President
Muhammadu Buhari's spokesperson, Garba Shehu led his countrymen astray
this with erroneous report about the rice production capacity of
Nigeria.
Garba Shehu
"As I speak to you now, Nigeria just achieved the record of the
second largest producer of rice in the world. The rice revolution just
started a year ago", Mr. Garba Shehu declared.
It was a big, fat lie. Nigeria is nowhere near the position of
second largest producer of rice in the world. Miracles do happen, yes,
but that would be one 'helluva' overnight miracle from Africa's most
populous country.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations
gave a damning assessment of Nigeria's rice potential only recently,
with the following words:
"In 2008, Nigeria produced approximately 2 million metric tons
of milled rice and imported roughly 3 million metric tons, including the
estimated 800,000 metric tons that is suspected to enter the country
illegally on an annual basis".
Nigeria still imports most of the rice it consumes.
Which is why a walk down the nearest rice stall shows that the cost
of a bag of the produce has more than tripled in the last two years, as
the Naira has depreciated in value following a slump in the global
price of oil.
There's been some effort in the last year by the Muhammadu Buhari
administration to ramp up the country's rice production levels, but that
won't be enough to make Nigeria the second largest producer of rice
globally within a short span.
According to mapsofworld.com, a reputable online resource and
research platform, the top ten producers of rice in the world from its
latest data are:
- China
- India
- Indonesia
- Bangladesh
- Vietnam
- Thailand
- Burma
- Philippines
- Brazil
- Japan
Nigeria isn't even close.
In its September 2016 publication, worldatlas.com revealed that the
top 10 rice producing countries in the world are India, China,
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, the Philippines,
Cambodia, and Pakistan.
The site adds that: "These countries are also among the top
rice consumers of the world, and combine to account for around 90% of
the world’s rice consumption.
"Both figures have been on the rise in the last couple of
decades, and experts believe that there will be little or no decline in
these numbers in the coming years".
Countries like Thailand, India, and Vietnam produce around 9.5, 9.5
and 7 million metric tons of rice annually, respectively. In contrast,
Nigeria presently produces 3 million metric tons and consumes 6 million
metric tons of rice annually.
2016 data showed that Nigeria still ranks among the biggest
importers of rice globally. That hasn't changed significantly in the
first few months of 2017.
Nigeria still doesn't produce enough rice to feed itself. Not yet.
So, where did Shehu get his data from?
On Monday, February 20, 2017, instead of apologising for his
apparent false claim, the presidential spokesperson chose to double down
instead.
Shehu told the world that CNN provided the data for his wild claims.
"We are not the first to say that Nigeria has grown to the
second position in rice production worldwide. The CNN which is not a
frivolous news source said this. We have reason to believe them because
of their global reach".
And then, Shehu made a futile attempt to tone down an apparent mendacity.
"While we wait the numbers from the Food and Agricultural
Organisation, FAO, we are collating our own figures and in the coming
weeks, the officials in the Ministry of Agriculture will be coming up
with our own position on rice production.
"Don't forget that since October last year, Nigeria has been feeding many parts of West Africa, North and Central Africa.
"Many of these countries have been shopping in Nigeria for
rice, sorghum, sesame and millet. To support the growing rice industry,
the Federal Government just acquired 110 rice milling machines which
will be installed in different parts of the country between now and
July.
"A lot is happening in Nigeria for which we should be proud."
President Buhari's spokesperson could easily have told the world
what the federal government is doing to increase Nigeria's rice
production levels without throwing bags of rice lies into the mix.
What should have been a mea culpa from Shehu for a bare-faced lie
became a defense tactic? It was appalling to read and watch. Yes, the
federal government is doing a lot to reflate the economy and ramp up
local food production levels, but to say Nigeria has overnight become
the second largest producer of rice globally is the stuff that "liar,
liar, pants on fire" is made of.
Spokespersons should make an effort to go easy on the lies sometimes. It does them or their principals no good.
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