EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
By Dele Sobowale
“CBN vows to resist maize importation.” PUNCH, May 7, 2021.
“Maize Farmers Urge FG To Sustain Ban On Importation of Commodity.”
DAILY INDEPENDENT, May 13, 2021.
If ever there was an unholy alliance of forces against the interest of the vast majority of Nigerians, the conspiracy to ban maize importation by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and the Maize Association of Nigeria, is definitely one.
Advertisement
And, if there is ever a wrong time to preclude the importation of maize, the year 2021 is it. Before going into the selfish motives of the Maize Association for supporting what in reality was a half-hearted ban on maize importation by CBN last year, a few relevant comments are necessary.
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil [or biro or computer] and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.”
US President Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969, a farmer.
Every Central Bank in the world is managed by people charged with the responsibility of framing their nation’s agricultural policy. The CBN is no different. The few men and women so privileged, determine, in the aggregate, what to produce locally, what to import and what to ban from import and export. Invariably, none of them has ever been a farmer. These “super-farmers” do their farming with pencils, biros and now computers – while sitting in the comfort of offices. The citizenry either benefit immensely, or suffer greatly, from the consequences of their decisions. Unfortunately, few people in any country have sufficient knowledge of what occurs at real farms as to question the decisions made on their behalf. Some have yielded outstanding results (cassava, yam, cowpeas and mangoes promotion for instance); others have been disastrous (cotton, wheat). Maize (or corn) is in a separate class on its own.
“Let them eat cake.”
Three commodities stand between mankind and starvation – wheat, rice and maize. Other farm products are also important, depending on the dietary habits of a people. But, on earth nobody disputes that “bread is the staff of life”. More riots have occurred in world history on account of rapid increases in the prices of bread, rice and maize than on all the other farm products put together.
The French Revolution started on a flippant remark by Marie Antoinette, 1755-1793, who when told the hungry masses could not afford to eat bread, made that scornful remark – “Let them eat cake” — which brought down the rule of her husband and led to her death. Hungry men and women are totally unpredictable and irascible. That is why governments everywhere must manage, carefully, the price and availability of the big three commodities. This article is a warning to the CBN regarding its announced decision on maize importation this year. It is too early in 2021 to be that rigid.
THE PAST AS GUIDE TO THE FUTURE.
Nigerians have become perpetual victims of failed federal government and CBN initiatives such that the past has become the best guide to what to expect when policy pronouncements are made. It is the light of our collective experience that we must examine the CBN’s vow to resist the importation of maize in 2021. We have heard such vows before; and they have turned out to be empty words. But, I will come to that shortly.
The CBN works with the FG, especially the Ministry of Agriculture, in ensuring food security for Nigerians. In that regard, please read this.
FGS BOGUS AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
“FG to inject $10bn into economy, create 5m jobs through agric revolution programme.” VANGUARD, June 5, 2020, p 8.
Here is my comment last year – after two Ministers made the announcement.
“Two Ministers represented the Federal Government at the media briefing where this copy-cat programme was announced – indicating that all the noise about CHANGE was a swindle. A political party introducing a “revolutionary” programme in its fifth year in office has confirmed that it had no programme before and after the 2015 election for transforming our agricultural sector. They now expect Nigerians to believe they can leave a legacy in three years after failing to make any progress in the previous five. Incredible!!”
Today, I can authoritatively state that $10bn has not been invested in any agric revolution by the Buhari administration. If the FG can fail to redeem a promise made so loudly last year, who can believe anything they say?
CBN also banned maize importation last year. But, the same CBN is on record for later granting maize import licence to the same selected few beneficiaries of the enormous scarcity which developed. The lucky few smiled all the way to the bank. Housewives cried all the way home. It is certain that the same scenario will be repeated this year. There will be severe shortage; price will increasingly escalate; pressure will build for relaxation of import prohibition and CBN will again invite the usual lucky few to “come and feed fat” on the masses.
GREED OF THE FEW PROPELS CONSPIRACY
“The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.” Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766-1834.
Nowhere is the Malthusian statement more pertinent than in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. We perpetually live on the brink of disaster; such that a very poor harvest will place millions of lives at risk. Scarcity drives up prices and renders millions helpless. Those who control the scarce commodities earn windfall profits; the masses troop to the graveyard – un-mourned.
The Maize Association of Nigeria which now actively supports the CBN’s insistence on maize import prohibition already know what those of us close to the farm can predict for 2021. There will certainly be severe scarcity of all food items – maize included. CBN’s policy on import prohibition will promote their interest and deliver unexpected profits to them at the expense of the vast majority of Nigerians. With all due respects, I think the CBN is very much aware of this inevitability. What baffles me is why the bank is willing to sacrifice the lives and nutrition of millions of Nigerians for the benefit of a few maize farmers.
Here are some reasons why scarcity is inevitable this year.
CRIPPLING SCARCITY OF FOOD IS UNAVOIDABLE IN 2021.
“Humanitarian crisis as bandits sack 70 Niger communities.” News Report
Niger State has the largest land mass of all the 36 states. It is almost totally agrarian. The 70 communities in Shiroro Local Government Area occupy some of the most productive farmlands in Nigeria. Even the village idiot knows that with the people running for their lives, nobody is farming now. The maize produced in that and other sacked areas of the state will not be available this year. Friends with farms in Badeggi and Wushishi have already abandoned their maize and rice farms; so have some in Tegina and Kontagora axis. Zamfara, especially around Bakolori Dam and Talata Mafara has been on partial lockdown even before the planting season. Obviously, nobody can harvest what was not planted. There is no need to list seriatim all the large agricultural states which have now been taken out of action this year. All I want, for the sake of imperilled Nigerians, is for the policymakers at the CBN and Ministry of Agriculture to drop their biros and close their computers; jump on helicopters and go on surveillance of Nigeria’s farmlands. They will see clearly the scale of tragedy awaiting us if they insist on maize import ban.
