The ceremony was unnecessary
Apparently in a bid to show that the federal government huge intervention in agriculture is paying off, President Muhammadu Buhari recently unveiled several bags of paddy rice stacked in triangular pyramids in Abuja. At the ceremony, the president commended the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, for initiating the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) through which the ‘massive’ rice production was achieved. According to him, national paddy rice production rose from about 4.5 tonnes per annum in 2015 to over nine million tonnes last year. “The significance of today’s occasion can be better understood by looking at the various economic strides the administration has achieved through agriculture,” he said.
Whatever may have motivated the idea, public opinion on the funfair is sceptical, seen more as a political jamboree ahead of the 2023 elections. The picture of abundance, mimicking the groundnut pyramids in the skylines of Kano city in the 1960s, is at variance with the reality of millions of hungry Nigerians. While there is no doubt that Nigeria has witnessed incremental reductions in rice imports, there is little to celebrate as the product widely displayed at the ceremony is still scarce and expensive. A 50kg bag of rice sells at N30,000 as against N10,000 when President Buhari took over the reins of government in 2015.
Pertinent questions therefore arise: Why did the government waste so much time and money in ferrying rice across many states to Abuja to display in pyramids? Why wasn’t the rough rice processed and taken straight to the market, particularly during the last yuletide when it was in high demand? Who is the government trying to impress? Indeed, some cynical observers, among them critical stakeholders, have raised questions about the farmlands where the unveiled rice was cultivated, taking into consideration that rice millers are still faced with high costs of production and poor access to paddy.
The high level of insecurity in the major rice and maize producing states has forced many farmers to stay away from the farmlands while many others are still pining away in internally displaced camps. The case of the 44 rice farmers murdered by terrorists in Borno State in 2020 is still fresh in many people’s mind. Indeed, the CBN governor admitted that the past few years had been quite challenging for the farmers as they battled with insurgency, banditry, lockdown, and other related setbacks. “We lost some of our farmers to insurgency attacks nationwide while some could not access their farms for several months,” said Emefiele. These perhaps prompted a doubtful National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim to ask: “Who owns the rice and maize? If we have surplus food as depicted by the pyramids, why do we still have food shortages?”
As things stand, the most effective way to demonstrate that the alliance between ABP and the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) on rice production is yielding results is to flood the markets with quality local rice at affordable price. Nobody could accuse the government of inactivity as regards commitment to agriculture. But most of the money poured into the sector is going down the drain. The prevailing insecurity across the country is exacerbating the food crisis. Many farmers cannot access their farms for fear of being killed, kidnapped, or raped. A CBN report on sectoral allocation of forex for the third quarter of last year revealed that the country spent a whopping $1.68bn on food importation between January and September.
The figures are clear indication that many of the interventions by the government have no profound impact on food security. For that to happen, we must first arrest the confounding problem of insecurity.