The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, to immediately toe the path of honour and resign for portraying Nigeria as a lying nation and bringing her to international opprobrium by deliberately falsifying claims relating to Nigeria’s relationship with Thailand.
The party said the whole world was shocked when the ambassador of Thailand to Nigeria, Wattana Kuwongse, publicly denied ever informing Chief Ogbeh that major rice mills were shutting down in Thailand as a result of drop in importation of rice by Nigeria as claimed by the minister.
Ogbeh had on Friday, March 2, 2018 told President Muhammadu Buhari that Thailand had accused Nigeria’s government of being responsible for the collapse of seven rice mills in the country.
“Just like two weeks ago, the ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really dealt with them.
“But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four per cent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 percent on rice alone,” Ogbeh said.
The minister also said that unemployment had spiked by 4.2 per cent in Thailand due Nigeria’s current rice policy.
But reacting to an exclusive inquiry by The Niche on March 6, the Thai embassy in Nigeria said such claim was unfounded.
“We would like to clarify that Thailand rice production and export all over the world has not been affected in anyway by the current Federal Government of Nigeria’s ban on rice import to the country, though Nigeria was a big importer of the Thai parboiled rice,” the embassy stated in response to The Niche’s inquiry.
The PDP said APC intentionally misled Nigerians with such false claim. “It is clear that the intention of the APC-led federal government was to use the Minister of Agriculture to mislead Nigerians into believing that the Buhari-led administration has achieved national self-sufficiency in food production; a stunt which fell flat on its face and brought the nation into international ridicule.
The production of rice in Thailand is intact, going by the response TheNiche received from Thai Embassy in Abuja on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.
In an email to the Embassy of Thailand in Abuja, Nigeria, TheNiche had sought to know if the current Federal Government of Nigeria’s ban on importation of rice has affected rice production in the Asian country.
In the response, by one Michel, the embassy staff, refuted the claim by Agriculture Minister, Audu Ogbeh, that ‘Nigeria has dealt with Thailand’ because of its current policy on rice importation.
Our Letter to Thai Embassy:
The Ambassador of Thailand to Nigeria
Attn: Chailert Limsonboon
Dear sir,
Recently, Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister, Audu Ogbeh, said that you told him that due to Nigeria’s increase in rice production, the volume of rice production in Thailand has gone down which has led to the closure of seven rice mills in your country and loss of jobs.
Kindly furnish us with details of rice production, and export to Nigeria from Thailand.
Your prompt response would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Thai Embassy’s response:
Warm greetings from the Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Abuja.
We would like to clarify that Thailand rice production and export all over the world has not been affected in anyway by the current Federal Government of Nigeria’s ban on rice import to the country, though Nigeria was a big importer of the Thai parboiled rice.
Moreover, the Kingdom of Thailand, right now, is ready to support and to accompany technically the Nigerian agri-business stakeholders to grow the staple locally.
Due to the ban on importation of rice to Nigeria, we could not provide a clear picture of the trade between the two countries.
Very best regards,
Michel.
Ogbeh had on Friday, March 2, 2018 told President Muhammadu Buhari that Thailand had accused the Nigeria’s government of being responsible for the collapse of seven rice mills in the country.
“Just like two weeks ago, the ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really dealt with them.
“But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four per cent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 percent on rice alone,” Ogbeh said.
Also Ogbeh said that unemployment has spiked by 4.2 per cent in Thailand due Nigeria’s current rice policy.
But checks by TheNiche reveal that there was a marginal increase in unemployment rate in Thailand.
The unemployment rate in Thailand inched up to 1.3 per cent in January of 2018 from 1.2 percent in the same month a year before. The number of unemployed went up to 26,000 from the previous year to 475,000 while the number of employed declined by 142,000 to 37.07 million. In December 2017, the jobless rate was one per cent.
Unemployment Rate in Thailand averaged 1.45 percent from 2001 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 5.73 percent in January of 2001 and a record low of 0.39 percent in November of 2012.
The minister also said about seven rice mills had closed down in Thailand because Nigeria is no longer importing rice from them.
When TheNiche reached out to Golden Grain Enterprise Co., a rice producing firm in Thailand to confirm if there was any closure of rice mills in the country, they denied knowledge of any such closure of any rice mill.
Further checks reveal that local rice production in Nigeria has not saturated the market as many households still consume imported rice in the country.
The price of the staple remains high in the market, selling at N14,000 per bag as against N8,000 in 2015.
Phone calls made to Audu Ogbeh did not go through as his phone was switched off.
Also, the minister did not respond to SMS sent to his phone at the time of filing the report.