On assumption of office as the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Michael Kaase Aon­doakaa wrote a memo to the then President/ Commander-in-chief, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, insisting that all agencies with prosecutorial powers, including the Eco­nomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Prac­tices and other Related Offences Commis­sion (ICPC) be shorn of such powers. His advice was that these powers should be ex­ercised by the Office of the AGF. His office. President Yar’Adua initially approved the request. However, it stirred the condemna­tion of public affairs analysts and lawyers alike. They viewed the move as one meant to undermine the anti-graft agencies. Yar’Adua was eventually compelled to withdraw his initial approval for Aondoakaa’s proposal when his attention was drawn to the fact that the position was inconsistent with a Su­preme Court decision. The Halliburton/Wilbros/Siemens con­tract saga was another controversy. “The Federal Government,” he promised at that time, “would set up a Committee to gather information and once we gather such infor­mation, we will commence prosecution.” Unfortunately, that did not happen. But, way more touchy, was the debate over the vacuum created by the absence of the ailing President Yar’Adua. Many Nigerians wanted the president to be declared incapac­itated as a result of his long, curious absence from his office or in the alternative hand over the administration to the then Vice- President Jonathan. Aondoakaa shocked the nation when he posited that: an absen­tee president could rule from anywhere. He maintained that: “There is no evidence that Mr. President is not exercising his powers as President. He has his Vice-President and his ministers whom he can delegate power and functions to. He does not have to be in the country before he can exercise his power. He can do that anywhere. The president can give instruction from anywhere, even from his sick bed.” In fact, After the Federal Executive Coun­cil meeting of January 2010, Aondaokaa declared: “the President is not incapable of discharging the functions of his office, and the medical treatment outside the country, does not constitute incapacity to warrant or commence the process of the removal of the president from office, under section 144 and 146 of the 1999 constitution.” The gentleman also had a squabble with his then cabinet colleague, the late Profes­sor Dora Akunyili. For having the temerity to write a memo to the Federal Executive Council, urging it to take a position on the strange Yar’Adua saga and seeking transfer of full executive power to then Vice-Presi­dent Jonathan, he dismissed Akunyili as “a rabble-rousing, publicity-seeking official.” Still spoiling for a fight, he asked Akunyili to go and confront herself with what hap­pened in NAFDAC under her leadership. Not one to take such a slight, Dora Akunyili told him to apologise within seven days or meet her in court to prove his allusion that she may have done something untoward during her time at the agency. Aondoakaa retracted his words and apologized to her. On Thursday 7th October 2010, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) suspended the former Attorney General from the use of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). The ethics committee of the LPPC had while pronouncing the sus­pension on Aondoakaa, said it was doing so because of the response of the ex-AG to the list of grave allegations made against him by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR. That was the first time a Se­nior Advocate would be suspended from the inner bar. Recently, the committee sat again in Abuja and restored the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) title to Aondokaa. A letter lifting the suspension, signed by the Sec­retary, Sunday Olorundahunsi said, “Since you have comported yourself in good and satisfactory manner during the suspension, it has been lifted forthwith.” Just when many thought that the former minister has finally gone under given his many travails, an online newswire PRE­MIUM TIMES featured an interesting story of the former AGF’s venture into rice pro­duction. Well, for one who comes from a state known as the Food Basket of the na­tion it should not be much of a surprise that Michael Aondoakaa has now gone into farming. With the call for food security all over the world, this controversial jurist has launched into a vocation better known for attracting acclaim than controversy. Here are excerpts from the article titled: How Michael Aondoakaa’s rice business attracted America’s attention In the beginning In 1982, Mr. Aondoakaa was an undergraduate of the University of Maiduguri when there was a students’ riot. In the aftermath, the university authorities imposed a fine on all students for damages done during the riot. Mr. Aondoakaa returned home to his father who, having no money, gave him a measure of locally grown rice to sell in the market. The law student journeyed to a distant market in the city. He was however unable to get a good bargain because of the menace of middlemen. For many years he lived with that bitter experience of peasant farmers in the hands of market shylocks. Rice being produced at the Mill When he was minister, he found out that the only business the constitution permit­ted a government official to do was farming. He reinvigorated Mikap Nigeria Limited, a company he had incorporated in 1990. Mi­kap was founded for the development of agricultural value chain, energy trading and development consulting. Specifically, the company is aimed at pro­moting commercial agriculture, agro-pro­cessing and marketing. Since 2011, Mikap has invested in polished parboiled paddy rice processing, with a capacity of 8.5 metric tons per hour under the brand name ‘Miva Rice’. Located at Kilometre 5, Gboko Road in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, the com­pany has functionally engaged over 10,000 farming communities in Benue and Cross River