The National President, Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association (FACAN), Victor Iyama, has condemned efforts by some individuals comprising of portfolio farmers, rent seekers and neophytes from yet-to-be-launched commodity associations to cause confusion in the association.
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Iyama alongside Presidents of commodity association during a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, lamented that the unwarranted misinformation by the individuals have led to confusion among their genuine and potential members.

The rebuttal is against the backdrop of claims by some aggrieved members of the association that the current executive has over-stayed their tenure which should have elapsed since 2021.

However, the National President claimed that due to restrictions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the association held the election virtually in November 2021 and all financial members was duly notified about the election for them to participate.

He stated: “We did our election in November 2021 but because of the COVID-19 lockdown, we held virtual election, ask them, are they financial members, if you have not paid your dues you are not entitled to vote or be voted for.”

Iyama added that since they were not financial members, they were not qualified to be told about the election, saying that many of them grandstanding joined the association in 2022 and are not qualified to be members yet.

He said that joining the association does not qualify them to be the President. According to him, it was an opportunity to groom their members and that people should find out about what they have done to grow their associations.
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He said the next election is coming up in November 2025 and they can wait till then to be elected into positions and even at that they are not qualified.

He accused some of the aggrieved members of not being financial members of FACAN, saying that some other once were hired to impersonate some of their members.

Iyama further disclosed that the so-called member grew at loggerheads with him because of his refusal to use FACAN platform to lobby for Minister of Agriculture because he felt that it was not the responsibility of the association to compel government to appoint a member as Minister, saying that anybody that wants to be a minister should do so by himself.

According to him, FACAN is a professional body and their duty is to serve any government in power along the agricultural value chain. As such, he should not be expected to go to the media to tell government to appoint any member as a minister. “So, I told them to count me out”, he said.

He said that because of his refusal, they said they have resolved to dissolve FACAN, which according to him, was not possible.

He said the issue has been reported to the Permanent Secretary of Trade and Investment and he was very annoyed that some people would want to use FACAN platform to make use of their conference room.

The National President said: “We want to clarify that FACAN remains apolitical, focusing solely on advancing the interests of our members and supporting government policies that enhance the agricultural sector’s growth and development.”

He however condemned actions of some Board of Trustees (BOT) in Kaduna, who he said, without proper authority, recognized the faction from the neophyte group, saying that such actions amounted to violation of FACAN’s constitution.

On the allegations that FACAN Executives had been using the platform to access funds from the Ministry of Trade and Investment, the National President explained that the body is entitled to 10percent of the levies they pay from their agricultural export, saying for a very long time they were not paid that money.

“We have spent about N439million of our own personal money to run the association, so in 2019, we made a presentation to the Ministry of Trade and Investment, and luckily the money was approved by the former permanent secretary and the Minister also, so they appealed to us that they will be paying the money gradually. Some of our members had to use their cars for Taxi to pay salaries of our staffs because we could not pay salaries”.

The money being paid was for the daily running of FACAN and also implementation of our projects at the association level, when we ask those aggrieved members to bring their projects, they can’t because they don’t have.
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