The Senate on Thursday adopted the report of its Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development on anti-smuggling and dumping of agricultural commodities in Nigeria.
Speaking afterwards, Senate President Bukola Saraki restated his earlier appeal that the report is not taken as just another ‘recommendation,’ as its implementation can go a long way to offer more opportunities for Nigerians in the all-important sector of the economy.
Taking to his personal Facebook page, the Senate President recalled that earlier this year, there was a public hearing at the Senate that was centered on ‘Tackling Smuggling,’ where he highlighted that “we have invested over $7bn over the last 10 years in stimulating local production. If we do not address the area of smuggling, this investment will go to waste.”
According to him, “if the only thing that we do over the next year is the full and holistic implementation of the recommendations of this Senate Report on smuggling, we will be able to turn around the future and fortunes of this country for the better.”
He stressed the resolve of the Senate management to continue working with the agric committee to make laws on the issues raised and in the process ensure more certainty in the areas of policy for investors.
Saraki called on President Muhammadu Buhari “to take this report and personally see to the implementation of its recommendations. This is because many of the challenges that our people are having is that some of our existing policies also conflict with some of our actions. For example, there is no way we can achieve self-sufficiency with rice if right before our eyes people are smuggling in rice across our borders.
“Oftentimes, the officers in charge of safeguarding our borders see this happening and no sanctions are applied. Till date, I have not seen or heard of any officer who has been charged or dismissed for aiding and/or abetting the smuggling of rice into Nigeria. Unless we do this, nothing will happen. This is because smuggling is the most extensive form of economic sabotage in Nigeria today.
“The same thing applies to poultry. Many farmers and producers now have stock that they cannot sell because we have chickens coming in from countries like Brazil. We need to engage with many of these countries and make it clear to them that we do not want these products imported into our country.
“Right now, the most important thing for us to do is backing up the Senate’s recommendations with the implementation power of the executive. If we do this, I am confident that we will see an upsurge in agriculture revenues across the nation,” he stressed.