Rice Production: Your lie is exposed, Atiku tells Buhari as global rice production figures contradict president’s claim

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Monday described President Muhammadu Buhari’s claim that Nigeria is nearing self-sufficiency in rice production, as false.

In December 2017 while receiving a delegation of All Progressives Congress (APC) members from Kebbi State led by the state governor, Atiku Bagudu, at the presidential villa, President Buhari said his administration had succeeded in reducing importation of rice into the country by 90 percent.

“We are not doing badly in the agriculture sector: Nigerians and indeed the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts. 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 percent, and everyone can see how productive states like Kebbi turned out to be and states like Lagos, Ogun, and Ebonyi are following the example,” President Buhari told his visitors.

Four months later in April 2018 in London, he made the same claim during a meeting with Theresa May, the British Prime Minister.

“I am very pleased with the successes in agriculture,” he told Prime Minister May, on Monday. “We have cut rice importation by about 90%, made lots of savings of foreign exchange, and generated employment. People had rushed to the cities to get oil money, at the expense of farming. But luckily, they are now going back to the farms. Even professionals are going back to the land. We are making steady progress on the road to food security,” President Buhari told his host.

One month after the president’s comments in London, Audu Ogbeh, his Minister of Agriculture expanded on the theme. He said declining export of rice to Nigeria by Thailand had negatively affected rice production in that country.

On Monday, Alhaji Abubakar in a statement by his campaign organization dismissed the claims made by President Buhari and his minister as lies. In puncturing the claims of the president, the former Vice President’s relied on a recent report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to the USDA’s World Markets and Trade Report,

According to the report, Nigeria imported three million metric tonnes of rice in 2018, which is 400,000 metric tonnes more than the quantity of the product imported in 2017.

Reacting to the report, Alhaji Abubakar said:

“On several occasions, the Buhari administration has bragged that their biggest achievement is reducing Nigeria’s dependence on foreign rice. Recently, President Buhari himself made this boast when he said to British Prime Minister, Theresa May on April 16, 2018, as follows:

‘We have cut rice importation by about 90%, made lots of savings of foreign exchange, and generated employment. People had rushed to the cities to get oil money, at the expense of farming. But luckily, they are now going back to the farms. Even professionals are going back to the land. We are making steady progress on the road to food security.”

“This claim was also made by the minister of agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who on May 2, 2018, said as follows:

‘Unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 percent, it has gone up to four percent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 percent on rice alone'”, the former Vice President said, adding:

“However, recently released data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Markets and Trade Report has proven these claims by President Muhammadu Buhari and his government to be false.

The former Vice President said that according to the  USDA report, which is a public document, Nigeria imported three million metric tonnes of rice in 2018, which is 400,000 metric tonnes more than the quantity of the product imported in 2017.  He said the report shows that there has actually been a steep drop in commercial rice production from its 2015 peak under the previous PDP administration.

“According to the report “Nigeria had consistently milled 3,780,000 metric tonnes annually – a drop from 3,941,000 metric tonnes recorded in 2015.

“The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation, therefore, wishes to appeal to President Buhari and his government to be truthful to the Nigerian public, rather than claim progress they have not made, because no matter how far and fast falsehood has travelled, it must eventually be overtaken by the truth.

The statement said the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will always be honest and transparent with the Nigerian people as he carries all citizens along in his mission to “Get Nigeria Working Again”.