…Says, ‘We are in a mess in this country’
Jude Onyebadi, a three-time kidnapped priest cum farmer in Delta State, is among Nigerians at crossroads, so confused on what to do next. Hence, his exclamation: “We are in a mess in this country!”
Onyebadi is the priest in charge of St Theresa Catholic Hospital as well as the Executive Secretary to Health Management Board of Isselle-Uku Diocese, Delta State, established and run Ifeanyichukwu Farms for years but presently unable to continue due to insecurity.
As a priest, his portfolio includes managing hospitals belonging to the Isselle-Uku Diocese of Catholic Church but frustration seems to be setting in due to dearth of medical personnel. They are relocating out of Nigeria. The more pathetic situation is that they are leaving not because they want to.
The insecurity and economic situation in the country have pushed them to do so. They leave their jobs in Nigeria and relocate to countries where they do not even have any hope of getting a job to sustain their lives and families.
Though Onyebadi no longer run his farms due to fear of being kidnapped the fourth time, he cannot leave the country because a lot of destinies are sustained through his administration as he manages the church’s hospitals. He made the revelations during an exclusive interview with BusinessDay Sunday. Mercy Enoch brings the excerpts:
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Father, may we know the situation with your farms and agribusiness at the moment?
We are in a mess in this country! I no longer go to my farms and no business. I have left it in the hands of my few remaining workers. Last time, I told you I would be a fool to put my life at risk of being killed by deadly Fulani herdesmen who had kidnapped me thrice in two years, on my farm. If I have my way, I would have travelled out of this country but because of my job as a priest, I’m unable to do so.
The real farmers are leaving the country. Medical personnel are not left out. In the past five months, I know 15 persons that have travelled out of this country to abroad hopelessly. Five of them are real farmers of whom I have dealings with. Among the rest are medical personnel including doctors. Some of them relocated with their families while some are planning for their wives and children to join them over there. I can tell you that there are more people who are processing their visas to travel out.
One of the farmers who relocated were among those I trained in the farming business. He later started his own and was doing well. When he saw the worsening security situation in the country, he became afraid of living and doing business in Nigeria. With the rising cost of fertilizer from N20,000 to N27,000 per bag too, he said he could no longer cope running the farming business. He recently left Nigeria to another country.
This particular farmer that relocated pained me because even when the second kidnap incident occurred, he was the one that helped me go back to farm. He left his own farm and came and pulled me back to my farm but when I was kidnapped the third time, he began looking for where to relocate to.
I find it difficult to relocate because a lot of people look up to me. I established farms that engaged over 150 youths but that aim has been defeated because of insecurity. I am an administrator in our hospitals and a lot of people look up to me. So, as a priest and one that manages lives, it is difficult for me to leave.
But some farmers in some parts of Delta State claim that they go to their farms without being attacked or kidnapped?
Even recently, security operatives were attacked along the Issele-Uku expressway. Did you not hear it? Apart from that, the kidnappers target the real farmers. Nobody in my area, Isselle-Uku Community, has the size of farm that I have – hectares and large expanse of farmlands (that produce maize and pineapple) and each time I was kidnapped, my abductors subjected me to inhuman treatments, threatened me to sell the land and give them the money. They know those they are looking for. Three times is more than enough! I mean, I can’t try it (going to the farm) again except the security situation improves. Any of my friends that hears that I go to farm again will say that I’m mad.
My workers are in the farm doing skeletal work. I had already stocked the materials we use in three years. I buy and keep in stock. The one I bought since is still available now. When that one finishes by next year’s farming season, they will know. They are using it as if they don’t know the value. They are not making any money out of it. The land is mine, materials are mine. They are just working and wasting the materials. You know, without management, the job is not done. So, the management that I put into the farm business is not there but I’m not quarelling because I have lost interest. I still have up to 300 bags of fertilizers (Urea) after the ones they will use for this year. Usually, 320 bags are needed for farming yearly. Due to the way they are working, after next year, they would be unable to realise money to buy more fertilizer.
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You said you know at least 15 persons that have relocated hopelessly to abroad. Why hopelessly?
Yes, for me, I do go abroad on visit but they are not going on visit. They just travelled not because they are going to work there They don’t have working papers. Some are just for one year study and thereafter, no hope for a job there. Some just go while their families are in Nigeria.
One of them, a medical doctor, is somebody I know to be productive. No matter what he said, I should pay him and keep him here but I can’t keep him because he has made up his mind not to stay. More persons would be going. They are already processing their papers.
For instance, the one that is paining me the most is that we have a very good medical doctor in our hospital. He has been working with us since the last 10 years. He is a Yoruba man. He told me that if Peter Obi wins, he won’t relocate but if he didn’t, he would go. The place he’s even going is Bulgaria, not even United Kingdom, etc. He confided in me so we could shop for a replacement doctor. And for us now, we can’t get. All the doctors are gone.
We’ve just built another new hospital but can’t get nurses and doctors. All of them are gone. It is not that they changed job. They relocated out of this country.
We interviewed about five doctors to take our jobs but ended up not giving any of them job. Why? Because they said ‘Father, we are waiting for our Visa to go abroad.’ So, what’s the need of employing a worker that would stay a while and leave? I better take those I know are not leaving the country today. I better stay with nothing than taking somebody I know he’s not going to stay. I will tell you the truth. We are just in a mess in Nigeria. These are two areas I’m into – farms and hospitals. My major area of study is Management. I have my Master’s Degree in Administration. That’s why I’m interested to manage our Catholic Church’s hospitals and these are what I’m seeing in these two areas.
The doctors and nurses, even the youth corpers are already thinking of how to go out of the country. The major staff are gone. What we have are those we trained.
That singular doctor that relocated is more than five doctors in one. He works from morning to night, no rest. We pay him to keep him, though money us not everything. The sacrifice he puts into the job, there’s no amount of money you pay him to make up for the sacrifice, that will justify it.
Farming is my personal thing. I do it as a hobby, to keep youths engaged so they would not drift away into crime. There is no other reason that made me to start farming. Like the Bible says, “The sheep are scattered when they have no shepherd.”
Insecurity, bad economy are threatening everything in this country. It was that bad in the last administration. Now, we don’t know where we are heading to.
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Don’t you see hope in the assurances of the incumbent president in tackling the monsters?
I don’t think there’s light in the assurances of the President. You need to be clean in order to do clean things.
