TUESDAY, January 18th, 2022, saw President Buhari "launch" 13 pyramids of rice paddy like it was a sort of state achievement; although the president made a statement promising Nigerians that the price of rice will drop as soon as possible this year. This would have been great news, but we have learnt the hard way not to trust the any Nigerian government.
Nigeria is struggling, not only with multidimensional poverty, but with multiple forms of inflation. Food inflation is already dealing a hard blow to the common Nigerian as the supply of homegrown food crops drop due to the seemingly unstoppable insecurity in many regions.
Food —as well as the means to prepare meals– has become more expensive. The President is desperate to show that the situation is under control, so he has said that the growing food production in the country and the expansion in rice farming will eventually bring down prices of food.
Buhari made it sound easy as he posed with the pyramids of rice paddy. But the reality remains that many Nigerians are going hungry. Even the so-called middle class cannot feed their families comfortably. Perhaps there's really no Nigerian middle class anymore. The combination of a weak currency on the foreign exchange and an unsustainable economic situation for most Nigerians makes it seem hopeless; the majority of our 200-million population has been stripped off their purchasing power.
According to President Buhari, Nigeria can boast of producing over 7.5 million metric tons of rice annually, with over four million farmers benefiting from an Anchor Borrowers Programme. Hopefully, this will be sustainable. We know all too well how we dabble into new territories and get lost in such territories. I remember a certain Cassava Bread that disappeared after 2015, our made in Nigerian phone which went silent as soon as it was made public knowledge, and the many attempts to couple automobiles ending in nothing.
Since when did the commissioning of rice stacked upon themselves to form pyramids become an achievement? How is this a true indication that the country is making steady and assured progress towards self-sufficiency in food production?
