On the 12th of November, 2018 the Nigeria minister of information and culture , lai Muhammad made a remarkable statement at the special town hall meeting on agriculture revolution in jigawa state, the statement "Rice importation in the country has dropped to about 90 percent ", claiming that Nigeria is no longer a dumping ground for imported rice from India and Thailand.
This news came as a shock to many Nigerians, Some were delighted about the news and praise the Buhari led administration for its effort in agriculture and its effort in diversifying the economy indeed to many the government has fulfilled the promises it made to the citizens when it took power 3 years ago. Rice is the De-facto Food consumed in every part of the country, its a food that is not distinguished by class, consumed both by the lower class, the middle class and the uper class, and it is no news to ordinary Nigerians that much of the rice they are eating came from outside the country particularly from Thailand.
Some were skeptical of the news as just a few days ago the vice president had made this statement at the National economic summit in Abuja, the country capital.
According to him, "Today , but for a few drawbacks, we are confidently approaching self-sufficiency in rice production.
"From importing $5 million dollars of rice every single day, official imports are now down to 2%. if you note, i said official imports are down to 2%.
What this means is that from $5 million dollars every day to $100, 000 dollars everyday.
Critics arose, the foremost coming from the opposition Atiku Abubakar from the PDP who cited by the USDA(United states department of agriculture world markets and trade) which claim that Nigeria imported Three million metric tonnes of rice in 2018.
Now this is amazing and Nigerians are confused the figure given by the USDA not only debunked the government claim but at Three million metric tonnes Nigeria imported 400, 000 metric tonnes higher than the quantity of product that was imported in 2017, the report also claimed that local production was on the decline and these facts fly in the face of government claim of what it achieved in the area of rice production.
A dilemma is created , should the people believe their government and should they go along with the united states department of agriculture world markets and trade report.
Who is the liar, the Federal government of Nigeria or the united states.
But let us take a moment and examine how each entity compounded and compiled their data to reach their various conclusion.
The Nigerian government used data from the central Bank, Customs,Rice producers association, rice millers and other similar agencies.
The CBN to its credit released a statement through its governor Godwin Emefiele in support of the federal government and debunked the USDA narrative tagging it as a "false and fake news"
Speaking at the 2018 Nigeria Investment Conference hosted by the Chartered Financial Analysis (CFA) Society of Nigeria in Lagos, Emefiele Claimed Nigeria has imported only 25,000 tonnes off rice in 2018 legally.
Indeed, Figures obtained from India and Thailand, which are the dominant rice exporters to Nigeria indicate that as at September, India had so far exported about 5,161 metric tonnes of rice to Nigeria , while Thailand sold only sum of 426 as at July. These are independent figures obtained from different and independent sources and they attest to the truthfulness of the Nigerian figures.
Where then does the USDA got its own figure From????
To be continued...................
Comments
Post a Comment