Despite millions in federal and World Bank investment, the Ikara Milk Collection Centre in Ikara LGA stands as a silent monument to governance failure. As equipment gathers dust and local herders are denied support, Dawn Herald investigates how lack of governance continuity is holding Kaduna’s dairy potential hostage.
A World Bank-assisted dairy project completed under El-Rufa’i sits unused in Kan Kona (precisely) as the new administration ignores millions of naira in federal investment. The Milk Collection Centre at Ikara Dairy Cluster stands completed but silent in Ikara Local Government Area, another victim of Nigeria’s lack of continuity in governance.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development awarded the project during the former Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i’s administration with assistance from the World Bank. Construction reached an advanced stage and the facility was completed with equipment installed. The only thing left was to start operations. Then everything went silent when Senator Uba Sani’s administration took over.
A strategic location left unused
Residents of Kan Kona explained to Dawn Herald why the facility was sited in their community. They revealed that the area serves as a junction connecting several local governments dominated by Fulani herders: Kubau, Lere, Makarfi, Kudan, Sabon Gari in Kaduna State, and even Nasarawa Local Government in neighbouring Kano State through Tudun Wada axis.
The strategic location means the centre could serve multiple dairy-producing communities, collecting milk from herders across a wide region and creating economic opportunities for thousands of people. But instead of processing milk and creating jobs, the facility sits empty.
The project was handled by HAIMA BUSINESS PARTNERS LTD under federal government funding. According to residents, construction is complete and equipment has been installed. The centre is ready to operate. What it lacks is political will to get it functioning.
Furthermore, local residents informed Dawn Herald that the El-Rufai administration established a cattle corral (Ruga) in Kubau Local Government Area specifically to meet the facility’s milk production targets. This Ruga settlement is reportedly tucked in a deep remote forested area, managed by a team of hired Fulani herders and professional oversight staff. However, sources claim that although the resident ‘Agric Cows’ are being milked, the yields are being transported to Kaduna City rather than the designated processing centre in Ikara Local Government Area. Nevertheless, due to security concerns, Dawn Herald was unable to independently verify the Ruga’s remote location.
The pattern of abandonment
This story repeats itself across Nigeria at every level of government. A new administration comes in and abandons projects started by the previous one, regardless of how much money has been spent or how close the project is to completion and above all, benefiting communities.
The reasons vary; sometimes it is a political rivalry, sometimes the new government wants to start its own projects to claim credit, and sometimes they simply do not care about what the previous administration began. However, the result is always the same: wasted resources and frustrated communities.
In Ikara’s case, the federal government and World Bank invested significant funds in a project that could transform the local dairy industry. El-Rufa’i’s state government supported it, the contractor completed construction and installed equipment. Everything was ready.
But when the administration changed, the project stopped. Whether Senator Uba Sani’s government does not know about it, has chosen to ignore it, or opposes it for political reasons, the effect is identical: millions of naira worth of federal investment sits unused while herders continue selling milk informally with no organized collection system.
Efforts to get answers failed
Dawn Herald tried to reach out to HAIMA BUSINESS PARTNERS LTD, the contractor that built the facility, to understand the project’s current status, but couldn’t get the company’s email/contact.
Dawn Herald also attempted to contact the Kaduna State Ministry of Agriculture, which should be coordinating with the federal government on agricultural projects in the state, but the effort was also unsuccessful. Nevertheless, when government officials and contractors refuse to say or do something about a completed federal project, it suggests either negligence or deliberate abandonment. Neither option is acceptable.
The cost of political discontinuity
The abandoned Milk Collection Centre represents multiple failures happening simultaneously.
The first one is, it wastes federal government resources; taxpayers’ money and World Bank loans paid for this project. Every naira spent on construction and equipment is supposed to generate economic returns through job creation and improved dairy production. But instead, those naira are producing nothing, and the phenomenon could lead to the stealing of the installed equipment. Corrupt practices in Nigeria are an open secret.
Second, it denies economic opportunities to local communities. Fulani herders across several local governments could be supplying milk to this centre, earning steady income, and improving their livelihoods. Instead, they continue with informal arrangements that offer lower prices and no quality standards.
Third, it demonstrates how political transitions destroy development in the country. Nigeria cannot develop if every new government abandons the projects of the previous one. Development requires continuity, not constant starting over.
Fourth, it discourages future investment by developing partners when they get to know the bad trend. Why would the World Bank or any development partner fund projects in Nigeria if completed facilities are left unused due to political changes? Why would contractors take on government projects if there is no guarantee the work will be utilized?
Recommendation
Governor Uba Sani’s administration should immediately activate the Milk Collection Centre in this rural community. This is not El-Rufa’i’s project, but a federal government project assisted by the World Bank that happens to be located in Kaduna State. The current state government has no reason to abandon it except politics, and politics should not determine whether completed projects serve the people or not.
The Kaduna State Ministry of Agriculture should coordinate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to operationalise the centre. Identify what additional resources are needed, if any. Hire staff, engage with herders’ associations across the catchment area and start collecting milk.
Meanwhile, the federal government should also intervene. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture funded this project and should ensure it becomes operational regardless of state-level political changes. Federal projects should not be held hostage by state politics, or whatever.
HAIMA BUSINESS PARTNERS LTD should publicly clarify the project’s status. Is the construction truly complete? Is all equipment installed? What is preventing operations from starting? As the contractor, they have a responsibility to ensure their work is utilised, except they are only after what they earned from the contract.
And most importantly, Nigeria needs a constitutional law protecting completed or near-completed government projects from abandonment. When a project reaches a certain stage of completion, the incoming administration should be legally required to either complete and operationalise it or provide a detailed public justification for cancellation. Abandonment through silence and neglect should not be an option at all.
The bigger picture
The Milk Collection Centre in Ikara LGA is one facility in one local government. But multiply this story across Nigeria and you understand why the country struggles to develop despite massive government spending and international intervention in different aspects.
How many federal projects sit abandoned across Kaduna and other States? How many state projects are gathering dust because a new governor arrived? How many local government projects stopped mid-construction when the chairman changed?
Add up all the wasted resources from abandoned projects at federal, state, and local government levels over the past two decades, the total would be huge. That money could have built functional schools, equipped hospitals, constructed roads, and provided water to millions of Nigerians. Instead, it sits frozen in half-finished or fully-finished but unused projects that serve as monuments to political discontinuity and governance failure.
The housing sector suffers particularly from this problem in (almost) every state of Nigeria. But as the Ikara Milk Collection Centre shows, agriculture and other sectors face the same stagnation of national development as a result of waste of resources. Every sector of Nigeria’s economy bears the cost of political leaders who care more about their own projects than about completing inherited ones. This must stop!.
A call for leadership
Governor Uba Sani has an opportunity to show leadership by operationalizing this facility. It costs him nothing politically. In fact, he can even claim credit for “activating” a federal project that was left dormant. The communities will praise him, the federal government will appreciate the cooperation and the World Bank will see that their investment was not wasted.
More importantly, he will demonstrate that governance continuity is possible in Nigeria. He will show that good projects can survive political transitions. He will prove that development matters more than partisan politics or considerations.
The alternative is to let the facility continue sitting unused while herders struggle and opportunities, especially for rural dwellers. That path requires no effort, no leadership, and no vision. It is the easy choice that has kept Nigeria underdeveloped for decades.
The choice is his. The Milk Collection Centre is ready and the communities are ready. But the question is whether the government is ready to serve rather than play politics with people’s livelihoods.
As Dawn Herald keeps the pen down, the centre is waiting, the herders are waiting. However, how long will governance failure make them wait? We are going to keep our fingers crossed.
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