The Federal Government has identified smuggling as the biggest threat frustrating its efforts and successes in the agricultural sector.
Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Agriculture expressed concerns that unless urgent measures are put in place to address the issue of smuggling of foreign food products into the country, the Federal Government might not achieve its target for the sector.
“All the efforts and achievements recorded, both in the fishery sector and in the rice sector, which we are doing excellently well will be reversed if we do not combat the issue of smuggling,” the minister said during a courtesy visit to the Ogun state Governor, Ibikunle Amosun in his office in Abeokuta recently.
Lokpobiri also cautioned that social problems will continue to fester in the country if the problem is not promptly nipped in the bud because all the efforts that Government has made in the area of job creation through agriculture will be reversed.
The minister however commended President Muhammadu Buhari for taking steps to combat the challenge and also urged states living in the border areas of the country to take measures to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in this regard.
Lokpobiri identified Ogun State as one of the states that is badly affected by this issue of smuggling and appealed to the governor to do everything within his power to address the issue.
“Ogun state is one of the states that is badly affected by this issue of smuggling. It has a whole lot of problems; it affects our daily existence as a country because today we have been able to create a lot of jobs through agriculture and if smuggling is allowed to continue, the likelihood is that that will be reversed, there will be lot more of social problems,” he said.
The minister revealed that one of the measures put in place by the government to combat smuggling was the setting up of the committee headed by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, which he said is working round the clock to ensure that we combat this issue of smuggling.
Besides, Lokpobiri stated that the government is doing everything humanly possible to ensure that the country collaborate with the Republic of Benin, Niger and Chad to check this problem, noting that the recent visit of the President of Benin Republic to Nigeria was for that purpose.
Amosun in his response also shared his concerns with the minister on the issue of smuggling, said “we are not unaware of those challenges that smuggling poses to our agriculture and that is why we are insisting that all our porous borders should be closed.”
Amosun regretted that his state has the highest number of unmanned borders in the country and disclosed that he was already discussing with the minister of interior minister and the conptroller general of the Nigerian Immigration as well as the Nigerian Customs on ways of mitigating the impact of the problem both in the short and long term basis.
Josephine Okojie