States in diffusing improved methods of paddy rice production. These were made possible by working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the MARKETS II scheme of United States Agency for Inter­national Development (USAID). Inside Miva Mill Mikap’s initial investment in the rice val­ue chain was the commissioning of 2.5-ton per hour (2.5TPH) rice processing mill in Year 2011. The processing capacity of the plant was increased to 8.5TPH in 2003 within two years of its operation. The mill applies state-of-the-art technologies and implements international best practices of parboiled polished rice processing, packaging and marketing. The plant delivers an upscale, export quality flagship product, ‘Miva Rice’ to the market. Miva Rice is a brand of qual­ity parboiled polished sortexed rice that is processed from locally grown long-grain hybrid rice varieties of Farro 44 (sippi) & Farro 52 (Mars) and packaged into 50kg, 25kg, 10kg and 5kg bags, respectively. At the moment, market outreach is the Nigerian market with target being the West African sub-region. Already viable and sub­stantial commercial orders for Miva Rice have been received from the Republic of Cameroon. The Rice Mill Total investment in machinery and land is N1.369 billion, made up of N869 million in equity contribution and a loan facility of N500 million under the Nigerian gov­ernment Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS). Components of the investment include: two units of Steam Boilers from India (1st unit 2,000kg/hr and 2nd unit 6,000kg/hr); two units of raw paddy pre-cleaning ma­chines (from India); three units of paddy rice parboiled plants (from India); two units each of 250t parboiled paddy storage silos (from Turkey); two units of Rice milling plants (1st line 2.5MT/hr from S. Korea and the 2nd line 6MT/hr from India); a 60-ton Road Weighbridge (from Italy); and locally-sourced vehicles, 2Nos. 250KVA diesel gen­erating sets, 1No. 500KVA diesel generating set, 1No. 100kVA diesel generating set, main factory building, raw paddy warehouse, fin­ished product warehouse, administration block, water works and fuel storage dump. Mr. Aondoakaa told PREMIUM TIMES that one of his key intentions is to add value to local foods and create sustainable wealth that will provide employment by making agriculture posh and attractive to the youth population. To this end, Mikap has commit­ted to developing markets and adding value to locally grown rice as a way of boosting food and agricultural production for wealth creation and employment generation. Inter­actions with various stakeholders, including marketers, distribution chains, consumers and farmers themselves have been benefi­cial in honing the mastery of rice processing technology. Partnership with USAID The integrated mill established by Aper Aku was not used by successive govern­ments for 25 years after he left office. A major agro player, Olam Nigeria Limited, took over the mill and they operated an out-grower scheme supported by US govern­ment. Explaining further, Aondoakaa said: “For reasons bothering on communal is­sues and preferences, Olam left the scheme in 2011. When they left, the US government became stranded because they had secured approval of the State Department to fund the scheme until 2018. So they were looking for somebody else and that was how I came in. They said I had to pay 30 per cent con­tribution while they pay 70 per cent. I com­plained about my ability to pay the 30 per cent. The ambassador said they will work it out. Eventually we signed the first agree­ment in 2012. CBN Anchor Borrower’s Programme At the national level, Miva Rice has re­ceived support from the Central Bank of Ni­geria through the CBN Rice Farmer Anchor Borrower’s programme. The CBN, based on its findings selected Umza Rice Mill in Kano and Miva for the programme modelled after the farming method in India. Again, Aondoakaa explained how it works: “In India you cannot own land more than two hectares because the population is over one billion. They have developed perfect clusters. The Indians have farm clusters for wheat, farm clusters for rice, farm clusters for tomatoes, etc. If farming is in clusters, it is easier for farm inputs to be distributed; it is easier for them to access credit and it’s easier for them to market their produce. So the CBN said look, we will develop the farm cluster for rice. You will be the anchor; you need the farmers to grow the rice paddy be­fore you can mill. Rice ready for supply “Before now, the CBN had had challenges in disbursing money to these farmers. There were issues of collateral, insurance and ac­cess to fertilizers. Now, with the anchor pro­gramme, the farmers working in coopera­tives of not more than fifty members, sign the anchor agreement with us, the CBN and the banks. You also do cross guaran­tee among the cooperative members. So this is the first time credit is being given to the farmers without collateral. And we are able to link the farmers to inputs supply like fertilizer. They are given adequate training on improved seedlings and through these clusters like the ones in Gboko, Katsina Ala, Agatu and Otupko, fertilizers are delivered to their doorsteps. “Through this approach, farm yield has improved over three-fold from 1.5 metric tonnes of rice per hectare to over 5 met­ric tonnes over the same acreage. Working through the CBN’s Rice Farmer Anchor Borrower’s programme, we are expanding our rice-farmer support to also cover Nas­sarawa, Kogi and Taraba States of Nigeria and hope to achieve the yield of 8 metric tonnes per hectare during the 2016 crop­ping season. Five additional rice processing companies have enrolled in this scheme of CBN anchor programme so we are hoping that in two to three years the national sup­ply gap of 1.5million metric tons will be no more so Nigeria won’t need to import rice,” the former Minister said. Growing acceptance for local rice Not too long ago, local rice found in Nige­rian markets were totally produced by peas­ant