By Etse Kassim, Abuja
The Federal Government says strategic land border between the country and one of its West African neighbours will soon be shutdown to prevent the flooding of Nigeria’s markets with smuggled and poisonous rice.
The government revealed that methods engaged in cultivating and processing of rice being smuggled into the country from South East Asia called for a serious health concerns.
“Let me tell you why we need to shut the border, I grow rice, I was the first Nigerian to mill rice free of stones, if you plant rice in certain parcels of land, some poisonous materials gets into the rice,” Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who made the position of government known, said in Abuja.
“If you go to the Delta in many countries, in South East Asia where they grow the rice, if you plant rice in the same place like four to six years continuously, the quantum of arsenic begins to increase and arsenic causes cancer and that is what they are dumping for us.
“Some people say they prefer Thai rice because they are very sophisticated, welcome to poison,’’ Ogbeh said.
The minister, who was speaking at a youth leadership clinic organised by Guardians of the Nation International (GOTNI), said the shutting down of the border would also give a massive boost to the production of local rice as well as the nation’s economy.
His words : “Our other problem is smuggling. As we speak, a neighbour of ours is importing more rice than China is importing.
“They do not eat parboiled rice, they eat white rice, they use their ports to try and damage our economy.
“I am telling you now because in a few days, you will hear the border has been shut, we are going to shut it to protect you, us and protect our economy.”
While saying that the Federal Government in two years reduced rice importation by 95 per cent and increased the number of rice farmers from 5 million to 30 million, Ogbeh identified Anambra, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kano and Jigawa states as doing well in rice production.
Earlier,President of GOTNI, Linus Okorie, said the leadership clinic was organised to expose young Nigerians to practical leadership principle for life success.
“If Nigeria must make progress, if we must consciously build the next generation of leaders then, we must expose these young people to experienced leaders that have gone ahead for a conscious transfer of knowledge and experiences,’’ he said.