Former Governor of the Central Bank and now Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, threw cold water on some of the assumptions used. His words: “When I was the Governor of the CBN, the economy was growing at 37 per cent. The oil sector was not adding anything to GDP growth. The growth was coming from agriculture, services and trade, which is also very revealing.” If we are now saying we are in recession, because of the collapse in oil price, we are not being sincere. You can’t be in recession because a sector that is 15 per cent of your GDP has declined”.
Now, back to the real issue of this write-up, the first question to ask is, why a nation abundantly blessed with one of the best soils in the universe, is importing nearly everything that its people consume? The answer is: we are hungry because it is a choice we made starry-eyed. We decided to join our bandit leaders who eat imported rice, cooked with imported pots and gas, served in imported plates, eaten with imported stew (with import tomato pastes), gulped down with imported wine or water and its debris taken out with imported tooth picks. How’s that for a people who desire greatness?
Official figures reveal that Nigeria had been spending $22 billion annually on food imports, an unflattering testimony to the descent of a once vibrant respectable nation to the abyss despondency. Uncontrolled importation of goods have turned Nigeria into zombies of other nations, including those that should, under normal circumstances, have no guts to look us in the eye, if not for what years of depraved leadership had done to our reputation in the comity of nations. A visit to our supermarkets will show, in full spectacle, how shamelessly profligate we have become as a nation, overtime. They are usually stacked with all sorts of junk packaged food items, some expired and re-validated, from every part of the globe: Europe, the Americas, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Korea, even Afghanistan! Sometimes, one had to check a map to find out where some these countries are located on the planet.
The most crucial questions that needed to be answered, really, include: when did imported rice become Nigeria’s major staple and its price, the benchmark for measuring the food price index in the country? How nutritious is rice, especially the imported brands, some of which available facts reveal, may have expired, re-bagged and could be dangerous to health? What has happened to good old Eba (garri), Amala (yam flour), pounded yam, Tuwo, Fufu or Akpu (cassava), etc., which we cherish eating with richly delicious and nutritious green vegetables, Okra, Ogbono or other localized, traditional soups that are known to be medicinal, immunity boosting and shield us from life threatening diseases? What, also, happened to tubers like Yam, Cocoyam and protein and carbon-hydrate laden stuffs like, beans, plantain, potatoes, Ogi (pap), Akara (bean cakes), etc? All these we have always cultivated and produced in large quantities from our very rich and fertile soil that our country is hugely endowed with by the Almighty.
So, what had suddenly changed that we became net importers of rice from thousands of miles away from our shores?
The question again: ARE WE TRULY HUNGRY? This is a question that our ‘experts’ must answer. Available facts show that less than 4% of the US populace is engaged in farming, yet, food is one of the cheapest commodities in the world’s most powerful nation and the country’s food reserves ensures that, it is the first to reach any part of the world that is in urgent need of assistance, either as a result of natural disaster or conflict. Also, despite the country’s trademark capitalism and free enterprise, the US subsidizes agriculture and the farmers have a guaranteed market for their produce.
If highly industrialized nations of the world pay such quality attention to the strategic value of a well fed citizenry to the healthy development and growth of their countries, it is difficult to comprehend why a poor country like ours, had over the years been sleep-walking in this critical area, because we were flush with cash from a wasting natural resource which, foolishly, we did not we did not apply sensibly, for the sake of our tomorrow.
Now that we are belly-up as result of the collapse in the price of crude oil in the international market, compounded by local political brigands, who blow up oil and gas pipelines, which had cut the nation’s crude oil export by half, we are all groaning and putting the blame on those that have little to do with our predicament.
What a pity. Instead of blowing hot air on issues that have little or no substance, Nigerians, especially the very elite, must shed their present lynch-mob mentality and collaborate and support ideas and strategies that are doing their best under this very difficult circumstances, to rebuild this thoroughly broken nation.
Its vigorous pursuit of economic diversification from oil, with particular attention to agriculture is already beginning to show signs of a turn-around in local food production but we still need more.
According to a timeline that the government is determined to meet, no grain of rice will be imported into this country as from next year and thousands of people are already at work on farms nationwide to achieve this goal. If we all play our roles, our nation will soon have no business with hunger.
