A fresh controversy may be brewing over the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan, NLTP over discordant tunes coming from the critical stakeholders on the disbursement of the N100billion said to have been approved for the project.

The National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo had on January 17, 2019, approved the plan based on the recommendations of a technical committee of the Council chaired by the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi. Other State governors on the committee and Working Group of NEC include those of Adamawa, Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Edo, Plateau, Oyo and Zamfara – mostly the frontline States in the farmer-herder crises.

“The National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) 2019-2028 is a programme to be implemented in seven pilot states of Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba and Zamfara (as decided by NEC in January), being States in the frontlines of the farmer-herder crises. Afterwards, six other States have indicated readiness to also implement the plan. They are Katsina, Kano, Kogi, Kwara, Ondo, and Edo states”, Osinbajo’s spokesman Laolu Akande, had disclosed in a statement to exonerate the Vice President as the brain behind the controversial Ruga scheme, which shares similarities with NLTP. Osinbajo had earlier this week launched the takeoff of the livestock programme in Adamawa state.

Efforts by Saturday Sun to get details of the disbursement of funds to the pilot states however opened another frontier in the series of controversy trailing the project. In an exclusive interview with this paper, Plateau state governor and Chairman of Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong confirmed that indeed N100 billion had been approved by NEC for disbursement to states willing to participate in the scheme through provision of land.

His words, “You remember I am a member of the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP), which is headed by the Vice President. I am representing North Central, I cannot go and start doing something that is not in favour of Plateau State or Benue or Nasarawa or Kogi or any part of Central Zone. Now, part of the document was not brought by President Buhari, it was initiated during President Goodluck Jonathan. So it is that same document that was represented to the NEC because we were looking for solution to farmers-herdsmen crisis. A budget of N100billion was approved for that same scheme.”

When the Vice President’s office was contacted to provide details of the disbursement so far, if any, a top official who pleaded not to be named because of the controversial nature of the project said, “Under the NLTP, FG will do 80% of public sector funding while States will do 20%. That is in States that chose to implement. But note that NEC itself does not have money; it’s either FG or States, or Federation Account, which is shared on allocation formula. So it’s best to ask Finance Minister.”

Based on the advice from the VP’s office, same enquiry was directed to the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed. The minister however washed her hands off the project and the allocated fund. “That project is a special one handled directly by the presidency. Anything involving information on it comes mainly from them. They’re the authority in charge of it and anything regarding figures is sensitive. So, we expect communication from there. Clarification is also better sourced there”, Tanko Abdullahi, Special Adviser on Media to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, countered.

When the Adamawa State government was contacted to know how much the Federal Government gave to support the project as the first pilot state, the Coordinator of National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) project in the state, Prof. Ambrose Alokidon Voh said they have not received a kobo from the centre. According to him, “In financial figures, we have not yet reached there because now, we have not yet determined how much would be involved yet.”

Also, efforts to seek clarification from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture did not help matters either. Officials of the ministry who pleaded not to be quoted pushed the enquiry back to the VP’s office, where they said the NLTP project and its funding is domiciled.

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