Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that in 2015, Nigeria spent nearly $2.9bn in drink and food importation. By 2017 the figure had risen to $4.1bn.
These figures are far from the $22bn the immediate past Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbe quoted in 2018 as the amount the country spends on importing food annually.
In November 2018, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its World Markets and Trade Report
projected that Nigeria’s rice imports will rise 13 percent in 2019 to 3.4 million metric tonnes making it the world’s biggest rice importer after China.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed says the projection is fake. According to him, “Nigeria has been
able to reduce by 90 percent the $1.65bn it was paying on rice importation, the number of integrated rice processing mills increased from 13 to 25.”
Worried by the country’s dependence on food import, President Muhammadu Buhari on assumption of office in May 2015 directed
the Central Bank of Nigeria to block food importers' requests for foreign currency. It was a policy directed at boosting local production of rice, yam, cassava sugar, palm oil, fish, beef and poultry.
If figures from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization are considered,
rice production has increased from an annual average of 7.1 million tonnes between 2013 and 2017 to 8.9 million tonnes in 2018. This supports government’s position. However, the increase in production didnot stop rice smuggling into Nigeria,suggesting the country is yet to
reach self sufficiency in production.
To check the menacing activities of smugglers, the federal government in August this year partially closed Nigeria’s borders leading to increase in the prices of locally produced rice. As supply falls, price rises.
On Wednesday 20 November 2019, Twinkle’s team visited Bodija Market, Ibadan to feel the pulses of rice sellers and buyers on the quality and prices of locally produced rice.
They spoke in the Yoruba language of Southwest Nigeria. #rice #price #twinkle
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
From the 2021 report of Grand View Research, Inc.,the global coconut bye-product market size is expected to reach 95.64 billion dollars by 2025. If farmers, investors and government deepen coconut production and value chain, Nigeria stands
to make about 20 billion Naira yearly through exports.
In 2019, Indonesia was the largest exporter of coconuts in the world, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. The three countries held about 23 per cent share of total exports, while Cote d’Ivoire, Malaysia, the Netherlands,
Mexico, Guyana and India, all together, made up 17 per cent of the total exports.
Despite the huge potential, total local production could only meet about 20 per cent of the national demand, making Nigeria a huge importer of coconut. In December 2021, the Director-General of the
By championing the idea of Judicial Commissions of Enquiry to look into the atrocities of SARS, government plans to imprison the people. Government intend to trap the people, then unleash the chain, and lock the door, and throw away the key.
Do not fall for it.
The reform of the police is a function of the structural redefinition of the state. It cannot be resolved by a Commission of Enquiry or the National Assembly - SARS. The Assembly has been consumed by greed. It cannot do good.
The character of the police is a derivative of the values that guide the state. The actions of the police that birth the rising protest is an interpretation of the character of the state. The killer SARS is a representation of Buhari’s character.
#ENDSARS: A SENATE PRESIDENT IN DIRE NEED OF EDUCATION
From the reaction of the leadership of the Senate, the ongoing agitation for a new Nigeria loses its essence following the acceptance and implementation of the “demands” of End-SARS-Movement.
I arrived at this interpretation after reflecting on the Thursday 15 October 2020 call by the President of the Senate, Mohammed Lawal for protesters to stop the movement to redemption having gained the confidence of government to disband the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Speaking in the senate, he argues:
“The government has responded, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad has been disbanded. All the five demands of the protesters have been accepted... I believe that when protesters’ demands are met, their goals should have been achieved. Therefore,
Members of the political leadership class in Nigeria are not selfish for pursuing their own good but because of their hatred of the common good. They are dead to the people because they live only for themselves.
This is the reason Nigerians must watch carefully the ongoing process to reform the police. Such a leadership cannot effect reforms in the general interest. They will engage in fireworks to show they are responsive.
They will come up with committees for reform, running from pillar to post to impress their angry people. Once tension is doused the situation gets worse. VIGILANCE!
To improve the character of this leadership requires courage and the conviction that a new order is possible.
Britain handed over the command of the Nigerian army to indigenous soldiers in 1965. The outgoing General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Welby Everald had preferred Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe to succeed him,
but his recommendation was rejected leading to General Aguiyi Ironsi, the most senior officer taking charge of the army.
When another opportunity came for Ogundipe after the bloody July 1966 coup, he was overlooked again because it was felt he will not be able to control
soldiers from the north who were not ready to take orders from a Head of State of southern extraction.
The executioners of the July coup are Murtala Mohammed, Theophilus Danjuma, Martin Adamu, Shittu Alao, Musa Usman and Joe Garba and others. After a successful coup they wanted