THE Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated that the price of food would decrease, when more food is produced.
He made this statement yesterday in Abuja at the ninth installment of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration’s Scorecard series.
He stated that the scorecard for the Buhari government had significantly underemphasized the area of self-sufficiency in the majority of basic necessities.
Mohammed noted that the administration had performed admirably since taking office. Although the country wasn’t quite there yet.
He added that Buhari had advised Nigerians to cultivate their own food and consume that which they have grown just before the COVID-19 epidemic, the conflict between the Russian and Ukrainian governments, and the economic unrest that interrupted global supply line.
The minister said many neither understood the importance of that admonition nor appreciated its relevance.
He went on to say that the consequence of that admonition, which made Nigerians to look inwards and relied less on imports, 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.
“Imagine that Nigeria, during that period, had relied on imports to feed itself. In 2020, when the pandemic started, we were just five years into the Buhari administration’s food security programme.
“But we had enough food to eat and enough fertiliser to farm, thanks also to the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative. Even before the pandemic, our borders were closed and food imports were largely banned.”
