Buhari’s Victory: I Am Not A Hypocrite Like Some PDP Governors – Wike

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has explained that he
congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari after the Presidential
Election Petition Tribunal confirmed his election because it is
better to offer public congratulations than visiting the President
at night.

Governor Wike said that unlike some Governors of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) who visit President Muhammadu Buhari at
night, he made his declaration public because it came from the
heart.

He spoke at the Funeral Service in honour of Late Madam Blessing
Awuse, Mother of One Sergeant Chidi Awuse, at the St Luke’s
Anglican Church, Emohua on Thursday.

He said: “I am sure all of you are surprised that I
congratulated Buhari. Is it not good for me to congratulate him
than to go to his house in the night?”

“So many PDP Governors go to see him in his house in the night.
I have never gone and I will not go. I won’t go.”

“We are the only state that the Federal Government refused to
pay us our money used to execute Federal projects because I don’t
go to see him in the night and I won’t go. He is not my friend, he
is not doing well, but he won in court, should I say that the court
did wrong, no.”

“President Buhari, congratulations and carry Nigerians along.
Unify the country, the country is too divided. I am saying what is
right. What I will do, I will do, what I will not do, I will not
do”.

Governor Wike said politics is a game of interest, noting that
Rivers people in the All Progressives Congress are under obligation
to attract Federal benefits to the state.

‘Politics is a game of interest. And my only interest is Rivers
State. Anything that is against the interest of Rivers State, I
will not agree.

“These people sold us out, thinking that they are doing Governor
Wike. It is the State that you are offending because I am just one
person “.

Governor Wike expressed displeasure that Rivers State has key
links to President Muhammadu Buhari from the State, yet the
East-West Road, the seaports and other Federal projects have been
completely neglected since 2015. He said nothing indicates that
Rivers State has prominent APC members working with President
Muhammadu Buhari.

Boosting Rice Production, Tackling
Smuggling

The battle to end the importation of rice into the country
through the illicit activities of smuggling may be far from been
totally won. Yet, the determination on the part of the Federal
Government to boost its production through massive local
cultivation has since been unassailable.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government (FG), sometimes
in November 2018, approved the sum of N60 billion to support rice
production in the country and crash its market price ahead of the
last festive period. Equally, as part of efforts to boost rice
production and ban importation into the country, FG expressed
readiness to partner with OLAM farm, in Nasarawa State.

Speaking after inspecting facilities at the farm during a visit
in 2016, Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, who is the Chairman of
the National Initiative for Stable Crop Production in Nigeria,
congratulated Olam farm for its doggedness and self-determination
in consolidating on FG’s policy of fighting importation of foreign
rice into the country by encouraging local food production. The aim
of the partnership, according to Gov. Bagudu then, was to support
domestic food production and food security through scaling up rice
cultivation.

While responding, Vice president of the farm, Mr. Regi George,
who stated that they had already developed a 10,000 hectare fully
irrigated paddy farm on green field sites in Rukubi, Nasarawa
State, expressed belief that the country would soon achieve
self-sufficiency in rice production. He further disclosed that over
4,450 hectares were already under cultivation, with a further 3,000
hectares on target for 2017 and 2018 raining season.

In February this year, the immediate past Agriculture Minister,
Chief Audu Ogbeh, while declaring open a two-day ‘Farmers Forum and
Exhibition’ workshop, jointly organised by the Kebbi Ministry of
Agriculture and DailyTrust Newspapers, asserted that FG will train
100 rice farmers in Kebbi, as part of efforts to boost rice
production in the country.

Ogbeh added that the training of the 100 Kebbi farmers in
commercial rice production was in recognition of the success which
the state government had recorded in rice production under the
Anchor Borrowers’ Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN).

Likewise, a one-time Minister of Women Affairs and Social
Development, Hajia Aisha Al-Hassan, in March last year, during the
62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW),
disclosed that FG had released about N43.92 billion (122 million
dollars) to 300,000 rice farmers to increase Nigeria’s rice
production by additional two million tonnes in 2018.

But amidst the courageous steps and inspiring commitments shown
by both the Federal Government and State Government to boost local
rice production, activity of the smuggling of the staple crop seems
to be burgeoning. As a matter of fact, the protracted smuggling of
the commodity appears to have grown to the extent of dominating the
market, even as it sucks away the foreign exchange by way of
capital flight. Almost 70 percent of rice in the local market are
foreign parboiled rice, while the locally-made rice have been
overwhelmed and barely has little or no place in the market.

Already, the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN) has
said Nigeria lost over $400 million after about one million metric
tonnes of the commodity was smuggled into the country from Benin
Republic between January 2019 and August.

The National Chairman of RIPAN, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar
Maifata, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday in Abuja, after
an intensive border and port survey by the association.

The RIPAN boss explained that about half a million metric tonnes
of the commodity have already been booked in Thailand for onward
journey to Nigeria, preparatory to the forthcoming Christmas
celebration and Yuletide season.

This, according to the chairman, would no doubt have a ripple
effect on rice processors in the country as their activities would
be hampered if this impending illegal importation is not checked
with the attendant colossal loss of over $400 million.

He noted that the closure of the Nigerian Benin Republic border
would go a long way to curb the menace of rice smuggling so that
local producers would have a breather, adding that the association
supports the current border closure by the government.

RIPAN and other stakeholders had in a three-week survey on the
rice market across the six geopolitical zones in the country
observed that foreign rice such as Mama Gold, Royal Stallion, Rice
Master, Caprice, Falcon Rice and Basmati are sold alongside
Nigerian rice.

“We at RIPAN join other stakeholders in the rice subsector,
namely, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), in commending
CBN for the timely intervention and banning of rice since 2015, a
development that has seen growth in local production of rice and
serious saving of foreign exchange,” Alhaji Maifata said.

He applauded the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for its current
and rigorous fight against smuggling of the commodity and enjoined
the various security agencies who are mandated by the current
directive to raise the bar of the fight to check the various porous
borders.

There is no gainsaying that the activity of rice smuggling will
automatically be curbed if locally-produced rice can compete evenly
in terms of pricing and quality with its foreign counterpart.
However, that will only happen, if the private sector is supported,
and commercial rice farmers encouraged to invest in mechanized
farming. They should be advised to adopt cost-effective means of
processing locally-produced rice to ensure optimality in quality,
as well as price competitiveness.

They also need to be supported with special intervention funds
that are of single-digit interest rate and allow long term
repayment tenure, together with providing easy access to land and
infrastructure support for mechanized farming.

But to permanently tackle the menace of illegal importation of
rice, FG must ensure that its anti-smuggling efforts are
strengthened, while security officials caught aiding and abetting
these economic saboteurs should be severely punished to serve as a
deterrent to others.

Abdulsalam Mahmud
PRNigeria^[1] Office, Abuja