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| HMA Adesina holding a bag of Nigerian Rice |
Reading
the allegation of fraud in rice import and linking it to the Honourable
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adesina Akinwumi, I did not blink my eye because I
would not imagined the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adesina Akinwumi
being in charge of collection of duties or levies on food imports, specifically
Rice. The Nigerian House of Representatives was in the media recently claiming
that the Minister has no power to issue duty waivers to rice importers. The
House further stated that the Minister did allocate rice import license to some
rice millers without due process. The house lamented the bureaucracy in
government procedure and the insincerity of the importers; both of which could undermine the good government policy on rice
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| Rice Pyramid in Kano |
The
lawmakers therefore called for a complete review of the 2014-2017 fiscal policy
on rice, in order to achieve the intended goal of self sufficiency in rice
production. I regarded the news as dead on arrival and therefore discountenanced
it; my position was based on the following factors:
1. Dr.
A. Adesina is the Minister of agriculture of Nigeria and not of Thailand;
2. The
Minister is an apostle of consumption of Nigerian Food;
3. Adesina
has the greatest passion for Nigerian agriculture and he has been pursuing the
goal of self sufficiency in rice production since his first day in office;
4. A
lot of hard work had gone into local rice industry development which has
achieved great impact in terms of improved local production capacity & productivity;
reduction in rice import bill; increased local and foreign investment in rice
production and processing;
5. A
good number of locally produced, processed and branded rice are now in Nigerian
markets.
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| Nigerian Rice Brands |
6. Adesina that i know, is a man of impeccable character and has been one of the most transparent and honest public officer that i have ever come across. He is a man of contentment and who has never demonstrated any corruptive tendency. It will therefore be very difficult to find him in such messy and fraudulent practice.
Therefore, in response to the allegation, Adesina
came out tell the story to the Lawmakers to enable the public understand the
true position of things and the role of each category of stakeholders.
The
Minister told the lawmakers that the allegation is purely the handwork of the rice
importers who refused to be team players with the government’s policy on local
rice industry development. He explained that the policy was intended to
encourage local rice production and reduce the volume of import. Hence, certain
limited quotas were issued to importers to bridge the supply gap of 1.5 million
metric tonnes while the penalty for exceeding the quota was pegged at 70% duty.
But to his surprise, he said, some of the importers brought in excess of the
approved quotas, between 100,000-300,000 metric tonnes and more intriguing was
the fact that they were able to clear the rice without paying the levy. According
to Dr. Adesina, among the duties of the Nigerian Custom Service is collection of duties
and levies and he could not understand why the importers were able to get the product out
without paying duty/levy.
In his testimony before the lawmakers, a rice processor
and the former Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Andoaka confirmed the
fraudulent activities of the rice importers which he said could kill the good policy
of government. He told the ad hoc committee that the strategy of the importers is
to bring in excess rice and dump into the Nigerian market, thereby crashing the
price, far below that of the local rice and eventually kill the policy and the
local industries.
In conclusion, the chairman of the ad hoc committee
advised that the Nigerian custom Service must be alive to its responsibility
and not bow to pressure from any quarter. That the duty of the organ of
government must be carried out as stated in the law which establishes it.
My position justified!
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