The Federal Government, one of the enduring legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari’s (PMB) administration that has been widely overlooked is food security and the expansion of made in Nigeria products.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, announced this on Thursday in Abuja at the 9th edition of the “PMB Administration. Scorecard Series (2015-2023),” which also included the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the scorecard series was launched in October as part of a larger initiative to highlight and document the Buhari administration’s numerous accomplishments.
In his opening remarks, Mohammed highlighted that, despite global issues influencing the cost of living, the administration has done well in terms of self-sufficiency in most basic necessities since taking office.
“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 war and the economic uncertainty, which have all combined to disrupt global supply chains.
“Long before these crises, 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, which made Nigerians to look inward and relied less on imports.
“This has saved Nigerians from hunger, especially during the prolonged global lockdown, when exporting nations shut their ports and borders and nations that “Those who relied on imports were struggling to meet their necessities,” he explained.
The minister underlined that if the country had relied on imports to feed itself throughout the crisis, the worst could have happened.
According to the minister, the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative was a successful initiative that improved fertilizer production and distribution to farmers.
He stated that the country’s expansion in the number of fertiliser blending plants from 10 in 2015 to 142, as well as the increase in the number of rice mills from 10 in 2015 to 80 integrated rice mills, has assisted food sufficiency.
“Our farmers are now part of our economy. Companies and factories are coming up to manufacture, process and distribute food.
“If you visit our markets and supermarkets today, what you will see mostly are ‘made in Nigeria’ products. This is a huge progress in such a short time,” he said.
Responding to the question of 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.
“For now, we must acknowledge the success we have achieved in the area of food production and in scaling up made in Nigeria products’’ he said.