In the witty words of the Agriculture Minister, Dr Audu Ogbe, “the most powerful legislative chamber in the world, is the stomach”.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/are-we-truly-hungry/
Now, back to the real issue of this write-up, the first question to ask is, why a nation abundantly blessed with one of the best soils in the universe, is importing nearly everything that its people consume? The answer is: we are hungry because it is a choice we made starry-eyed. We decided to join our bandit leaders who eat imported rice, cooked with imported pots and gas, served in imported plates, eaten with imported stew (with import tomato pastes), gulped down with imported wine or water and its debris taken out with imported tooth picks. How’s that for a people who desire greatness?
Official figures reveal that Nigeria had been spending $22 billion annually on food imports, an unflattering testimony to the descent of a once vibrant respectable nation to the abyss despondency. Uncontrolled importation of goods have turned Nigeria into zombies of other nations, including those that should, under normal circumstances, have no guts to look us in the eye, if not for what years of depraved leadership had done to our reputation in the comity of nations. A visit to our supermarkets will show, in full spectacle, how shamelessly profligate we have become as a nation, overtime. They are usually stacked with all sorts of junk packaged food items, some expired and re-validated, from every part of the globe: Europe, the Americas, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Korea, even Afghanistan! Sometimes, one had to check a map to find out where some these countries are located on the planet.
The most crucial questions that needed to be answered, really, include: when did imported rice become Nigeria’s major staple and its price, the benchmark for measuring the food price index in the country? How nutritious is rice, especially the imported brands, some of which available facts reveal, may have expired, re-bagged and could be dangerous to health? What has happened to good old Eba (garri), Amala (yam flour), pounded yam, Tuwo, Fufu or Akpu (cassava), etc., which we cherish eating with richly delicious and nutritious green vegetables, Okra, Ogbono or other localized, traditional soups that are known to be medicinal, immunity boosting and shield us from life threatening diseases? What, also, happened to tubers like Yam, Cocoyam and protein and carbon-hydrate laden stuffs like, beans, plantain, potatoes, Ogi (pap), Akara (bean cakes), etc? All these we have always cultivated and produced in large quantities from our very rich and fertile soil that our country is hugely endowed with by the Almighty.
So, what had suddenly changed that we became net importers of rice from thousands of miles away from our shores?
The question again: ARE WE TRULY HUNGRY? This is a question that our ‘experts’ must answer. Available facts show that less than 4% of the US populace is engaged in farming, yet, food is one of the cheapest commodities in the world’s most powerful nation and the country’s food reserves ensures that, it is the first to reach any part of the world that is in urgent need of assistance, either as a result of natural disaster or conflict. Also, despite the country’s trademark capitalism and free enterprise, the US subsidizes agriculture and the farmers have a guaranteed market for their produce.
If highly industrialized nations of the world pay such quality attention to the strategic value of a well fed citizenry to the healthy development and growth of their countries, it is difficult to comprehend why a poor country like ours, had over the years been sleep-walking in this critical area, because we were flush with cash from a wasting natural resource which, foolishly, we did not we did not apply sensibly, for the sake of our tomorrow.
Now that we are belly-up as result of the collapse in the price of crude oil in the international market, compounded by local political brigands, who blow up oil and gas pipelines, which had cut the nation’s crude oil export by half, we are all groaning and putting the blame on those that have little to do with our predicament.
What a pity. Instead of blowing hot air on issues that have little or no substance, Nigerians, especially the very elite, must shed their present lynch-mob mentality and collaborate and support ideas and strategies that are doing their best under this very difficult circumstances, to rebuild this thoroughly broken nation.
Its vigorous pursuit of economic diversification from oil, with particular attention to agriculture is already beginning to show signs of a turn-around in local food production but we still need more.
According to a timeline that the government is determined to meet, no grain of rice will be imported into this country as from next year and thousands of people are already at work on farms nationwide to achieve this goal. If we all play our roles, our nation will soon have no business with hunger.
In the witty words of the Agriculture Minister, Dr Audu Ogbe, “the most powerful legislative chamber in the world, is the stomach”.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/are-we-truly-hungry/
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