Unhelpful Rigidity Over Border Closure, In The Face Of Food Scarcity, Massacre Of Rice Farmers
The Oasis Reporters
December 6, 2020
By Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga (with additional reporting)
It’s unhelpful to remain rigid in the face of reality. Border closure has created more problems than it was intended to solve.
Has the border closure made food cheaper or stopped the movement of small arms into the hands of bandits? It is debatable, if this objective has been realised.
My problem with people like Customs Boss, Hameed Ali is he and Customs top brasses rigidity. If you stick to rigid ideas, and refuse to review them in the face of reality, chances are that those ideas may become poisoned chalice.
At no time in Nigeria’s recent history has a bag of local rice sold for N30,000, far above the value of our national minimum wage. And an average tuber of yam, selling for between N800 to N1,000 depending on your location. A mudu of millet and guinea corn also sells for between N500 to N700, depending on your location or state.
Another problem with rigid people is their refusal to accept the flaws of their ideas, much less open their minds to other helpful ideas. On the contrary, they perceive opposing ideas as lack of patriotism.
You can’t insist on ideas that are doing more harm than good and pretend that you’re doing so out of patriotism and compassion. To pretend that all is well when things are going badly is the best definition of detachment from reality.
Meanwhile, a 50kg bag of rice across the border in Cotonou, Benin Republic is 15, 000 naira.
Farmers growing rice in Zabarmani near Maiduguri have been executed. Boko Haram terrorists boasted that they killed over 70 farmers, even though she official figures claim that 43 were killed . There was even a report that less than three days ago, the terrorists came back, firing into the air, to scare the surviving farmers from daring to visit their farms.
Where does Nigeria go from here in the face of hyper inflation and starvation in the land?