The recent decision of the Federal Government to import 500,000 tonnes of rice worth 80 billion naira from Thailand in response to the worldwide soaring food crisis is ill-conceived, wasteful and unprogressive, and must be reviewed immediately. While the government's response may be explained away within the context of an emergency, its diagnosis of the food crisis is devoid of rigour, and coherent plan, tends to place the cart before the horse and it is doubtful whether such an adhoc remedy can even address the problem in the short term. The House of Representatives has already kicked against the importation, asking the presidency to drop it. The legislators’ argument is equally is e premised on the Government's inability to fully grasp the nature of the crisis, hence proferring wrong antidote.
With daily astronomical increase in every staple food item such as yam, pepper, tomatoes, vegetable, beans and other essential commodities, it is only to rice the government has devoted its attention. While it may be true that it is the most popular menu in many homes, it is not an excuse to be so narrow minded in addressing the crisis.
As at now, the government is yet to fully respond to how the soaring cost of other food items will be addressed. Even in trying to address the rice issue, it failed to distinguish between the cause and effect. One of the main causes of increase in rice prices was not unavailability, but high vost of duty being paid.
It took the government one week after it announced its jumbo importation subsidy before it realised that it ought to first suspend duty on rice importation in order to bring the price down before addressing the problem of shortage. This is a sign of hollowness in its so-called food security plan. Gladly, it announced the suspension of import duty on rice few days ago. This will cost the government about 40 billion naira in revenue, half of what it proposes to use for the commodity importation from Thailand. Equally troubling is where the government hopes to get the amount of tonnage of rice it is importing given the prevailing situation in the international market where all the major rice producers have placed embargo on export. Certainly Thailand cannot export about 17 per cent of its annual production to Nigeria alone.
We are also worried, given the past experience, about the tendency of such temporary importation being turned into a permanent economic way of life as well as the opportunity it provides for large-scale corruption and scams.
The fuel and fertilizer importations which were meant to be an emergency to a shortage but turned into a regular item on the national budget are glaring cases which re-enforces the general public cynicism on the issue.
Expected to rear its ugly head with such crass importation is the new class of corrupt middlemen and officials who will exploit the opportunity to create another level of graft, embezzlement and scam. If right thinking Nigerians are apprehensive of this policy, it is majorly on this note.
What Nigeria presently needs is a long-term strategy to attain food sufficiency. At the moment, there appears to be none. The food security as an item on the seven point agenda of this government is yet to be fully articulated. There are abundant resources. Given our climate, the millions of hectares of arable land, rich waterways, teeming unemployed populace, highly trained manpower and financial resources, Nigeria ought to be feeding several other nations. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive policy framework and necessary policy framework and necessary political will to harness all these for the greater good.
All we hear is statement of intentions with several talk shops that deliver no food. Majority of the problem comes from inability to establish a productive linkage between agriculture and other vital sectors of the economy such as transportation, industry, education and other social infrastructure. It is however a relief to note a few days ago that the federal government has suddenly resorted to steps it ought to have taken initially at the outbreak of the crisis. This includes suspension of duties on rice, granting of 10 billion credit facility to support local rice processing, and the intention to complete all the food storage facilities before the end of the year to significantly increase the capacity of the national food reserve by fifty percent. While these are commendable, there is yet no concrete measures taken to boost prices and availability of other staple food items. Similarly there is no mention of the completion of uncompleted irrigation schemes begun by the last administration some of which require about N5 to N10bn to complete.
These can give relief in the short to medium term.
