The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recently approved the sum of N30 million for the construction of a mosque. A leaked memo dated December 10, 2020, with Ref. No. FMA/PROC/AHS/SIP/2020/7742/1, signed by Musa Musa, the deputy director of procurement in the ministry, on behalf of the minister, showed the contract was awarded to El-Shukhur Multi-Buz Nig. Ltd.
The ministry said the contract had been approved by the Ministerial Tenders Board.
It was gathered that the letter that announced the contract said it was approved by the Ministerial Tenders Board during its 7th meeting held on December 7, 2020.
The Ministry was said to have approved the award of the contract for the construction of a Friday mosque at the total contract sum of N30 million, inclusive of VAT, with a completion period of eight weeks, with effect from the date of the letter.
Amid public outrage, Theodore Ogaziechi, the director of information at the ministry, said in a statement that it decided to build the worship centre for livestock farmers displayed by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State.
The Ministry, while confirming the award of the contract alleged that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had come been severely criticised on social media, following a leaked memo conveying the approval of N30m for the construction of a Friday mosque with taxpayers’ funds.
In addition, a government official memo, dated December 10, 2020, with ref. No. FMA/PROC/AHS/SIP/2020/7742/1 and stating that the Ministerial Tenders Board approved the contract, was displayed on the platform.
The statement claimed the construction of a worship centre was for a community of livestock farmers who were sacked and displaced in Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents and who were being resettled in the Ngarannam/Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State.
The Ministry said that apart from the mosque, other common facilities provided for the livestock farmers in the community include solar energy-powered boreholes with overhead tanks and drinking troughs for their cattle and small ruminants, water harvesting structures, milk collection centre, resettlement abode, as well as other infrastructure to properly settle and rehabilitate the displaced livestock farmers.
It said the construction of the mosque was a special request from the community through the Borno State Government to avoid moving too far from the settlement areas for prayers and also to ensure their safety and contact with the insurgents.
We appreciate the effort of the Ministry of Agriculture in assisting the displaced people, especially the livestock farmers from Borno State, to have a place of worship. We also appreciate the effort of the ministry in ensuring the release of N30 million for the construction of Friday mosque followed due process having been approved by the Ministerial Tender Board.
However, we felt the Ministry of Agriculture and its minister, in carrying out the project, forgot to realise that Nigeria is a multi- religious state and therefore building a Friday mosque for the Muslims in the IDP Camp would have given the Christians and adherents of other religions in the IDP Camp a sense of neglect. Whatever is good for the goose is also good for the gander, the ministry should have thought it wise to equally build a worship centre for the Christians in the same IDP Camp.
More important, the building of a mosque is not supposed to be the priority of the Ministry of Agriculture at a time thousands of farmers lost their farms to floods and attacks from rampaging killer herdsmen.
It is also condemnable that spending a whopping sum of N30million on a Friday mosque for displaced IDPs at a temporary camp is nothing but a sheer waste of money. A makeshift praying centre with a low budget would have sufficed for an IDP camp, which is a temporary abode.
Our position also is that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is usurping the duty of the North-East Development Commission whose existence is to help people in the region displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. Are we saying the agency is not up to the task in carrying out its duties?
As we go forward, we advise the ministry to restrain itself from unnecessary sentiments and concentrate on its primary duties in the future. It should also restrain itself from setting a bad precedent, which, if copied by other ministries and agencies, may result in wasting of scarce resources.
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