One of the promises of this administration which many Nigerians have held on to was that of making Nigeria self-sufficient in the local production of rice by the year 2018.
The government, which was worried that Nigeria was fast becoming a dumping ground for different types of rice from various parts of the globe, was determined to change the tide.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh in March, said “Nigerians have discovered that Nigerian rice is better than rice from Thailand and Vietnam, which are the largest producers of rice in the world.
“We are in a rivalry with the two countries for now and we will soon overtake them in rice production and take over the market from them.
“People in Thailand do not eat parboiled rice but white rice. So, all the parboiled rice they produce is exported to Nigeria. Nigeria is the biggest consumer of imported rice in the world.” he added
The government then introduced various measures to encourage and boost local rice production while efforts were also made to check influx of foreign rice importation into the country.
Apart from hoping to save foreign exchange for such rice importation, the government also planned to create jobs opportunities for Nigerian youth through such rice cultivation, packaging, storage, distribution and sales.
The government, through the processes, specifically aimed to crash the price per bag of rice in the country.
But few months to the 2018 target year for rice self-sufficiency in Nigeria, many factors are still working against its realization.
Despite the fact that many Nigerians have gone back to farming including rice production, stopping rice smuggling into the country has remained a major challenge.
While the product still easily find its way to the Nigerian market through the country’s porous borders, the price of the product has remained relatively high in the last two years.
Ogbeh last Wednesday hinted that new measures will be taken to check influx of foreign rice into the country in order to achieve government target in rice production.
He said “The other issue was the question of smuggling. In Mr. President’s speech to the National Assembly yesterday, he gave very strong warning about smugglers who bring in unauthorized commodities through the unauthorized borders into the country.
“We have to deal with that because, while we are making a great deal of progress in our grains productions, smugglers are busy compromising the success we have achieved.
“Between September 2015 and now, rice importation through the ports has dropped from 644,131, tones to 20,000 tones in September, this year.
“This means that by the early part of next year, we can literally say, that we are closed to total self-sufficiency in rice.
“On the other hand, to the west of Nigeria, rice importation has increased to 1.33 million tones. At the Republic of Benin, they don’t eat parboiled rice but the white rice. So, every grain of rice landing there is heading for Nigeria through illegal smuggling.
“Some of it also come in through Niger Republic. These are issues we have to deal with because we are creating jobs through our local rice production. There are 12.2 million rice farmers in the country now.” he added
On specific measures to tackle smuggling, he said “There is an MoU between Nigeria and Republic of Benin, entered into, when former President Obasanjo was in office, that we would work together not to compromise each other,s interest.
“That MoU has not been implemented fully, so we are going to take it up. Already, the Vice President has been working with the Committee which he heads and he is working with the Minister of Finance, Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service and also the Ministry of Agriculture.”
Speaking on the price of locally produced rice, he said “I was in the largest mill in the country in Kano two days ago, they were selling rice for N15,000 for 50kg.
“You know your country very well, there are middlemen who do all kinds of things and I told the millers to increase the number of their distributors because there is no point saying it is N15,000 in their factory when out there, somebody is hoarding.
“The same thing happened to maize. Some people filled their warehouses with maize and shut the place so that the prices were so high that poultry farmers could not get access to maize in the market.
“So, people went to import, crash the prices and they started complaining. There is no where rice is selling for N20,000.” he said
It is hoped that the new moves will be successful as many Nigerians are anxiously waiting to experience and benefit from Nigeria’s self-sufficiency in rice production.
They also want to see crashing of the prices of the various kilograms sacks of rice and more employment opportunities generated in the agricultural sector.
Also, they want same treatment extended to other agricultural produce in the country in order to make living more bearable.
To many of them, that is the actual signal that will show that Nigeria has truly exited economic recession.
For now, many are confused and found it difficult to reconcile how Nigeria could be out of economic recession with prices of goods and services still very high.
Buhari and 2018
Budget presentation
Not a few Nigerians were thrilled by the presentation of the 2018 Budget proposal by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly last Tuesday.
They were mainly thrilled by two things concerning the 2018 Budget proposal presentation.
The first issue was how President Buhari stood at a stretch for about one hour and seventeen minutes reading the budget speech. For the President to have spent a better part of half of the year on medical vacation in London and the various reports on the social media on his ill health, it beat the imagination of some Nigerians who were shocked that a ‘sick’ man could stand for long.
After standing for that long during the budget presentation, those in doubts concerning the President’s health before last Tuesday must have come to terms with the reality of the President’s fitness.
While the President was receiving standing ovation from the lawmakers at the end of the budget presentation in the chamber, his supporters outside were glorifying God for His miracle in the President’s life.
Others also could not help but attribute the President’s fitness as exhibited last Tuesday to his military training and background.
The second issue that marvelled some Nigerians about the budget proposal presentation was the effort to return the budget cycle to January – December.
Even though some Nigerians believed that the focus of the government should be on full implementation of the 2017 Budget as the year runs out, the government for the first time ensured that the 2018 Budget proposal was ready for presentation to the National Assembly by October 2017.
In the past, budget proposal presentations were often done in December while they were usually passed by the National Assembly between February and May the following year thereby making full budget implementation between January and December difficult to attain.
