Reverend Father Mbaka accused Buhari administration of marginalising Ndigbo after being denied farming loan

FIERY clergyman Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka has accused the federal government of  marginalising Ndigbo in the scheme of things in Nigeria after he was denied a loan from the Bank of Agriculture to start a farming project.

Reverend Father Mbaka, the spiritual director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, achieved national fame in 2014 when during a Christmas mass he predicted impending doom for the then President Goodluck Jonathan. Since then, however, he has become a fierce critic of the Buhari administration, accusing the government of betraying the hope a lot of Nigerians had in it.

Yesterday, the cleric intensified his criticism of the government saying that in spite of his support for President Buhari, he slept in Abuja for weeks to get a loan from the Bank of Agriculture to energise his farming vision in order to create jobs to teaming unemployed graduates. He added that despite this, he was unable to get the loan because he is not a northerner.

Speaking at the Adoration ground, during the flag-off of a three-day farmers empowerment programme by Multi-Life Saver’s, a corporative society made of 18 groups with 5,000 members Reverend Father Mbaka described the government agricultural programme as poor claim and fake. He added the cooperative has 470 hectares of farmland with a certificate of occupancy but still he could not get loan because he was not a northerner.

Reverend Father Mbaka added: “Whenever I went to obtain loan from the Bank of Agriculture, they would tell me to get a commercial bank that will do this and do that. The commercial banks will ask me to bring the feathers of one snake and leg of snake and this went on for many years.

"We are ready to impact significance into our agriculture but the only barrier is funding and encouragement. It’s a sad development because if a northern has this kind of vision they would come around him but here, we are alone."

He begged the officials of the Bank of Agriculture to give his cooperative loans to help him create employment opportunities for the youths who have no jobs or no hope of getting a job. According to Reverend father Mbaka, his cooperative had lost a lot of money in previous projects due to natural disasters and funding was needed to keep the project going.

"We started it in Adani and there was no help, there was flood and we lost N830m and I went down to Nkereife, where we had the largest poultry farm in the east of the Niger. So, please, on behalf of the adoration members, we want them to monitor the funding and implementation as we don’t kill criminals here, we kill crime.

"If you go to Aqua Rapha investment, we have thousands of them working, yet, we don’t have government support apart from Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who remembered us and created a road to this place. People thought President Buhari is helping me but he is not helping us with one kobo," Reverend Father Mbaka added.

He stressed:  “If you go to the north, you would see how billions are spent there but if you go to my farm, there is a river that separates the land which makes it difficult for me to move equipment and now, I’m doing the bridge by myself without help from anywhere, yet, I’m a priest. I’m representing the poor, that is why I’m attacking many governments because when they cannot help the poor who I represent and when the pressure is too much on me, I attack them.

 “We have in our aquaculture fishes one of the species which contains 5bn fishes but the lack of good roads to the farm led to the closure and the federal government is aware of this, so, for me, it is not just negligence but wickedness and unhealthy marginalisation. If a northerner had this kind of vision, from the central bank, the order will be given, that is why the Igbo are crying."