FOOD CRISIS: APC senator knocks Buhari, ‎calls for arrest of Ogbe, others over yam exportation

Senate committee chairman on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, over the rising food crisis.

According to him, the inability of the Federal Government to plan and make adequate provision for its citizens, are largely responsible for the crisis.

The former Nasarawa State governor, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja at the weekend, also called for the arrest of the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbe and others, over the exportation of yam to the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe.

Speaking on the food crisis, Adamu said the country lacks statistics of the number of citizens and can therefore not plan adequately for them. He said the executive must sit down and make the right estimate on what Nigerians need.

He said: “I believe very strongly that as a country, we need to set targets and it is not impossible. They do it in other parts of the world. Why can’t we do it here? We need to sit down. What is our population by the way? What can we say we believe is the true population of Nigeria and the margin we have between the real and apparent number of Nigerians?

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“What are the common food items or staple food items? How much of it are we producing and what do we need to produce? How much of it do we need to produce to go into our local industries for processing and how much of it being the excess that we can afford to export?

“We do not have the statistics. I happen to be in the legislature. You cannot make a law as to how much cassava you produce in a year. But the executive has a duty to sit down and make estimate. America does it, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa and United Kingdom do it. They have estimates. You can go there and the minister will tell you this is what we require for next year. In five years, this is what they want. We do not do it here. We need to do it. You liken this to a family.”

On the exportation of yam to other countries, the lawmaker thundered: “I was sad when I heard about the exportation and I believe that if we are up and doing, the people behind that export should be apprehended. They should because this is the time when government’s effort is to promote it. That was a minus for Nigeria, a very big one.”
By Ehisuan Odia

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