President Buhari's spokesperson led his countrymen astray this week. He didn't need to.
The thing about a lie is that when you repeat it well enough, it suddenly begins to sound true, especially to the tale-bearer.
However, President Muhammadu Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, overreached himself with a lie heard across the world last week.
You didn't even need to research well enough to puncture Shehu's lie. It was all over the place.
This wasn't "alternative facts"; it was a spin taken too far.
It was an unnecessary fib--one he didn't need to indulge in.
"As I speak to you now, Nigeria just achieved the record of the second largest producer of rice in the world. The rice revolution just started a year ago", Shehu declared.
It was a big fat lie.
Nigeria is nowhere near the position of second largest producer of rice in the world.
Miracles do happen, yes, but that would be one helluva overnight miracle from Africa's most populous country.
ALSO READ: Nigeria emerges second largest producer of rice – Presidency
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations gave a damning assessment of Nigeria's rice potential only recently, with the following words:
"In 2008, Nigeria produced approximately 2 million metric tons of milled rice and imported roughly 3 million metric tons, including the estimated 800,000 metric tons that is suspected to enter the country illegally on an annual basis".
Nigeria still imports most of the rice it consumes.
Which is why a walk down the nearest rice stall shows that the cost of a bag of the produce has more than tripled in the last two years, as the Naira has depreciated in value following a slump in the global price of oil.
There's been some effort in the last year by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to ramp up the country's rice production levels, but that won't be enough to make Nigeria the second largest producer of rice globally within a short span.
According to mapsofworld.com, a reputable online resource and research platform, the top ten producers of rice in the world from its latest data are:
China
India
Indonesia
Bangladesh
Vietnam
Thailand
Burma
Philippines
Brazil
Japan
Nigeria isn't even close.
In its September 2016 publication, worldatlas.com revealed that the top 10 rice producing countries in the world are India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Pakistan.
The site adds that: "These countries are also among the top rice consumers of the world, and combine to account for around 90% of the world’s rice consumption.
"Both figures have been on the rise in the last couple of decades, and experts believe that there will be little or no decline in these numbers in the coming years".
ALSO READ: 'Nigeria feeds West, North and Central Africa,' - Presidency
Countries like Thailand, India, and Vietnam produce around 9.5, 9.5 and 7 million metric tons of rice annually, respectively.
In contrast, Nigeria presently produces 3 million metric tons and consumes 6 million metric tons of rice annually.
2016 data showed that Nigeria still ranks among the biggest importers of rice globally. That hasn't changed significantly in the first few months of 2017.
Nigeria still doesn't produce enough rice to feed itself. Not yet.
So, where did Shehu get his data from?
On Monday, February 20, 2017, instead of apologising for his apparent false claim, the presidential spokesperson chose to double down instead.
Shehu told the world that CNN provided the data for his wild claims.
"We are not the first to say that Nigeria has grown to the second position in rice production worldwide. The CNN which is not a frivolous news source said this. We have reason to believe them because of their global reach".
And then, Shehu made a futile attempt to tone down an apparent mendacity.
"While we wait the numbers from the Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, we are collating our own figures and in the coming weeks, the officials in the Ministry of Agriculture will be coming up with our own position on rice production.
"Don't forget that since October last year, Nigeria has been feeding many parts of West Africa, North and Central Africa.
"Many of these countries have been shopping in Nigeria for rice, sorghum, sesame and millet. To support the growing rice industry, the Federal Government just acquired 110 rice milling machines which will be installed in different parts of the country between now and July.
"A lot is happening in Nigeria for which we should be proud."
President Buhari's spokesperson could easily have told the world what the federal government is doing to increase Nigeria's rice production levels without throwing bags of rice lies into the mix.
What should have been a mea culpa from Shehu for a bare-faced lie became a defense tactic.
It was appalling to read and watch.
Yes, the federal government is doing a lot to reflate the economy and ramp up local food production levels, but to say Nigeria has overnight become the second largest producer of rice globally is the stuff that "liar, liar, pants on fire" are made of.
Spokespersons should make an effort to go slow on the lies sometimes.
It does them or their principals no good.
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