Jonathan Tsado Vatsa, a former Niger State commissioner for information, culture, and tourism and a senior member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), has urged President Bola Tinubu to conduct an investigation into the alleged mismanagement of the N500 billion Anchor Borrowers loan that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) provided to the state.

In Minna, the capital of Niger State, OBASANJO NEWS24 was present for Vatsa’s live radio programme on Tuesday.

The Niger State government collected N4 billion from the programme, which President Tinubu recently decried as a waste of billions of naira.

When asked about which farmers in Niger State benefited from the Anchor Borrowers fund, Vatsa replied on the radio: “If Mr. President goes ahead and looks into the disbursement of the Anchor Borrowers fund in Niger State, we will be interested to know.

Are these the same farmers who bandits drove off their farms and ancestral houses, or are they the farmers in charge of the executive branch and overseeing ministries?

The former APC publicity secretary in Niger continued, “We saw how the state’s N4 billion Anchor Borrowers fund’s sharing formula caused a serious fight in the state between the “air-conditioned farmers,” while the actual farmers who were the targeted beneficiaries weeded their farms in communities where there are no bandit activities using hoes, cutlasses, and in some cases, bare hands.

He argued that although the system had good intentions, some state governments—including Niger State—hijacked it, allowing those who mattered in the administration to openly syphon funds to the disadvantage of the nation’s poor farmers.

Vatsa cautioned that if the President decided to politicise his investigation into the programme by confining it to states held by opposition parties, it would be detrimental to the nation.