Food security and the expansion of made in Nigeria products, according to the Federal Government, are two of the President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) administration’s lasting legacies that have been widely understated.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, made this statement on Thursday in Abuja at the ninth instalment of the “PMB Administration. Scorecard Series (2015-2023),” which also included Olamilekan Adegbite, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development.
The scorecard series was introduced in October as a component of a larger campaign to highlight and record the myriad accomplishments of the Buhari government.
Mohammed began by stating that the administration has done well since taking office in terms of self-sufficiency in the majority of basic needs, despite the global crisis influencing cost of life.
“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 relied on imports were struggling to meet their needs,” he said.
The minister pointed out that things could have been far worse if the nation had relied on imports to feed itself during the time of the problems.
The minister claimed that the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative was a successful strategy that effectively increased fertiliser production and distribution to farmers.
He said that the country’s expansion in rice mills from 10 in 2015 to 80 integrated rice mills and its increase in the number of fertiliser blending plants from 10 to 142 have contributed to the country’s current 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.
The minister promised that as the nation increased domestic food production and got closer to achieving food security, prices will start to come down in response to the query about the high cost of food goods.
“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.
