In the late 1960s when the vicious war between India and Pakistan ended, India faced a severe drought. A grave food crisis became its lot. The country depended on international philanthropy to feed its citizens. An exasperated Indira Gandhi who was then the prime minister vowed that never again would India rely on international charity for the survival of hundreds of millions of its citizens. The country embarked on various aggressive agricultural programmes and projects. India has since become a food superpower. It produces more rice than any other nation, and most Basmati Rice, popular in Nigeria because of the popular belief that it is for diabetic patients, is from India. India’s 1.4 billion people are today respected across the globe.
The major driver of the #EndBadGovernance protests that started on August 1 was the widespread hunger in the land arising principally from the petrol subsidy removal and the full flotation of the local currency by the President Bola Tinubu administration no sooner than it came into being in May 2023. Public officials at different government tiers should look at our recent history and learn from the example of Willie Obiano, Anambra State governor for eight years till 2023 regarding how to provide food to the people within a short period. Obiano made Anambra synonymous with agriculture, a remarkable achievement for a state long associated with trade, commerce, manufacturing and education but never agriculture.
Obiano focused on rice for two reasons: it is now Nigeria’s staple and it can be harvested within three months of planting. Anambra was producing a mere 80,000 metric tonnes of rice per annum by 2015 when Obiano assumed office, but by the time he departed in 2022, the state was producing 420,00 metric tonnes. The rice production was well branded and marketed so effectively that some millers in Kogi and Benue states began to brand their rice Anambra Rice to be able to sell it fast.
Most Nigerians still do not know that the Lake Rice brand consumed in Lagos State is milled in Anambra State. It is produced in Kebbi State but Kebbi cannot mill it, so it is processed in Anambra State by a company known as Stines Rice Mills in Amichi, Nnewi South Local Government Area. On October 2, 2019, when the Coscharis Rice Mill at Igbariam in Anambra East LGA was commissioned by the then Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele whose bank helped finance the facility, the Kebbi State governor, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu who is now the Minister of Economic Planning, was there. He was there to negotiate with the Coscharis Rice Mill promoter, Cosmas Maduka, how the new firm could help process Kebbi rice. Kebbi is Nigeria’s greatest rice producer.
Obiano, a former bank executive director, approached rice production with the mindset of a business leader. Akinwunmi Adesina, the African Development Bank (AfDB) president, advised the Nigerian government when he was the Minister of Agriculture under President Goodluck Jonathan, to see agriculture as a business rather than as charity or social service performed by uneducated and old people. With the right incentives provided, Obiano was able to get hardnosed entrepreneurs like Maduka to invest heavily in agriculture. Before building the Coscharis Rice Mill, Maduka had invested massively in rice production in Anaku, the headquarters of Ayamelum LGA, where he acquired a large swath of land. He found the rice production business so profitable that when the terrible flood of 2019 wiped out his production for the year, he started dry season rice farming and built a big dam to make it work effectively. He hired several Indian expatriates.
There were other big rice investors like JOSSAN operating in Orumba North LGA and Ayamelu LGA whom Obiano brought to the state. The rice revolution saw the emergence of both medium and small rice producers and millers as well as marketers in places like Ogbaru, Awka North, Orumba South and Ihiala. A 20 kilogramme of rice sold for as little as N3,000 while a 50 kg of Anambra Rice went for N6,500. It was easy for individuals and associations to purchase rice in large quantities to give out freely during Christmas and other festivities. The state government and its ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) were also giving out rice to their staff, partners, and friends. How many states can afford to do so today as a 50kg bag of rice sellls for N80,000?
Anambra State participated actively in the CBN’s loans for agricultural development programmes, and made creative use of the resources made available. Not only was it the first state government to repay the loans it took, it also provides funds to little-known farmers like Prince Ugochkwu Okparaeke from Umuchu in Aguata LGA who owns Eagle Farms in Umuchu as well as in Umunze, Orumba South LGA. Okparaeke was so imaginative that he developed a hybrid of the traditional Igbo cow that is short but fleshy and the stock from Northern Nigeria that is big but less fleshy proportionate to their sizes. The hybrid is, therefore, big and with plenty of flesh like the breeds in Europe and South America. Small fish farmers also benefitted from the CBN credit, and would proudly display their big catches during the annual Anambra State Agricultural Exhibition at the Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka.
Nigeria is facing an acute food crisis. Rather than just give out 50kg bags of rice at half the price and provide 10kg bags of rice free of charge to hungry and malnourised people in the name of offering them palliatives and removing the import duties on foodstuffs for six months, Nigerian government officials at the federal and state levels should be more imaginative because none of these measures can take the place of rigorous thinking and sound public policy. Let Tinubu study the Indian model initiated by Mrs Ghandi and let state governors learn from the ex-Governor Obiano example. Each state should be able to identify its staple foods and produce them in less than one year. There are agricultural research institutes throughout Nigeria, and they have developed high-yielding plants and seeds and are resistant to common diseases. The Federal Government needs to introduce a visionary agricultural policy, get the states and local governments for their buy-in, and coordinate the measures to get the country going in the right direction. We must avoid situations like the one in France and the Sudan which saw the people revolt historically against their rulers, chasing them away from power.
As Willie Obiano turns 69 years old today (Thursday, August 8, 2024), the best tribute we can pay to the man under whose leadership Anambra State habitually took the first position in various key national and international competitions is to start to feed the 210 million Nigerian citizens with our own produce.
–Obiakor, a retired deputy director in the public service, lives in Onitsha, Anambra State