The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation on Sunday described President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s acclaimed success in the agriculture sector as a ruse.
The campaign organisation in a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the woeful performance of the Jonathan Administration in the agricultural sector was evident from its failure to fulfil its promise that Nigeria would be self-sufficient in rice and wheat production by 2015.
“President Jonathan has failed woefully in the agricultural sector, and all the self-praise of the administration on agriculture is simply a ruse,” the statement read in part.
The statement also picked hole in the claim of government that farmers were now having unhindered access to fertiliser through the Growth Enhancement Scheme.
It stated that President Jonathan had promised in 2010 to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice and wheat production by 2015, however, “the grim reality on the ground today is that Nigeria emerged as the world’s highest importer of rice in 2015, and a whopping $11bn is spent annually by Nigeria to import rice, wheat, sugar and fish.”
The statement also quoted a former Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Sarah Alade, as saying that Nigeria as at 2014 spent $4bn on rice importation – “that is about N600bn annually on the importation of 2.1 million metric tonnes of milled rice.
“This is after the Federal Government had approached the China Exim Bank for a loan of $1.2bn for the financing of 100 large-scale rice processing plants with a total capacity of 2.1 million metric tonnes.
“The troubling truth today, is that Nigeria is nothing close to self-sufficiency in rice production and what we have at hand is a close web of corruption where government cronies stumble over each other to get import licences for rice.”
The APC also noted that a similar unacceptable situation pertained to the importation of wheat, saying, “According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Nigeria’s wheat consumption as of year 2,000 was about two million metric tonnes.
“But, by 2010, wheat importation to the country had risen to four million metric tonnes and Nigeria spends N635bn annually on wheat importation.
“Five years into the Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria spends even more than we did in 2010 to import wheat; yet the government continues to brandish false achievements in the agricultural sector – a situation that is completely at variance with what President Jonathan promised Nigerians in 2010, saying that his government would make Nigeria save N635bn annually on rice and wheat importation.”
On fertiliser accessibility to farmers, the APCPCO faulted the claim by the government that local farmers had unhindered access to fertiliser through the Growth Enhancement Scheme.
On the contrary, the campaign group said what was getting to each farmer under the e-wallet arrangement, described as “excessively labourious and technically difficult for the farmers to work through” were two bags of fertiliser throughout the entire farming season.
It added, “And government has not come out in one instance to tell Nigerians how much it receives as grants on fertiliser distribution to farmers from donor agencies.”
“The government will want to give us the impression that fertiliser is being given to farmers free of charge. But we know that what subsists is a 50 per cent subsidy per bag of fertiliser. Our farmers are being shortchanged under this so-called e-wallet arrangement because of lack of transparency.
“We may be looking at another subsidy scam over fertiliser unless the Jonathan administration comes out clean to tell us how much it has received as grants over fertiliser and how it comes about the 50 per cent subsidy per bag of fertiliser.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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