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President Muhammadu Buhari
undertakes the political ritual of
Independence Day broadcast to the
nation this Sunday morning , in a speech
that highlights major strides in the pet
themes of the administration : anti
corruption, war against terrorism,
economic revival and infrastructure
development .
The President comes before the nation
with a better result than he had - shown
the year before .
This is an important year for Nigeria,
not only because the economy has just
exited recession . The fight against
terrorism has turned the corner with
Boko Haram pushed to the fringes of the
Lake Chad , restricted to hit - and - run
strikes. In this fight, Nigeria is no
longer standing alone . Our neighbours
and the international community are
supporting us.
On the war against corruption, the
President, in a story he told the cabinet
illustrated how far the war had come .
Fifteen years ago, he said , someone
hinted to him that a day will come in
Nigeria when they will show a man a
house he owned and he will say “ no , it
is not mine, ” denying thereby its
ownership. Knowing Nigerians , the
President himself did not apparently
believe this would happen in his
lifetime . But we are already there.
Nothing confirms this more than the
eerie silence in the courtroom when the
Lagos High Court judge, Justice Chuka
Obiazor asked the question : who owned
that Diezani Allison - Madueke USD 37 . 5
million Banana Island property? No one
stepped forward to claim it. It was
thereafter forfeited to the federal
government. In the same way and
manner several others are being so
forfeited.
With serious efforts being made to
improve the ease of doing business ,
government just instituted a visa - on -
arrival scheme at our major airports.
We may not be clearing goods in 24
hours at the ports just yet, but things
have changed so much , to the point that
importers no longer wait for eternity to
remove their goods from the Lagos
Harbour.
Violence in the name of religion and
ethnicity is being tackled as effectively
as can be done. The success against
Boko Haram in the Northeast is being
matched with success in the North
Central States , troubled by farmers -
herdsmen . There is now a gradual
return of calm and order , in turn
paving the way to the return of workers
to the farmlands and increasing food
production.
In the Southeast, the proscription of the
Indigenous People of Biafra , IPOB has
removed tensions in much of the
country , bringing with it relief that the
nation is not up in flames as its
promoters had planned .
The President comes before the nation
against the backdrop of a bumper farm
production that hit a new record high,
impacting positively on the economy by
hammering away at food price
inflation.
In his speech while presenting the 2017
‘Budget of Recovery and Growth ,’
President Buhari restated his abiding
belief in the adage that a nation that
cannot feed herself is a slave nation. He
described this period as one of great
opportunity.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN )
defined this as thus: “ If you had to sum
up our vision for the Nigerian economy
in a few words, these would suffice .
Grow what we eat , produce what we
consume.”
Speaking on the same issue , the Minister
of State , Agriculture Senator Heineken
Lokpobiri, who frowned at the nation’ s
$ 22 billion annual food import bill ,
said : “ We are at a very critical time in
our nation building . The cardinal
objective of this administration is to see
how we can feed ourselves in the
shortest possible time because we can
no longer afford the import bill of $ 22
billion on staple foods. So the objective
of this government is to be able to
produce enough food for ourselves and
export .”
It will not amount to an overstatement
to say on this day, October 1 , the real
independence we must be celebrating is
freedom from enslavement to foreign
food sources and the arrival of that
moment that has seen us are feeding
ourselves as a nation. Government just
won a major victory against food
importation and food price inflation. It
is a critical battle won with a direct
bearing on the budget of all citizens . As
a saying goes , the touchstone of a good
administration of any government lies
in the benefits that accrue to the last
person.
The economic situation in 2015 when he
took power was broken , characterized
by mismanagement and corruption; a
primitive type of corruption that
weakened the ability of government to
tackle poverty , at the same time holding
the nation from the race towards
development . At a time when oil
earnings had dropped significantly ,
President Buhari inherited a country
heavily dependent on food imports but
he realized soon enough that for things
to change , he needed to usher in an era
of expansion in agricultural production.
Nature herself became more generous .
The rains were good this year and last
year and this, combined with
government policies on local fertilizer
production that is about to deliver 10
million bags by the year ’s end and
delivering credit to farmers on low
interest. All these, coupled with the
supply of improved seeds have together
led to increases in crop and cereals
production, fisheries, eggs , poultry and
these are still getting better .
