Prayer session to address sudden death scare, Agric ministry clarifies
By Tunde Opalana
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has clarified the motive behind scheduling of prayer session among its. staff .
The Human Resource Management Department had through an internal circular dated 11th June, 2025 invitee staff members to a three Monday prayer session starting from tomorrow, Monday 16, 2025 between the hours of 12:00pm and 12:30pm withing the premises of the ministry to commit staff unto God against spread of sudden death.
According to the internal circular which went viral on social media, the prayer session were to hold on the 16th, 23rd and 30th of June at the Conference Hall B in the ministry.
The clarification was made by the Information Department of the ministry in a statement signed by Ezeaja Ikemefuna, Assistant Director, Information.
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“The prayer was to address the apprehensiveness of staff over the recent untimely and successive death of management staff of the Ministry. The staff also deem it not out of place to pray for the country, hence The Theme of the Prayer Sessions “Divine Intervention for Protection and National Development’’, he said.
Ezeaja further emphasized that the call for prayer is not an official policy by the Ministry to address agriculture and food security issues in the country. “But in response to the yearnings of staff who are apprehensive following the death of some of their colleagues in recent times”.
He added that “the ministry wishes to inform that the prayer session is an initiative of Human Resource Department to address the wellbeing of the staff just as the already existing monthly aerobic exercise and establishment of the gymnasium in the ministry are for physical fitness as the regular medical check -up of staff are for their health.
“The Ministry wishes to emphasize that the prayer session is an internal initiative of staff to address the concern over sudden deaths in the Ministry and not intended to replace or downplay the remarkable effort and achievement of the Ministry and other stakeholders in achieving food security in the Nation.”
Reeling out efforts of the ministry towards achieving good sufficiency and attaining food security, he said the Honourable Minister, Senator Abubakar Kyari and the Minister of State, Senator Sabi Abdullahi Aliyu have been working assiduously to ensure food and nutrition security for the country in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration.
“The ministry has taken delivery of over a thousand tractors to support farmers and had signed the commercialization phase under the supervision of President Tinubu;
“Another of his initiatives is the Strategic Grain Reserve and Market Stabilization of prices where about 42,000 metric tonnes of grains and additional 58,200 metric tonnes of milled rice grains were distributed;
“Also, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 2,150,000 bags of fertilizers were donated by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Ministry to reduce food inflation;
“The president has approved the recapitalization of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) to the tune of N1.5 trillion, a historic financial intervention to scale up access to affordable finance for Nigerian Farmers;
“The Ministry launched the National Electronic Extension platform (NEEP), a digital initiative designed to improve agricultural extension services;
“The Ministry initiated a revitalized cooperative sector by organizing training and workshops for stakeholders at the Federal Cooperative Colleges in the North and South . This effort is aimed at strengthening the cooperative societies and enhancing their role in economic development;
“The Ministry, in collaboration with the World Bank, earmarked $600 million to rehabilitate 200,000 kilometres of rural roads under Rural Access and agricultural marketing project (RAAMP);
“The Ministry procured and distributed free agricultural essential inputs to farmers, which include fertilizers, Agro-chemicals, seeds, and other critical inputs to enhance food production and support farmers during the planting season;
“The National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro -Pocket (NAGS-AP) registered farmers across the country to receive essential farm inputs, and the project has provided subsidized agricultural inputs to farmers across the country;
“The Ministry is also partnering with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to improve data management for farmers’ identity verification, transparency, efficiency, and better access to more agricultural services and resources, amongst others”
