Rice Production: Audu Ogbeh’s reported claim is untrue – Thailand Ambassador
Wattana Kunwongse, Thailand’s ambassador to Nigeria, has faulted a claim reportedly made by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, that Thailand accused Nigeria of being responsible for the disintegrate of its seven rice mills following the drastic fall in rice importation from the country.
The ambassador, in a letter despatched to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, described the ministers declare as “misleading and a distortion of the actual discussion that transpired between them”.
A News Agency of Nigeria report published on PREMIUM TIMES on Friday showed that Mr. Ogbeh made the declaration, at a meeting of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and the leadership of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers of Nigeria (FEPSAN) held on the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the report, the minister stated “just like two weeks ago, the Ambassador of Thailand got here to my office and said to me that we have genuinely ‘dealt’ with them.
“But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand become one of the lowest within the international, 1.2 according to cent, it has gone as much as 4 in keeping with cent because seven massive rice turbines have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95% on rice on my own”.
However, the diplomat said Mr. Ogbeh may have lied.
“The file is not simplest deceptive but a distortion of the real verbal exchange among myself and the honourable Minister of Agriculture on the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on thirtieth January 2018, which was nothing short of positivity and optimism on both facets.
“During which I praised President Buhari’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the essence of that’s the endeavour to move the united states to a self-sufficiency and export-oriented economic system, and to that worth reason, Thailand stands prepared to paintings intently with the Nigerian Government in the field of technological switch and agricultural machinery.
“At the same meeting, the honourable minister and I had reached the realization that I as Ambassador 0f Thailand to Nigeria can be running carefully with the Ministry of Agriculture and rural improvement to set up a platform to speak about our mutual benefits within the form of MOU on Agricultural Cooperation and by way of forming a bilateral Working Committee towards that end.”
He added that the record could not be farther from the reality as Thailand’s authentic figures reveal that its rice export to the arena in 2017 reached eleven.Forty-eight million tons worth $5.1 billion.
“Thailand’s rice export to the sector in 2017 (January-December 2017) reached eleven.48 million lots equalizing to $5.1 billion (USD), a 15.54 percent growth compared to previous years, that is one of the maximum figures at the records Thailand’s rice exportation. There is no proof of any shutdown of Thailand’s primary rice turbines,” he said.
Despite the minister’s “misquotation”, the Ambassador said he stays positive and appears ahead to operating collectively with the Nigerian Government on all fronts in the development of Nigerian agricultural quarter.
He stated that based totally on the nice and cozy reception from Mr. Ogbeh when he visited the ministry, he believes the minister is “an incredible man of integrity who has been running so hard to assist Nigeria to acquire the intention of self-sustainability in meals and agriculture.”
When requested to respond to the ambassador’s rebuttal of Mr. Ogbeh’s statement, the unique adviser to the minister on media and publicity, Olukayode Adeleye, stated he could have “to crosscheck records” before responding. He becomes but to respond as on the time of this document.
Self-sufficiency in rice manufacturing is one of the cardinal goals of the Muhammadu Buhari administration with one-of-a-kind officials calling for a ban on the importation of the product.
In his New Year broadcast in January, President Muhammadu Buhari pledged that his administration will similarly reduce rice import in 2018. Earlier in August, a director of the agriculture ministry, Muhammad Adamu, announced that Nigeria’s rice manufacturing reached 15 million metric tonnes yearly.