‘Cross River govt in a hurry to sell cocoa estates’

Why are cocoa farmers protesting over alleged plans by government to sell cocoa estates in the state? The people are angry because government has excluded them from all discussions about selling their estates.Government exited from these estates over 50 years ago.  The people know that once the prospective new buyers take over, the original owners […]

Why are cocoa farmers protesting over alleged plans by government to sell cocoa estates in the state?
The people are angry because government has excluded them from all discussions about selling their estates.Government exited from these estates over 50 years ago.  The people know that once the prospective new buyers take over, the original owners of these estates would become tenants. The new owners might not even employ them or their children in the plantations. These people have depended on these cocoa plantations for many years.
Why do you think government is bent on selling the cocoa estates?
I wouldn’t understand. The Senator Liyel Imoke government has very few months left in office before it exits in May next year. So, why are they in a hurry to sell off cocoa estates which belong to individualfarmers and local communities?  If the estates are so vital to the economy of the state why didn’t the state government prepare the minds of the people beforehand that the next government will come to sell the estates? But now they have less than one year to go and they want to sell off the plantations. Their hurried move to sell the estates suggests nothing else other than they have ulterior motive.
If government ignores the court ruling and goes ahead to sell the cocoa estate, what will happen?
I cannot predict. But I sense that there might be chaos and violence. The people have gone to complain to the court and the court has seen reason and granted them an injunction, restraining the government from going ahead with their intention. The court is in possession of petitions from the cocoa stakeholders and they know that there is danger. To avert this looming danger, the court has ordered a stay of action on both parties.
What would you like the government to do now?
The best the government should do now is to obey the court. They should meet with the people and renegotiate with them. Perhaps they could be able to persuade and convince the people to see why they want to sell their estates and turn them into tenants. If the government fails to do that and thinksit has the force of arms and want to force its will on the poor farmers and think it won’t be challenged, well, it would really be chaotic!
Could it be that the cocoa sector of the economy was not yielding as much as the government wanted and this has forced it to want to sell it to private owners?
That’s what the government claims. Yet that is not true! Their own officials short-change them. They also claim that the people are not caring for the cocoa plantations adequately.
To what extent have government officials short-changed the government through the cocoa sector?
They lease the farms to farmers. The real value of a given farm could be, say, N500,000 but government officials will sell to themselves at N50,000 and lease it out to farmers at much higher rates. Yet they don’t know anything about farming. They all live in Calabar, the state capital. A commissioner in Calabar can have as much as 20 blocs of farmland all to himself. And he would not even know where the farm is. They have access to government statutory papers. Top ministry officials prefer selling the blocs to themselves. The real farmers now resort to buying from them.  So, why shouldn’t the government sell direct to the real farmers? But when a farmer buys from government official at N500,000 he would hardly be able to recoup his money under one year lease in order to get another year lease the following year. So in this case nobody can put in real effort to add value in re-planting or refurbishing the plantations.  
What is your suggestion to the government?
We have suggested to the government that instead of the yearly lease let it be five years. If farmers lease their farms for between five to 10 years, when they plant they are going to enjoy bountiful benefits; benefits of recouping their investments and tending the farms. They can recoup part of that money before government takes it again. When the lease is renewed yearly the farmer won’t be able to take care of the farm as expected because he barely has time to work on the farm. It could be likened to a policeman who lives in a barracks. He doesn’t really see the need to repair his apartment because he knows that sooner than later he is going to be on transfer, so the barrack suffers neglect. That’s how the farms have been treated. The farmer cannot recoup his expenses within a short period of one year. The farmers are therefore asking government to give them a longer lease. And then they will not only repair the farms but will re-plant it.
How can the state government pacify and avert the likely chaos you spoke about?
Government of Cross River State should go back to the people and discuss their plans about selling their cocoa estates and see how they feel. The lives of the people of Etung, Ikom and other cocoa-producing local government areas depend on these plantations.