Following moves by some presidential candidates, if elected, to open land borders to allow the importation of rice among other banned food items, the Federation of Agriculture Commodity Associations of Nigeria (FACAN) has warned politicians to stop playing politics with food security in the country.
The body maintained that while they understand the need for candidates to put forward their value propositions to the electorates during campaigns to solicit votes, FACAN said it is not in the interest of the nation for anyone to politicise agriculture as it portends great danger to the wellbeing of the nation and its food security.
The statement by the National President of FACAN, Alhaji Sadiq Deware, stated that farmers under the aegis of the association have been direct beneficiaries of the positive impact of the well-thought-out policy that led to the closure of the land borders and the ban on the importation of rice.
He said that the impact of reopening land borders and resumption of importation of rice would have on rice farmers who have deployed medium and large-scale processors aside from investing heavily in setting up processing facilities that are already up and running will be unquantifiable.
The body said: “We wish to implore proponents on both sides of the divide to consider the advantages vis-a-viz disadvantages of either position in the overall interest of the nation.”
The group further mentioned that given the current security situation in the country, the opening of land borders would further encourage a massive inflow of small arms and light weapons into the country.
Deware mentioned that the lethal blow the uncontrolled importation of textile materials had on the textile industries is still fresh in their minds, as well as the carcasses of moribund textile industries in Kaduna and other parts of Nigeria are staring them in the face, saying it is their hope that history would not repeat itself in their lifetime.
The group pledged to continue to work assiduously with any government in power, committing to promoting all policies that would better position all value chain players in the agricultural space to become formidable sources of economic diversification.