farmers. Though more nutritious than imported rice, it was not the favourite of the middleclass and the elites. The grains were short with stones in them. With the coming of upscale entrepreneurs and the establish­ment of rice mill equipped with sophisticat­ed technology such as optical colour sorter, the story has changed. The overall quality strategy targets ISO, SON & NAFDAC spec­ifications. In addition, brands like Miva Rice have done a lot of work on product pack­aging, making local rice not only attractive to the Nigerian consumers but foreigners as well. Mr. Aondoakaa’s mill got an order from Cameroon he could not meet. Speaking on the experience he said: “It was for 25,000MT. I think some of our Nigerian brothers took our rice to that country; they ate it only to come back here with an order. I cannot even satisfy local demands in the country, how can I think of export? But time will come when we can export. Of course if we have quality rice and surplus quantity, why would Ghana go to Thailand to buy rice and incur more cost because it takes the ships long time to ar­rive from Thailand. But with Nigeria, you can place your order today and it will arrive Ghana tomorrow. Time will come when we can export to­matoes; time will come when we can export; our food is tropical which is much better. “We only need to improve our quality so that we can be more competitive. We must make sure our standard meets the interna­tional standard; and if our production cost goes down like by solving the electricity problem, it would not make business sense for any importer to journey to Thailand to import rice, get a ship to carry the rice, wor­ry about insurance and worry about cus­toms duties when that importer can get what he wants here locally. Local rice is healthier and more nutritious. Many consumers are not aware that virtually all the imported rice from Thailand and other places are not fresh rice. They are old stocks that had been kept for as many as eight to ten years in that country’s food reserve. They cannot sell new rice to you. Some of the imported rice are expired and have lost nutritional value,” Mr. Aondoakaa explained. Bridging national supply gap Former Minister of Agriculture, now President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, had in 2014 worked out Nigeria’s national supply gap in rice to be 1.5 million metric tonnes. This, Aondoakaa said can be bridged in four to five years if current momentum in local rice production is sustained. PREMIUM TIMES expressed doubt over his five-year projection, pointing out that some of the capacities claimed by some mill owners have been found to be misleading. But Mr. Aondoakaa argued that the true local capacities cannot be measured by the installed capacities of existing rice mills. He said: “The capacity doesn’t mean the capac­ity of the machines but the capacity of the farmers to give us the quality paddy. The machines are there; we have up to 24 in­tegrated rice farms in Nigeria but where is the paddy? That is the problem. There was a pyramid of paddy outside this mill. “If I am milling at full capacity, the whole of my two warehouses, I can fin­ish the paddy in less than one month. So where is the paddy if I am supposed to run three shifts, I am just doing two shifts until when I have enough paddy. “We are hoping that by 2018 the farmers would have had sufficient training to pro­duce more paddy. The anchor program of CBN coupled with what I am doing with USAID Market Tool and what others mill­ers are doing, we are hopeful that we can get there. Mali has attained self-sufficiency in rice production. Nigeria can do same. I am the President of West Africa Rice Investors Association and we are telling other West African countries to start lo­cal rice production. I am working towards growing Miva Rice in Cameroon and Si­erra Leone as well. “However, the major problem is inse­curity in the Middle Belt region, espe­cially in Benue popularly referred to as the food basket of the nation. Go to Kogi, go to Taraba, the Fulani-Farmers conflict is harming local rice production. Agatu area used to be a major supplier of rice paddy but since this year I haven’t got one pin from that area. We invested there, through the US market tool; the rice is there in the bush but I can’t go there; the farmers can’t go in there. So whatever we did in terms of training, in terms of seeds assistance to farmers is lost; I am not getting any com­pensation. Any time you want to go there you have to meet the commissioner of po­lice to get 12 mobile police men to go with you and spend three days. You can imag­ine maintaining 12 mobile policemen for three days just to harvest how much quan­tity of rice,” Aondoakaa regretted. CHALLENGES: As Miva Rice continues in its quest to someday become a global brand, Mr. Aon­doakaa says the challenges are multifari­ous. A combination of different species of paddy by farmers creates considerable dif­ficulties in the parboiling process throwing up soaking temperature and overcooking challenges. Paddy supplies are also not thoroughly cleaned by farmers. Paddy usually contains large amount of chaff, dust and immature grains which generate Black Rice and overload the mill’s optical sorter. Large scale rice milling is water inten­sive. As a result, the Miva Mill is currently spending considerable capital on water purchase. Other major challenges facing investment in the rice value chain are capi­tal mobilization, lack of basic mechaniza­tion, and seasonal availability of paddy. Complete reliance on rain for cultiva­tion and primitive planting methods in Benue State results in single cropping per year by farmers. Because paddy is only available for a short period of 90 days at harvest time once a year, this has imposed on the company the need for long periods of stock-holding. But all these Aondoakaa assured will be surmounted as he strives to someday be remembered by history as a major contrib­utor in the diversification of the Nigerian economy. -Source www.premiumtimesng.com]]>