President Muhammadu Buhari has made it clear that until Nigeria attains 100 percent drop in the importation of rice, he would continue to push for self sufficiency and even exportation.
He said that in the last two years, the huge rice import bill had dropped significantly by more than 90 per cent, which he described as not good enough by his expectation.
The President who received in audience, the All Progressives Congress (APC) family from Kebbi State at the Presidential Villa, Abuja today, Friday, said that his government will continue to review and strengthen ongoing reforms in the agricultural sector until Nigeria regains its pride of place as a food exporting country.
“Beyond self-sufficiency, we must strive to become net exporters of food commodities.
“We are not doing badly in the agricultural sector and Nigerians, and the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts. We will not be satisfied; we will work harder until we start exporting food.
“We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country have gone down by over 90 per cent, and visibly everyone can see how productive states like Kebbi have turned out to be and states like Lagos, Ogun and Ebonyi are following the example.”
Buhari said that Kaduna, Katsina, Kano and Sokoto states have already reported remarkable turn around in the agricultural sector, with more youths taking interest in entrepreneurship.
The President disagreed with the astronomical food import bill presented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the inception of the administration, pointing out that it was later discovered to be “fraudulent practices’’ by some of the elites to deplete the foreign reserves.
“When I was told that the CBN had no savings after the windfall of selling oil for more than $100 dollars per barrel for many years, and the production was 2.1 billion barrel per day, I did not believe them.
“I did not believe them because majority of Nigerians cannot afford imported food; they rely on what is locally grown. It turned out that 50 per cent of the export bills were fraudulent. That is what the Nigerian elites did.
“Unfortunately, we will not know all that happened because the elites worked in collusion with institutions in developed countries, like insurance firms, shipping companies and other financial outfits, to perpetuate the fraud.”
On security, President Buhari said that the return of farmers to their farm lands in the North East, with glaring results of high yields, is a testimony to the relative peace that has been achieved.
He assured that more would be done to check suicide attacks even as he promised to reposition the educational and health sectors to compete with other global institutions.
Speaking while introducing the delegation, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) told the President that the political leaders of Kebbi State have now abandoned opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and embraced the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We came to show you that the good policies of the administration have made the leaders of the PDP to abandon their party and move to the APC. With this development, the PDP is now pronounced dead in Kebbi State,” Malami said.
In his remarks, the Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu said the APC family was pleased with the performance of the administration in securing the country, reviving the economy and fighting corruption.
Bagudu and members of the delegation, which include former Governor of Kebbi State, Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari and other former PDP stalwarts, prayed for the quick recovery of the President’s son, Yusuf.[myad]
