Let’s slay smuggling before it kills Nigeria
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Recent revelation made by the leader of Rice Miller’s Association in Anambra State, about the abundance of smuggled foreign rice in our markets, has triggered what we have been battling in border communities for quite a long time. He should be commended for making such a bold statement at the time government is making concerted efforts to ensure self-sufficiency in rice production.
For us in the border communities, rice smuggling is considered by many as a means of livelihood. That’s quite unfortunate. What is happening with regard to rice smuggling is a call for concern to every patriotic Nigerian.
The Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari has introduced schemes like CBN’s Anchor Borrower Programme empowering Bank of Agriculture to ensure rice farmers have access to soft loans. We saw that as a welcome development, because a country that cannot feed itself despite abundance of cultivatable arable land is not a serious nation, and it is bound to fail economically.
Having been an indigene of Gumel in Jigawa State, which is 25 kilometers from the border with Niger Republic, I can be bold to say I am very much familiar with border towns of Maigatari, Babura and other illegal routes which many of our law enforcement agents are not familiar with. There is massive rice smuggling going on in our communities and our markets are flooded with smuggled foreign rice. Many people do not know that the border communities of Maigatari and Babura Local Governments have one of the biggest local markets in Northern Nigeria. People from Niger Republic, Mali, Cameron and other African countries patronise these markets on weekly basis.
The security agencies are doing their best, but they lack enough manpower to deal with the menace. While the government encourages people to go into farming, smuggling has to be curtailed. As it is now, people in these communities believe it is not possible to stop smuggling, so government has a lot to do in order to restore confidence in the minds of these farmers.
More security agents should be deployed to these border communities and Nigerian Custom Service and Nigerian Immigration Service should ensure that their Officers and Men are regularly supervised, so that bad eggs amongst them can be identified and dealt with accordingly.
The statistics of rice being consumed in Benin Republic, a country with a population of about 13 million people, should send a strong warning signal to Nigeria as eighty per cent of such rice eventually find its way into this country. Sharing land borders with vulnerable countries has huge challenges. Even the United States with her advanced security system finds it difficult to deal with Mexican border issues. But with proper of enforcement of laws, we can check smuggling or reduce it to the barest minimum.
Mustapha Ya’u Gumel, Dutse, Jigawa State.