It was inevitable, perhaps, that it had to come to this. According to news reports, thirty acres of farm land used for the cultivation of indian hemp, with a market value of forty million naira, have been destroyed by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

The Deputy Governor of the State, Erelu Olusola Obada, who witnessed the destruction lamented that valuable acres of land in the state were being used to cultivate indian hemp instead of staple food crops. For once the obviously bemused deputy governor was talking sense, to an extent. Apart from lamenting, Erelu Obada should ask herself some questions about the effectiveness of the government of which she, is by virtue of her position, a key player.

An important area of discourse is, how come valuable farm land in the state is now devoted to the cultivation of Indian hemp instead of staple food crops? No prices for guessing correctly the answer. Quite elementary really. It is quite clear that the Oyinlola/Obada administration has failed to come out with a blueprint to revive, modernise and uplift agriculture in Osun State.

This could have something to do with fixations on allocations from the 'mainstream', hence the leaders have not been alert enough to see the endless possibilities that the modernization of agriculture provides. Now the chickens have come home to roost. Apart from the socio-economic disaster of arable land being turned into hemp farms, allocations from the Federation Account are dwindling as a result of the worldwide economic meltdown. Oyinlola and his deputy, Erelu Obada, have obviously failed to prepare for the rainy day and now the disaster is multi-faceted. Once again the age-long truism is being confirmed - that indolence, inability to plan and maladministration come at a cost. In this instance, a big debilitating cost.

Nature, of course, abhors a vacuum. If the Osun State government does not know what to do with fallow farm lands under its watch, enterprising miscreants will show it the way. Hemp farms have become employment and income generating schemes precisely because of the ineptitude and planlessness of Oyinlola and his government. The hemp farm revelations reflect the moral decay and administrative bankruptcy of the government in Osun State.

The deputy governor shouldn't just lament, she should go a notch up and ask, "what is to be done"? There is nothing new about having well coordinated and implemented government-backed agriculture initiatives. Mrs. Indira Gandhi's 'green revolution' is still, to date, a masterpiece of social engineering.

Mrs. Gandhi conquered famine and agricultural backwardness in India by introducing improved new seeds. In addition, she trained an army of agricultural extension workers to show the peasant farmers how to improve their yield, and introduced better storage and preservation systems and networks. Unlike Erelu Obada who appears to be lost at sea, Indira Gandhi was a determined, highly focused lady. Not surprisingly, her pivotal achievements live on long after she has passed away. What on earth is anyone going to remember Erelu Obada for?

Sadly, agriculture can revitalise the economy of Osun State, in this age of dwindling federal allocations. Since freeloading and joining the centre is going to become increasingly tenuous, why not look at agronomy for increased employment generation and internally generated revenue? The peasant farmer should take centre stage. Revitalized commodity boards should be aligned with improved seeds and guaranteed farm gate prices to increase production. The effect will be a great increase in the living standard of all those involved in agriculture. There will clearly be no space for fallow farm lands to be used for growing indian hemp. Since she seems to be peeved, someone should educate Erelu Obada on the fine point of Indira Gandhi's green revolution. The people of Osun State will clearly be better off for it.

It has not been a good week for legislators in the United Kingdom. Many of them have been caught with their grubby fingers in the cookie jar. They have been making all kinds of untenable claims and the public is pretty much fed up with it. No one can blame them for feeling uptight. Members of parliament are supposed to serve the interests of the public and not fiddling their accounts.

The news of the difficulties of British MP's will no doubt make our local legislators in Abuja and in the thirty-six states very elated. If British legislators who have traditionally very high standards are in discomfiture, why are the media expecting any standards at all from Nigerian legislators. We will no doubt be hearing a lot of pious, sanctimonious sermons from legislative quarters in the days ahead.

At least in the United Kingdom something is going to be done to rectify the obviously defective system of bonuses and claims by legislators. In Nigeria's rentier state absolutely nothing is going to happen. The reason is obvious: the main essence of 'public service' in a rentier state is to have your fill at the trough. Any other consideration is very much secondary.

At least the British legislators clearly make up for their lapses by doing a lot of work. They are diligent in their oversight function and initiate quality private members' bills. Alas! In Nigeria, as is usual, it is double jeopardy. Here, fiddling with the accounts and receiving underserved privileges goes hand in gloves with remarkable indolence. Even the laidback President Umaru Yar'Adua has had to put diplomatic niceties aside in berating the National Assembly for their low productivity.

As President Yar'Adua pointed out, for the 2008 legislative session, he recorded only four laws presented to him for assent by the National Assembly. None was a private member's bill. Everyone already knew that the legislators were intellectually challenged. We now know that their work ethic is challenged as well. It is not surprising that this is the end product of fraudulent electoral processes. These characters didn't go there out of any interest in public service; they went there to get a piece of the action. A piece of the action includes indulging in all kinds of infantile fantasies. For example, one particular lawmaker, acting like a clown, refers to himself as a 'Right Honourable'. It is difficult to work out how he got the prefix without being a member of the British Privy Council.

The price of fraudulent ballots is responsible for our indolent legislators' misdemeanour. We are clearly in a bind. Recent events in Ekiti State have shown that the powers that be are resolute that this country will never have free and fair ballots. Therefore, we are locked into a vicious cycle. Fraud-riddled elections producing indolent, work-shy legislators. How do you break the chain?

Unfortunately, there is very little basis for optimism. Leadership Newspapers in an excellent editorial a week ago captioned the mood of despair very well in stating that:

"The proponents of "Re-branding Nigeria" can now see that they cannot succeed unless they can hoodwink, intimidate or "settle" all decent Nigerians and foreigners. Whenever elections like the one conducted in Ekiti take place, embassies and high commissions in Nigeria collect factual information, which they dispatch to their home governments. Their reports - and the reports of other observers - form other countries' judgement of our country. How will a devious government re-brand brigandage, robbery or assassination of voters by policemen and thugs working for a party? Will foreign investors prefer Nigeria to countries like the United States, Ghana, India, Iceland and South Africa that freely elected their leaders recently? Nigeria is undeveloped today - and apparently incapable of developing tomorrow - due to the absence of genuine democracy."