Whither Yar’Adua’s N5,000 Rice?

A hungry man is an angry man, so goes a popular saying. Little wonder that the issue of food shortage always elicits serious concern from the public whenever the need arises. It is not an overstatement to pronounce Nigeria a hungry nation. A situation where more than fifty percent of the populace is not sure of what they will have for the next meal can not be considered to be a good one.

Therefore, when the issue of food shortage manifested some few months ago, a broad spectrum of the society participated in the discussion to proffer solution to the crisis. A serious government, and one that is bereft of ideas, is expected to sieve through the heaps of available ones in order to come up with a functional and viable solution.

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The point must be made that this government does not have a sound agricultural policy in place. I don¢t even know whether agriculture is part of the Seven-Point Agenda of the government. And I don¢t deserve any blame for that. I am very sure that most of the serving ministers and presidential aides can not boast of listing the items on the Seven-Point Agenda without having to go and look it up somewhere. Even the president himself may have to consult with his media spokesman to list them correctly. This is so because the Seven-Point Agenda is just a media hype and nothing more. I stand to be proved wrong.

There is nothing wrong with having a short term solution to a problem. But everything is wrong when the short term solution can not meet its target, because by extension, any long term solution designed on the same platform is bound to fail too. A Ghanaian adage says ¡he that does not know where he is coming from is unlikely to know where he is going to¢. This happens to be the lot of the present regime. We are at a crossroad and the present government does not seem to know where we are, where we are coming from and where we ought to be going to.  

When the issue of global food crises reared its ugly face some months ago, the Nigerian government responded quickly by promising to import rice to cushion the effect of the envisaged food shortage. Not quite long after the promise, we were told that the first consignment of the imported rice had arrived the shores of our land. And the government again promised that a bag of rice was going to sell for N5,000 as against the N7,000 the commodity was being sold then. In the absence of this arrangement, we are told that rice would have gone up to N13,000 per bag or even more if the interim arrangement had not been made.

Unfortunately, several months after the arrival of the consignment and probably other ones, we are yet to see Yar¢Adua¢s N5,000 rice. Not even N6,000 per bag. Rice is presently selling for N8,500, much higher than the market price before the purported importation. When are we going to see the N5,000 rice in our local market stalls? It is almost an axiom that once the price of a particular commodity goes up in this country, it never comes down. Rather it keeps on soaring until Armageddon

It is a gross failure on the part of the government if nothing is done to bring down the price of rice and other essential commodities. It should not be misconstrued that rice is the only or most essential food stuff in Nigeria. What we should have at the back of our mind is its multiplier effect on the prices of other food stuff.

Let me end this piece with a short prayer. Our president, who art in Aso Rock. Hallow by thy name. Thy government come. Thy will be done in Nigeria as it is in America. Give us this day, our daily rice and it shall be well with you.

Mohammed Ali Jnr.

Plot 225, Golf Course Close

Ungwar Rimi

Kaduna