Visionary Leadership is not by words of mouth but by action and actualisation of plans that make life more abundant for the greatest number. This assertion is true of Lagos state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode who has in the last eighteen months executed many people oriented policies with seamless ease.
The latest which is novel in the country and which took many by surprise is the agricultural collaboration between Lagos State and Kebbi State for the production of rice. The end result of the agreement is the recent launch of the Lagos-Kebbi rice called LAKE rice.
It all started in March when the Lagos State Government entered into an agreement with the Kebbi State Government and signed a Memorandum of Understanding – MoU on massive production of locally grown long grain rice. It looked like an ordinary MoU which we are all used to, the ones that would be signed and thereafter ended up in the dustbin of the two parties.
The MoU involved the government of Lago state investing about N10 billion in rice production and the rice would be ready and available in Lagos around December. Lagos government built a rice production plant in Kebbi which can produce 20 metric tones of rice per hour. The rice is called Lagos-Kebbi rice otherwise called LAKE Rice. The rice is out in record time and it is available for sale all over Lagos as planned, at a subsidised price of N12,000 per 50kg bag and N6,000 per 25kg bag while the imported rice ranges between N17,000 per bag to N22,000 per bag.
The success of the LAKE rice is very instructive. It shows that Ambode is a thinking governor who has a vision and worked towards realising same. Ambode knew that with the skyrocketing price of foreign rice called (aroso) in local parlance, it will not be affordable to the common man so he decided to embark on the local production and processing of rice which would be affordable which yielded result. Apart from the revenue which would accrue to the Lagos state government, it will encourage local farmers to go into rice production while thousands of direct and indirect jobs will be created in both Lagos and Kebbi states. The rice will not only be available, it will also be affordable. As it was done last week when the rice was launched, it was distributed across the 57 LCDAs in Lagos State.
It is an irony that Lagos chose to partner with Kebbi State instead of partnering with one of the South west states in the spirit of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN). This perhaps could be explained in terms of the track record of Kebbi State as a rice growing state just like Ebonyi with the famous Abakaliki rice, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Kogi and Ogun known for Ofada rice, are all rice growing states. It is pertinent to note that Igbemo rice used to be more popular in those days before it was overtaken by Ofada rice produced in Ogun state.
It still baffles many observers that the once rice growing states of the southwest, especially Ekiti state with the famous Igbemo rice, have taken the back seat in rice production. Ekiti state case is very pathetic in the sense that this is the time the rice farmers would have made a kill in sale of their brand of rice which is in high demand all over the southwest.
Igbemo rice is so delicious such that many people across the Southwest especially in Lagos booked in advance to buy and this may take up to one week. Simple economic sense then dictates that the high demand for the rice ought to have gingered the state government to seize the opportunity to tap into the mass production of rice by encouraging local rice farmers to grow more.
This may have possibly encouraged Lagos state to partner with such south west state government even if it would still have partnered with Kebbi State. An investment of N5 billion in rice production in a state like Ekiti means a lot and this would have revolutionalised the agricultural sector in the state. Alas, this was not to be in a state where the major programme of the present administration in the state is stomach infrastructure. What a missed opportunity!
The Ambode example is a wake-up call for the Governors of the Southwest under the aegis of the DAWN Agenda. They should collaborate with Lagos state in the production of rice in the region. If it is only rice they produce, they cannot meet up with the rice demand of the South west states alone not to talk of the whole country or export. Rice farmers are the richest in the USA and I believe the same thing could be replicated here with the right policy from the government. Lagos has little or no land to grow rice in commercial quantity but it has resources to make this happen in other states as we have just seen in the case of Kebbi State.
Figures available from the Federal office of Statistics showed that 2.1 million metric tons of rice is imported into the country yearly. This amounts to 42 million 50 kg bags of rice worth N360 billion while five million metric tons of rice, amounting to about 100 million 50kg bags of rice, is consumed yearly in the country. This is a lot of revenue to local rice farmers if the right environment and tools are available to them.
Local rice production on a large scale will take many rice farmers out of poverty and make many millionaires in the value chain of clearing, planting, harvesting and processing. This will only happen if the problems militating against the commercial production of rice such as low technology base (mechanisation), high interest rates, poorly funded research institutes and corruption ridden fertiliser distribution and low public sector investment in Agriculture are effectively tackled.
Ambode’s initiative of the LAKE rice is commendable and should be emulated by other governors not only the South West but in the country. Little wonder that President Muhammadu Buhari shower encomiums on Ambode and his Kebbi state counterpart during the launch of the LAKE rice in Lagos. The President noted, “What the two states have done is evidence of a new base being laid for the Nigerian economy, founded and propelled by agriculture, away from substantial dependence on oil and gas for national revenue”.
The production of the LAKE rice should be sustained while other Southwest Governors should take a cue from this by encouraging local farmers to grow rice in commercial quantity. The Lagos state government should not allow the LAKE rice to be hijacked by shrewd merchants who are only after huge profits to the detriment of the common people whom it is meant for. If that happens, prices will skyrocket beyond the reach of the common man and the purpose would have been defeated.
Congratulations to Lagosians who are enjoying the real dividends of democracy since Ambode assumed office over a year ago.
*Akintunde, a Public Affairs Analyst wrote from Surulere, Lagos.