The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Thursday alleged that the achievement of President Muhammadu Buhari in the area of food self-sufficiency for the country has been downplayed.
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He said the President Buhari’s administration has achieved food security and the scaling up of made-in-Nigeria products. He spoke at the opening session of the 9th edition of the Buhari Administration Scorecard media series in Abuja.
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According to Mohammed, in spite of the crises affecting the cost of living globally, the administration had done well since assuming office in the area of self-sufficiency in most basic needs. “I am sure many of us have seen video clips of empty supermarket shelves in the Western world, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine w@r and the economic uncertainty, which have all combined to disrupt global supply chains.
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Long before these cr#ses, however, President Muhammadu Buhari had, in a statement that has now turned out to be prescient, admonished Nigerians to grow what they eat and eat what they grow. Then, many neither understood the importance of that admonition nor appreciated its relevance. Well, it turned out that the consequence of that statement made Nigerians look inward and relied less on imports.
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This has saved Nigerians from hunger, especially during the prolonged global lockdown, when exporting nations shut their ports and borders and nations that relied on imports were struggling to meet their needs.” Mohammed also said the worst could have happened if the country had, during the period of the crises, relied on imports to feed itself. Speaking further on the high prices of food items, the minister assured that as the country engaged more in local food production and moved closer to achieving food security, prices would begin to fall.