Local fertilizer production has led to
annual foreign exchange saving of more
than USD 200 million and eliminated
annual subsidies in the region of N60
billion. The cost per bag of widely- used
NPK brand dropped from N11 , 000 to
the current price of N 5 , 500 . Growth in
agriculture has in turn translated to
good fortune not only for farmers but
also for producers of consumer goods
due to increase in purchasing power .
The National Hajj Commission said 80
percent of this year ’s pilgrims were
farmers . In many of our towns and
villages , young men are abandoning the
occupation of driving Okada and taking
to the farms.
Following increased efforts by the
security agencies particularly the
Customs , this county ’ s agriculture is
emerging from the strangulating
competition of foreign food suppliers
who have swamped our markets with
foreign food at prices that are
subsidized by foreign governments.
When country neighboring you with a
population of less that 1 / 20 to this
country ’s becomes the world’ s second
largest importer of parboiled rice , you
that a new game is in play .
As we celebrate the 57 th year of our
political independence , which many
radicals had derisively called flag
independence , it is apt that the nation
steps forward to mark the freedom from
the political and economic
shortsightedness of the past that tied
Nigerians to the consumption of
imported food .
With everyday , month and year,
government under President
Muhammadu Buhari is unraveling
problems that have absorbed the public
mind for years without solutions in
sight.
Government policy of economic
diversification is leading to a
multiplication of wealth and riches for
those who have seized the moment .
As the President said in that budget
speech, “ Across the country , our
farmers , traders and transporters are
seeing a shift in their fortunes .
Nigerians who preferred imported
products are now consuming made in
Nigeria products . From Argungu in
Kebbi to Abakalaki in Ebonyi , rice
farmers and millers are seeing their
products move. We must replicate such
success in other staples like wheat ,
sugar, soya , tomato and dairy products .”
Although Nigeria is not the only country
to face the problem of food price
inflation, the Buhari administration had
in the past two years come under
unprecedented attacks by the opposition
Peoples Democratic Party , PDP .
However , now that the administration
has overcome that volley, this talking
point has suddenly disappeared from
their lips . Month after month , the
National Bureau of Statistics, NBS has
reported government as having put in
place good policies and actions that are
taming the monster of inflation.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN
correspondents recently visited markets
in Plateau , Benue , Nassarawa , Kogi,
Niger and Taraba States and found that
food costs have gone down .
NAN found that nine tubers of yam ,
which used to cost an average of N 3 ,
000 were sold for between N 1 , 300 to
N1 , 500 depending on their sizes . The
price of Garri, Cassava flour, according
to NAN had come down from N380 and
N400 per measure to between N 220 to
N260 .
A farmer in the region attributed this
change of food prices to good rains,
return to farming by the youths and the
security situations (which ) has
improved , making it possible for
farmers to go to their farms.
Elsewhere in the country , reports show
that a 100 kg bag of Guinea corn , maize
or millet which cost N16 , 000 a year ago
now sell for as low as N 8 , 000 . One
hundred kilogram bag of home grown
rice is down to N 20 , 000 from N 32 , 000 .
One hundred kilogram of beans is down
to N 26 , 000 from more than N30 , 000 a
year ago. What all these tell you is that
government is aware of the problems
facing the citizens and is working day
and night to solve them .
President Buhari has a vision of
building a new nation, which resents
and fights corruption, free of terrorism
and a nation in which the poor have
food to eat and a roof over their heads ;
a country in which the youths are job
creators, not job seekers.
What it means to achieve food self -
sufficiency is that the scarce foreign
exchange available to the country can
be used to procure plant , equipment
and industrial machinery to drive the
industrialization of the country ; that we
will not be spending all the money we
earn on food import but spare much of
it to develop infrastructure as the
administration is already doing with
power , railway and roads .
The strive for the achievement of food
self- sufficiency in two years of the
Buhari administration is gradually
ushering in the real independence for
the people of Nigeria without any
dramatic flair. In the coming years ,
government policy as manifested by the
school feeding program will take us
from food security to nutrition security
and hopefully , to a country in which no
one is hungry . A country in which the
people grow what we eat, and eat what
we grow .
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