Shonga Farms: Kwara Must Change’ Petitions Kwara State House Of Assembly

By: Ono Bobi

A fierce wind that portends danger is currently blowing over the allegedly fraudulent role of the Bukola Saraki administration in Kwara State (2003 – 2011), on the forceful takeover of 17,000 hectares of land from about 33 local farmers for the farming activities of 13 white farmers displaced from their farmlands in Zimbabwe, brought to the state by the erstwhile governor for a joint farming project with the state government.

‘Kwara Must Change’, a socio-cultural youth organisation in the state has petitioned the Kwara State House of Assembly, requesting the legislature to invite the former governor and ex-Senate president to answer to 10 questions arising from the suspected ‘shady and shoddy’ roles played by the former’s administration in connivance with the13 white farmers whom he personally brought to Kwara State for some mechanised farming project in 2004.

The Shonga Farms project which allegedly gulped billions of naira of tax payers money has been a subject of controversy for years but those privileged to know were silenced by the last two administrations in the state.

Many critics of the supposedly joint agri-business claimed the failed project was merely a conduit pipe to siphon colossal sums from the state coffers into private pockets, using the displaced Zimbabwean farmers, most of whom have long fled the state without accounting for their various roles in the financial conundrum dubbed: SHONGAGATE FRAUD.

For years, during the Governors Bukola Saraki and Abdulfatah Ahmed administrations, Kwarans were shut out from asking questions about the activities of the foreign farmers of Shonga farms that turned the peasant farmers of that area in Edu Local Government of the state, into mere slaves to the white overlords on their ancestral lands which they lost to them through “man’s inhumanity to man”, allegedly engineered by the Bukola administration, 2003-2011.

‘Kwara Must Change’ seems to be telling the former governor and ex-Senate president, ‘the day of reckoning has come’. This is because the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is poised to cleanse the state of all semblances of fraud and corruption, moreso, as Kwara State is saddled with a debt profile amounting to N100 billion, residuals from the past two administrations in the state.

It is against this background, that the youth organisation wants the Kwara State legislature to invite Dr. Bukola Saraki to provide convincing answers to some 10 crucial questions about the operations of Shonga Farms, these past years.

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In the petition titled: Investigation into Shonga Farms Conspiracy, Forceful Acquisitions of Community Land, Wasteful Investment of State Resources Without Accountability and Disappearance of Documents, signed by Abdulrazaq Hamzat, the group raised a 10-point demands from the Kwara State House of Assembly, which are as follows:

1. Invitation of former Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki to explain the business relationship between Kwara State government and the Zimbabwean farmers as well as provide the Memorandum of Understanding entered with them as basis for their relationship.

2. Dr. Bukola Saraki to clarify what necessitated the forceful acquisition of 17,000 hectares of community land from Shonga District and handing over such vast land to private foreign individuals with no record of any investment, yet registered the land in their own names as sole owners.

3. Dr. Bukola Saraki to establish the specific amount invested by the Kwara State government into the Shonga Farm business between 2004 till 2011, including the takeoff grant given to the farmers in foreign currency.

4. Dr. Bukola Saraki to establish what necessitated government to guarantee the farmers loan facilities with Nigeria Agricultural Bank (NAB) and Rural Development Bank (RDB) to the tune of N650million.

5. Bukola Saraki to explain why the farmers failed to pay back their loans, which necessitated its deduction from Kwara State government allocation from source as a result of issuing an irrevocable standing payment order to the office of Accountant General of the Federation

6. The former governor should establish what necessitated government to guarantee the farmers other loan facilities with six other banks, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, despite not paying back the earlier loans they took from Nigeria Agricultural Bank (NAB) and Rural Development Bank (RDB)

7. That Dr. Bukola Saraki should establish how much loan in specifics was taken from each of the following banks (1) Unity Bank (2) Intercontinental (3) GTB (4) Bank PHB (5) Fin Bank and (6) Central Bank of Nigeria and why the loans were not paid.

8. He should explain why 11 out of the 13 farms established in 2004 were sold before 2007 when Shonga Farms Limited was incorporated and to explain if government investment in the already disposed farms were recovered.

9. Furthermore, Dr. Bukola Saraki to explain why five banks became shareholders in the two farms later incorporated as Shonga Farms Limited with 75% combined shareholding as follows: (1) Unity Bank (15%) (2) Intercontinental (15%) (3) GTB (15%) (4) Bank PHB (15%) (5) Fin Bank (15%)

10. Saraki should explain why all documents relating to the project were not available in relevant government ministry, agency or department.

‘Kwara Must Change’ is of the view that, only the invitation of Dr Bukola Saraki can shed some more light on the above subject matter, therefore, we urge your good office to, in line with your constitutional responsibilities, carry out this investigation in the general interest of the state.

In a similar development, Mr. Gbenga Olatunbi, leading a group of Kwara professionals based in Lagos, recently wrote

Dr. Bukola Saraki has been urged to favorably respond to this clarion call of Kwara Must Change and a likely invitation of the state assembly, to clear his name and integrity on his role over the suspected failures and corruption associated with the Shonga Farms issue.

Olatunbi, on behalf of his group warned that times have changed in Kwara saying: “It is now time, for us as Kwarans, to demand probity and accountability from all our past rulers since these past 16 years that threw the state into colossal debts. Time to account for their questionable stewardship.

The quick-fix enrichment of their families with our commonwealth is now a thing of the past but we demand a clean slate of stewardship from these past leaders if they still want to be reckoned with in the politics and governance of Kwara State”.