BY M.U NDAGI,
OPINION
With its vast arable land and diverse natural wealth in addition to the huge human resources, it is a shame that Nigeria, after over five decades as an independent country, still depends largely on other nations to feed its population.
With this obvious truth that has been public knowledge for some time, Nigeria's current Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina declared in a recent interview published serially by the Daily Trust newspaper in its June 5, 2013 and June 13, 2013 editions that he is not and "cannot be a minister of food importation". Many Nigerians who know their right from left could easily read between the lines of the minister's claim. Well, it would be clearer to readers hopefully at the end of this discourse whether or not Dr. Akinwunmi was speaking the whole truth, half truth or no truth at all.
Contributing to a bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of Food Security Advancement Fund (FOSAF) when it passed first reading in the House of Representatives in July 2012, Honorable Kaka Kyari Gujbawu lamented how Nigeria annually spends about N1.1 trillion (or $7 billion) on the importation of four food items namely rice, wheat, sugar and fish alone. The Minister of Agriculture Dr. Akinwunmi has at many fora including the media report on page 24 in the Daily Trust edition of April, 10 2013 that Nigeria spends N1.3 trillion a year importing basic food items like rice, fish and sugar from China and Thailand; making the country the world's second largest importer. Indeed, it is Dr. Akinwunmi's assertion that Nigeria imports N1 billion worth of rice daily!
Is it not irresponsible of our leaders and waste of resources that despite being the second largest producer of tomatoes in Africa after Egypt with the production capacity of 1.2 million metric tons annually, Nigeria is a net importer of tomatoes and tomato pastes spending over N11 billion on it a year? Supermarkets and shopping malls across Nigerian towns and cities are flooded with imported tomatoes. A single ball of tomato weighing about 564 gram, for instance, costs N433.00 which is a little less than the price of a dustbin size basket full of local tomato at peak production period. Part of the problem is that there are no adequate industries for processing this produce; leading to wastages in large quantities.
It is not only tomatoes that are imported while local produce rot away. Canned fruits worth millions of naira are also imported while local produce of pineapple, banana, orange, watermelon and cucumber are wasted due to lack of processing industries. Amidst this colossal loss and apparent unwillingness of government to do anything about it, the Nigerian beverage market continues, for example, to be dumping grounds for processed fruits like canned watermelon from Arizona, United States. This has its attendant drain on Nigeria's foreign exchange earning. This is a situation that could have changed for the better if some state governments especially in the north where tomato is largely produced invest in fruits processing and packaging. Individual businessmen could have equally helped to change the situation.
Is it not amazing though embarrassing that ordinary charcoal for roasting meat is now imported in to Nigeria? What sort of country, for Allah's sake, is Nigeria? What a rape of our country's economy by the few that decide the fate of about a hundred and forty million Nigerians! Just walk into any supermarket in a city like Abuja or Lagos, you will be astonished by what you will see of items which importation have been banned such as frozen fish & meat; vegetable oils and fats; spaghetti noodles; fruit juice in retail packs; bottled waters; soaps and detergents; textile fabrics of all types; and furniture. It is not a disgrace (to our leaders) that they allow (even though banned) the importation of pens and pencils, toilet papers, tooth brush, toothpicks, matches and mosquito repellant coils? The Nigeria customs must have been on "working leave"!
No nation with credible leadership accepts this flagrant compromise of her food security as well as the conceding of huge capital where domestic resources and inputs abound for the production of the same items locally. I find it difficult to compromise between the official prohibition of vegetable oil on the one hand and the waivers issued to selected companies by the same government for the importation of the same banned product. The purpose of the vegetable oil ban may have been defeated by the issuance of waivers to companies like BUA and others from India to import the product.
Before the oil glut in the 1980s, agriculture was the main source of our country's economy. Gradually, it became an abandoned sector through the deliberate neglect by successive administrations. Several window-dressing programs have been launched in this sector but none was supported to survive. Where is the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN); the Green Revolution; and DFFRI? Even the half-dead River Basin Authorities are only shadows of their initial concepts. It is sad that we are not making optimum use of the Lake Chad basin. Even the cassava we are known to be its world largest producer is not yet an item of export in Nigeria.
Let's now go back to Dr. Akinwunmi' claim. If he is not a minister of food importation, why is the administration under which he is serving spending trillions of naira to import staple food items or giving waivers for the importation of banned food items? May Allah (SWT) touch the heart of our leaders to fear God in all they do and say, amin
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