Hottestgistnaija.com
Abuja, Nigeria, 06 November, 2018: On several occasions,
the Buhari administration has bragged that their biggest
achievement is reducing Nigeria’s dependence on foreign
rice. Recently, President Buhari himself made this boast
when he said to British Prime Minister, Theresa May on
April 16, 2018 as follows:
“We have cut rice importation by about 90%, made lots of
savings of foreign exchange, and generated employment.
People had rushed to the cities to get oil money, at the
expense of farming. But luckily, they are now going back to
the farms. Even professionals are going back to the land.
We are making steady progress on the road to food
security.”
This claim was also made by the minister of agriculture,
Chief Audu Ogbeh, who on May 2, 2018 said as follows:
“Unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the
world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four per cent because
seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s
import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone”.
However, recently released data from the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Markets and Trade
Report has proven these claims by President Muhammadu
Buhari and his government to be false.
According to the World Markets and Trade Report of the
USDA, which is a public document, Nigeria imported three
million metric tonnes of rice in 2018, which is 400,000
metric tonnes more than the quantity of the product
imported in 2017.
It does not end there. The report shows that there has
actually been a steep drop in commercial rice production
from its 2015 peak under the previous Peoples Democratic
Party administration.
According to the report “Nigeria had consistently milled
3,780,000 metric tonnes annually – a drop from 3,941,000
metric tonnes recorded in 2015.”
The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation therefore
wishes to appeal to President Buhari and his government to
be truthful to the Nigerian public, rather than claim progress
they have not made, because no matter how far and fast
falsehood has travelled, it must eventually be overtaken by
the truth.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will always be
honest and transparent with the Nigerian people as he
carries all citizens along in his mission to Get Nigeria
Working Again.b
