The Magic of Diket Plang

 

Senator Diket Plang. Source: Pang's Facebook Gallery

Plang has always beaten his chest saying he never had to worry much about writing applications with the intention of seeking a job –his only applications where to the people from whom he sought political mandates.

Very early from graduation, he opted to be in politics, becoming a counsellor representing one of those words from Pankshin South. He eventually rose to coordinate the National Poverty Alleviation Programme under Joshua Dariye, who was the Governor of Plateau State between 1999 and 2007. During the Jonah Jang administration as the Governor of Plateau State, Senator Plang became an adviser to the Governor on Inter-Governmental Matters. That was when I knew him, following an interview he granted me while I worked actively as a journalist at the time. During the second tenure of the Jang administration, he successfully contested for the state assembly and won. In the eight years of Simon Lalong, he went into hibernation. At the end of it, he bounced back, this time as a Senator.  He taught us that patience is a powerful weapon in political strategy.

Obviously, there is something magical about his political life, given that he comes from a marginal tribe in Pankshin, where the Ngas are the largest tribe –our political culture is largely driven by sympathy to people with whom we share a common ancestry or religion. We cannot forget too easily that we are in the era of the Muslim-Muslim tag.  

So, what is the secret blueprint he has used to stay relevant all these decades? It is obviously, his generosity. I was prompted to write this after listening to what he had done to people in his constituency by given out one thousand bags of rice to folks at the bottom of the economic hierarchy. Roughly, that amounts to about one hundred million naira, a largesse one can describe as staggering!

There was a time, early in Plang’s senatorial incumbency. It was when he was invited to inspect the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences in Jos with the intention of helping with a bill seeking to make the institute a university.  I went there and watched as he was been taken round the institute.  I thought it was a near-impossible task, but the man eventually delivered, a restatement of his laser-sharp political wit.   

This big-heartedness has been the recipe to his unvarying political victories. His detractors say that he has been succeeding by bribing the people with generosity. Anything wrong with that?  –politics is about irritability to the troubles of the people, helping the people to accomplish their individual and shared dreams.

Having became a Senator, there is just one rung atop the latter that he hasn’t attained. It is the position of a governor. Unfortunately, when he ends his tenure as a senator (assuming he winds the second tenure) it will be the turn of Northern Plateau to present the candidates. That is if we stick to the agreement which merely comes from our convictions that power should rotate. It is not a clause in the constitution and anything can happen. From his antecedents, it is dangerous to underestimate what the Senator is capable of actualizing.

Time to Pick Out the Stones and Chaff

Imported Rice in Nigeria

While Mohammadu Buhari aimed at the Presidency of the Nigerian federation, he pledged jobs to millions of job-seeking Nigerians among other things. The agricultural sector was one of the multiple areas the eventual president was looking at.     

Rice production is extremely critical to the creation of jobs in the agro subsector.  Nigeria imported about 3 million tons of rice in the 2013-14 period. Between 2012 and 2015, about N474 billion was spent on rice importation, translating to an average revenue lost of N118.5 billion, annually.

The recent fall in the value of the naira threw to the fore the harm rice importation causes the Nigerian nation. It is good that this is happening very early in the life of the new administration. The administration, in an effort to discourage the importation of goods that Nigeria produces or can produce, has made the dollar scarce to the importers of such goods. This has led to the scarcity of the dollar and the rise in its value in the unofficial market. The end result is the 50% rise in the price of imported rice. 

Rather than allowing the Central Bank of Nigeria to loosing up channels of dollar sourcing for the affected importers, Buhari has, in keeping with his vow to create jobs, insisted with sarcasm that “if you think you cannot eat local rice, then it is up to you to source for the dollar wherever you can and use it to buy the foreign rice that you so much cherish.”

The question is: why do Nigerians find it difficult to eat their own rice, despite knowing the huge harm the practice causes our economy? The answer is not far: Local rice is badly processed. The outcomes are the stones and bits of unsorted chaff that makes local rice unattractive, despite its high taste. People don’t want to eat rice and crush stones as they do so. In addition, there are bits of chaff that must inevitably find their way into the pot. Nigerians don’t like their weird texture in the mouth.  The species of rice grown in Nigeria are a spectrum. There are some, whose grains dissolve and fuse into a huge starchy mass after boiling. Nigerians, like other nationals, prefer rice whose grains remain independent even after boiling.

Here, the eating of high quality rice is associated with status. Every Nigerian loves status and wouldn’t want to be left behind. It is the reason why Nigerians have developed shock drains that ensure they adjust to a price increase each time it occurs. There is also that thing about time being a healer. This means that, in time, Nigerians would always get over the economic pains that price increases bring. 

Wise speakers often say that problems are not solved by ignoring them. Consequently, halting rice importation and taking back rice-sector jobs from Asian nations would, no doubt, require the nation to stand up and act as against our attitude of just sitting and expecting things to just get cooked. The Asians, who export the rice we consumed, don’t just sit. They stand up and act. 

Most rice farmers in Nigeria are uneducated and process their rice using crude, and rigorous means handed down to them by unschooled traditions. They need to be told that the inferior processing methods lead to the stones and detritus that make their product unappealing. They need to be told the role they can play towards ending rice importation, and be educated and assisted on how they can play this role adequately. They also need to be told about the annual N118.5 billion that should be theirs, but which are lost to their Asian counterparts, and that they can earn this money if importation is successfully halted. Buhari and his team must also identify unpopular species of rice and encourage farmers to end their cultivation. In working to end importation, we must integrate the support for researches towards improving the quality of rice that is produced in the country. 

Problems are not solved by ignoring them. Nigeria, stand up.