From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
A foremost socio-cultural and ethnic nationalist organisation of Edo people at home and in the diaspora, Benin National Congress (BNC), yesterday, claimed that the managerial crisis and power tussles rocking the Nigerian Institute For Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) has hampered the nation’s yearly productions of 2.5 million tons of palm oil and palm kernel oil.
A statement entitled: “Open letter to the minister of agriculture and food security on the seeming gross mismanagement of affairs at the Nigerian Institute For Oil Palm Research and attempt to breach the peace at the institute and host communities and NIFOR” signed by its president, Aiyamenkhue Edokpolo, in Benin, said it was unfortunate that an institution established 84 years ago cannot compete with the Malaysians who came to collect seedlings from them, stressing that the twist of event was disappointing.
“We are particularly disappointed at the administrative events stifling the performance and progress of some research institutes in Nigeria.
“Research institutes were established as research and innovation arm of the Federal Government to carry out research in their mandate crops for genetic improvement, post-harvest loss mitigation, extension of developed technologies and monitoring of feedback from technology beneficiaries.
“If these activities were faithfully implemented, Nigeria would have recorded high food sufficiency if other factors remained constant.
“If we take NIFOR as a case in point, our investigation showed that the institute is about 84 years old. The Malaysians visited Nigeria for oil palm seeds when NIFOR was about 30 years old and collected our materials to improve what they had.
“Shortly after that, the Malaysians became the largest exporter of palm oil in the world market. They continued until the Indonesians copied them and displaced them from the first position because Indonesia has more land and adapted technology. Today, Indonesia produces more than 34 million tons of palm oil and Malaysia produces about 19 million tons of palm oil while Nigeria produces about 1.3 million tons per year. Our total requirement of palm oil and palm kernel oil is about 2.5 million tons per year.”
Edokpolo laid the cause of the problem at the door steps of the leadership tussles in the institution.