The founder/Director Communication For Change (CFC), a non-governmental organi-sation, Sandra Mbanefo Obiago, has  condem-ned the policy  of importing food commodities  from other nations of the world.

She expressed this  view while answering questions from journalists in Ikeja, Lagos State.

Responding to a question on what the organisation was doing to impress it on the government to reduce the quantity of food commodities being imported to the country, a situation which had not encouraged practising Nigerian farmers to increase their food production capacity, the CFC founder said the food dependency attitude of Nigerian government on other African and developed countries of the world is not only an embarras-sement to the corporate image of Nigeria, but also a sad story.

According to Sandra Obiago, the country has all it takes to feed its citizens  as well as export foods to other nations of the world, especially African countries.

“But it is heart-rending and disappointing that Nigeria has lost its prime position in agriculture when ranking leading food producing nations in Africa.

“As a Nigerian who has travelled round, it is not a  good thing that countries like Ghana, Sierra-Leone, C’ote D’ivoire and South-Africa are ahead of Nigeria in the production of some food and cash crops. Honestly, I’m not happy as a Nigerian,” she stated.

Commenting on the resolve of the present Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, to reduce the amount of money the county is spending on food importation yearly, which was put at about N630 billion yearly, the CFC director remarked that spending such a huge amount of money on food importation annually was an “abuse of opportunity given to us by God.”

In her words, “just imagine that amount of  money? That money is almost equal to the budget of some African nations yearly. For instance. I have it on record that Nigeria produces over 45 million tons of cassava yearly, which is rated as the largest in the world. I also have it on record that 80 per cent of these harvested cassava tubers, which ought to turn to money for farmers and in effect boost the country’s economy go to wastages. I know that the nation’s agricultural sector is not receiving the needed support, but if we can give the sector the needed and neccessary support, then food would be abundant and cheap forus in the country.”

She, however, called on the government to support small scale farmers and encourage them to embrace commercial and mechanised, farming, which she said was and could help to boost the nation’s economy and create employment opportunity for jobless Nigerians.