To many cynical Nigerians, a no show was staged in the theatre of the absurd as regards the dramatics which attended the media event called: the Rice Pyramids. Indeed, nothing was viewed as being more ludicrous than these orchestrated Pyramids that the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) and the Federal Government put up for the world to see in Abuja recently.
Several days after that hollow show, it has continued to generate interest and dominate any discourse that has to do with food security in Nigeria. For that long, Nigerians are still bemused and have continued to wonder why that huge time, energy and resources were invested in the making of that circus.
This is because there was something about those thousands of bags of rice piled in the open that seemed both unrealistic and out-of-touch with reality.
In spite of the huge investment and attention even from the government, the price of this commodity has not dropped
However, Nigerians, in the midst of their squeezing economic conditions and frustrating social milieu, have become chronic optimists— believing, trusting and hoping, even against hope, that they have a future that will be better than the present.
The people, especially those on the lower rungs of the ladder, are therefore waiting for the gains of the grains which, in their innocent reasoning, would come from the pyramid that, they think, represents sufficiency in the vital area of food security.
Though like some other Nigerians, we have our reservations, we hope the gains would come and our hope is hinged on what we see as positive developments in the country’s rice production subsector.
Over the last four to five years, we have seen many farmers go into rice farming. Evidently, rice farming has received sufficient attention from both the public and private sectors. Sizeable investment has gone into that subsector. Money has also gone into rice mills for processing and also for seedlings.
We are, however, not unaware of some ironic twists that continue to define rice farming in the country. We are confused with how rice farming in Nigeria tends to defy simple economic theories. In spite of the huge investment and attention even from the government, the price of this commodity has not dropped, by even one kobo.
Rather, what Nigerians have seen over the years, which deepens our confusion and worry, is that as the claim of sufficiency in rice production grows, the price of rice continues to rise proportionately. This is why, from between N10,000 and N13,000 in 2015, the price of a 50kg bag of rice has risen to between N26,000 and N30,000.
There are other concerns bordering on corruption in which case rice farmers see the government’s Anchor Borrowers Programme as their own largesse or, more appropriately, and perversely too, democracy dividend from the government.
We are all the more worried that, in spite of the investment, rice production is yet to graduate from subsistence to mechanized farming which is why production is yet to attain commercial quantity.
At the pyramids show, Nigerians were sufficiently miffed by some of the observations or revelations made by Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor which cast a huge doubt as to whether both the government and RIFAN are really in tune with the rice reality and perhaps other realities in Nigeria.
The national output of rice production, according to Emefiele, has gone up from about 5.4 million metric tonnes in 2015 to more than nine million in 2021 while productivity per hectare of smallholder farmers has also gone up from about 2.4 metric tonnes per hectare to around five metric tonnes within the same period.
Read also: Nigeria records 60 rice mills after 7yrs of Anchor
It is hard for us to come to terms with these statistics, given that the price of rice has more than doubled from 2015 to 2021—a period when output almost doubled. Outside Nigeria, the increased output would mean a reduced price. But Nigeria has its own brand of economic theory which could be as interesting as it is paradoxical.
The CBN governor also disclosed that the state-owned bank had financed five million small-scale farmers. This, in our estimation, means that given the country’s estimated 200 million, one out of every 40 Nigerians is currently a rice farmer!
It is pertinent for us to let the government know that Nigerians saw through the farce which they watched as the infamous if fictitious rice pyramid. In our candid opinion, that show did not in any way help the government’s credibility. Nigerians have not forgotten that former Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, once celebrated bogus rice pyramids which defeated whatever goal that it was intended to achieve.
We believe that there are several other nobler ways in which government handlers can adopt in their efforts to shore up the government’s fading credibility profile. We also believe that achievement even at the family level is felt, and not merely shown. It is supposed to speak for itself.
If indeed, Nigeria is self-sufficient in rice production; there would have been no need to draw media-orchestrated attention to it. A glass of good wine as the saying goes needs no push! Nigerians have had enough of what Fela Anikulapo Kuti has called: Government Magic!
