Nigeria’s Border Should’ve Been Closed Years Ago – Abdullahi Ganduje

Posted by: Folamidavid in News, Politics Dec 5, 2019

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has begged President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the Border Drill Policy for the country to attain food sufficiency.

Ganduje revealed this in Kano, when the ministers of Information, and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Agriculture, and Rural Development Sabo Nanono, led stakeholders on rice production value chain, on a courtesy visit to him.

According to him, even if the partial border closure is affecting Nigerians, these present inconveniences should be endured for a better future.

He added that what Buhari is doing now should’ve been done years ago.

His words, “We know that there is a kind of conspiracy on this issue from people calling on the President to re-open the border.

“I believe the policy must continue until we reach the next level,”

“What we are witnessing now on the closure of the border is the kind of political will that we needed many years ago.

“Past administrations could not attain this success because of the influence from few individuals who were benefitting from rice importation.

“With the good will of President Muhammadu Buhari when he came in, he did not mince words when he said it will not be business as usual.

“If we want to feed ourselves, we must go back to the farms; we must produce what we eat.

“What is needed is the right policies and persistence to ensure that the policies are implemented to the latter.

“We congratulate the president and the rice farmers all over the country, and in particular here in Kano state,”

“We provided the farmers with quality seeds and provided 100 million revolving loan which we later increased.

“We also provided 10,000 irrigation farms so that they could produce during the rice season.

“The farmers are fully mobilised and we are all convinced that Nigerians are ready to feed themselves,”

“We have brought the fertiliser blending plant into use and today, it is the biggest in the Northern part of the country and it is producing to optimum capacity.”