- A worthy initiative that other states should emulate
Organised inter-sate commerce and co-operation in Nigeria advanced a significant step with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Commodity Value Chains between the Lagos State Government and the Kebbi State Government, designed to boost food production, processing and distribution.
Kebbi State has vast tracts of arable land characterised by large flood plains, lowland swamps and gentle slopes, and is a major producer of fadama rice and other crops such as wheat, sorghum, and corn. The arrangement will guarantee a market for its agricultural produce, an assured income for farmers, and help stimulate production.
Lagos, with an estimated population of 20 million, offers a vast market for rice, a national staple in huge demand met at present by imports, mainly from Thailand with N365 billion a year in foreign exchange that can with local sufficiency be saved outright or committed to far more pressing needs.
Home to Nigeria’s major flour mills, bakeries, breweries and food manufacturers, Lagos is in constant need of wheat and sorghum. As one of the nation’s largest producers of poultry it also has a huge demand livestock feed production based on maize. Lagos will receive a steady supply of agricultural products that will feed its residents and its industrial plants and help stabilise the prices.
The memorandum will be implemented through LASKEB Agricultural Production and Marketing Company (LAPMCO), which will focus on rice, wheat, groundnut, onions, maize, sorghum, and beef. The arrangement is a welcome catalyst for realising the food sufficiency and security talked about so often but rarely vigorously pursued. Quality control should be one of its principal goals.
It need not be limited to food and agriculture. Kebbi State is home to the Argungu Fishing Festival that draws tourists from across the Sahel and beyond. The Lagos Boat Regatta, as well as the Lagos Marathon and other festivals should strive to register not merely as colourful entertainment spectacles but also as tourist attractions that will redound to the economy, like the Argungu Fishing Festival.
Teams from the two states should map out areas of co-operation, especially on staging and marketing the festivals.
It is reassuring that the memorandum does not shut out other states. It is best seen as a pioneering collaboration for the collective good of Nigeria. Other states can accede to it once it becomes a going concern.
Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu deserve praise for their vision and leadership in formulating the memorandum, the first of its kind in the nation’s history. They must see it through to implementation if it is not to go the way of many a project that promised much but delivered little.
Amidst the backslapping, it is necessary to point out that movement of farm products on the scale envisaged in the memorandum points once again to the compelling need to rehabilitate and upgrade the nation’s decrepit railway system for rapid and safe transportation of goods with minimum disruption to vehicular traffic.
Even without its deleterious effect on the road network, road haulage cannot handle that volume of traffic efficiently. When its corrosive impact is taken into account, road haulage is sure to be a limiting factor in the memorandum’s implementation.
The answer here, and in other critical areas of the national economy, is the construction of a modern railway network. It should be accorded the highest priority.
