Audu Ogbeh, minister of
agriculture, says Thailand has accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s government
of being responsible for the collapse of seven of its rice mills.
The minister made this
known at a meeting of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and
leadership of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers of Nigeria (FEPSAN) held
at the council chamber of the presidential villa, Abuja, on Friday.
The meeting was presided
over by Buhari.
Ogbeh said Thailand’s
ambassador to Nigeria made the “accusation’’ when he visited him in February.
According to the
minister, the ambassador lamented that the collapse of the rice mills has
increased the unemployment rate in his country from 1.2 percent to four
percent.
“Just like two weeks ago,
the ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really
dealt with them,” he said.
“But I asked what did we
do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the
world, 1.2 percent, it has gone up to four percent because seven giant rice
mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 percent on rice
alone.
“So, Mr President we
thank you for the support and we thank all the agencies and those of you in the
private sector for your resilience.”
The minister, however,
alerted the nation on what he described as alarming smuggling of fake
fertiliser and rice along the western borders of the country.
He, therefore, called on
the federal government to take drastic measures to check the trend as all
previous diplomatic measures had failed to address the menace.
“But one last request Mr
President, we have to take one strong measure against our neighbour to the
West. The smuggling is really compromising our capacity on our result,” he
said.
“Too much rice, too much
fake fertilizer is still coming across the borders into this country in spite
of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we have with them they are not
listening.
“Maybe if the Federal
Government takes one tough action, they will come and renegotiate the terms because
good neighbourliness means reciprocity.
“We can’t be allowing
them to survive at our own expense and I believe that we will do something
about it.”
Thailand ‘blames Buhari’ for collapse of its rice mills
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Friday, March 02, 2018
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