks. Agricultural productivity continues its precipitous decline despite our country possessing some of the most fertile land on the continent. And at the helm of this disaster sits a minister who oversees a ministry whose most notable intervention has been to circulate a memo ordering civil servants to pray for solutions.
Consider this damning reality- while farmers are butchered in their fields and food prices strangle ordinary Nigerians, our Agriculture Minister has never once, not on a single documented occasion, convened emergency talks with security chiefs to protect our vital food producers. What manner of leadership is this?
The grotesque irony of this situation appears lost on those responsible. While Nigerian mothers skip meals to feed their children, while farmers bury colleagues murdered in their fields, while food inflation destroys household budgets across the nation, our agricultural leadership has been preoccupied with organising three days of fasting and prayer. The subsequent attempt to rebrand this as a “staff welfare” initiative following public outrage only compounds the insult. Are we truly to believe that senior civil servants, drawing generous salaries from the public purse, require spiritual interventions to perform their basic duties?
What next? Will the Central Bank governor start conducting deliverance sessions to stabilise the naira? Will the Minister of Power host a fasting programme to restore electricity? When did Nigeria become a nation where failed leaders outsource their duties to divine intervention rather than doing the jobs they were appointed to do?
Listen, we have churches on every corner in this country. Thousands of pastors praying day and night. But let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw prayers put food on someone’s table or stop the naira from crashing? I will wait.
This is not about faith, it is about facts. Nigeria needs practical solutions, not more prayer points. We need leaders who will roll up their sleeves and work, not just kneel and hope for miracles. Every time some official suggests prayers as policy, the whole world laughs at us.
This scandalous episode reveals several uncomfortable truths about the current state of agricultural governance. Firstly, it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the ministry’s core mandate. The agriculture portfolio exists to develop and implement policies that ensure food security, support farmers, and harness Nigeria’s enormous agricultural potential. It is not, and never has been, a platform for religious posturing or spiritual grandstanding.
Secondly, the prayer memo fiasco exposes a dangerous disconnect between policymakers and realities on the ground. While ministry officials debated the appropriate psalms to recite, actual farmers grappled with existential threats: In Benue State, entire communities have abandoned their farms due to persistent violence, in Ebonyi, rice farmers struggle with collapsing infrastructure and lack of storage facilities, across the North-West, climate change has disrupted traditional growing seasons, nationwide, smallholders face extortionate input costs.
None of these crises prompted urgent ministerial action. Yet the spectre of civil servants gathering to pray was apparently prioritised. This speaks volumes about where the ministry’s attention has been focused.
The minister’s defenders will no doubt point to various policy documents and initiatives gathering dust on ministry shelves. They may reference meetings held, committees formed, or foreign trips undertaken. But Nigerians judge leadership by results, not paperwork. And by any objective measure – food prices, productivity metrics, farmer security, this administration’s agricultural policy has been an abject failure.
The implications of this incompetence extend far beyond political embarrassment. Food security constitutes the bedrock of national stability. History teaches us that hungry populations become desperate populations. The social contract between government and citizenry begins with the assurance of basic sustenance. When this fundamental obligation is neglected, the very fabric of society begins to unravel.
Nor can we ignore the international dimension. Nigeria’s agricultural potential has long been the envy of the continent. With over 84 million hectares of arable land and favourable climatic conditions, we should be feeding West Africa, not begging for food imports. Yet under the current leadership, we’ve become a net importer of staples we once exported. The reputational damage alone should give pause.
What makes this situation particularly galling is its avoidability. Nigeria possesses all the human and natural resources required for agricultural transformation. We have world-class agronomists, experienced farmers, and innovative entrepreneurs. What we lack – and what this minister has failed spectacularly to provide – is coherent leadership to harness these assets.
The solutions to our food crisis are well-documented and achievable and none of these require divine intervention. All demand competent, focused leadership of the type conspicuously absent from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
The time for excuses has passed. When a surgeon fails in the operating theatre, we do not blame the scalpel. When a pilot crashes an aircraft, we do not fault the wind. By the same measure, Nigeria’s agricultural catastrophe stems not from lack of potential, but from leadership failure at the highest levels.
This minister has had ample opportunity to demonstrate his capability. Two years into his tenure, with the nation facing unprecedented food insecurity, his signature policy achievement amounts to organising prayer sessions. This is not merely disappointing – it is professionally unforgivable.
The honourable course is clear. For the good of the nation, for the sake of millions facing hunger, for Nigeria’s agricultural future, the minister must resign. Should he lack the humility to do so voluntarily, the President must act decisively to remove him.
Nigeria deserves better. We cannot, and must not, settle for leadership that substitutes prayer for policy when lives are at stake. The stakes are too high, the crisis too severe, and the consequences of inaction too grave.
This is not about politics. This is about survival. And survival demands competent leadership – now. Enough is enough. Put down the prayer books and pick up some policy papers. That is what will actually fix this country.
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