25th October, 2010
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Prof. Sheik Abdullah, has promised to sanitise the ministry to ensure efficiency and proper utilisation of resources.
Abdullah spoke at the Forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
He noted that corruption was not peculiar to the ministry, but pledged that he would do everything possible to place the ministry on the path of moral rectitude.
Abdullah blamed corruption in the country on control, saying that,“corruption and control are birds of the same feather.’’
He spoke of the need to work on the psyche of Nigerians to combat corruption, adding: “we will need to do a lot of reshaping in terms of psyche and that I believe can change some of the things.’’
Reviewing the agricultural sector in the past 50 years, Abdullah said that its performance had been undulating with “moments of success and moments of failure.â€
He attributed the underperformance of the sector to constraints such as inadequate manpower and technological know-how.