By Pascal Oparada
Social Media /Tech Reporter
On April 16, Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, said there are more than 200 medium and small scale rice milling centres in Kano alone.
Ahmad was responding to Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde’s tweet in which she said Nigeria has become hellish under President Buhari and his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo.
“The Country Under your watch is Hellish! @ProfOsinbajo @MBuhari @NGRPresident The lack of Money in circulation, Now coupled with the Continuous Assault n Killings by Uniformed make this Country implode!!! It’s Unbearable! Do something!Insecurity!Fear n Desperation everywhere,” Omotola tweeted.
Ahmad replied the actress and said those who are working legitimately are not complaining of lack of money in circulation and alluded to the fact that Nigeria is prospering under his principal, Buhari, hence the springing up of over 200 rice mills in Kano alone.
“Madam Omotola those who are working for CLEAN money are not complaining and will never refer our dear country as ‘hellish’. In Kano State alone, from 2015 to 2018, no fewer than 200 medium and small scale rice milling centres emerged. For that, billions circulated among millions,” Ahmad replied.
TheNiche can authoritatively reveal that there are no 200 medium and small scale rice mills in Kano.
A journalist, Abbas Yishau, who works for one of the radio stations in Kano State contacted by TheNiche said the type of rice mills Ahmad referred to in his tweet do not exist in Kano but rather regular rice farmers who operate subsistence rice farms.
“If you are talking about factories that mill rice and sell in bags, that is a lie. They are not up to 100. But if you are talking about those local farmers with rice clusters in Kano with one milling machine each, they are more than 100,” Yishau said.
He said the few rice factories that exist in the state buy from the rice farmers Ahmad referred to in his tweet.
According to him, Ahmad may be referring to grinding machines used by local farmers who harvesa t small percentage of rice from their farms and resell to the bigger rice mills who then bags them in their thousands and send them to the market for sale.
“There is a rice mill in Bagada, another one in Bashakara and another in the metropolis. They are not up to the number Ahmad mentioned in his claim,” he said.
This also contradicts the position of Agriculture Minister, Audu Ogbeh, who said Nigeria has achieved 99 per cent sufficiency in rice production.
In 2017, Ogbeh came under heavy criticism when he lied that several rice mills have closed down in Thailand due to the reduction of rice imports by Nigeria from Thailand.
The Thai embassy in Nigeria refuted Ogbeh’s claim and said rice production and export in Thailand have not been affected by Nigeria’s rice import policy.