You must be surprised to see this hot topic, but this actually was a topic in a parliament discussion at Nigeria. Audu Ogbeh, Nigeria’s minister of agriculture claim in the meeting that, some super rich Nigerians are ordering pizza from London and they are getting it delivered back home by the British Airways.
The Agenda of the Meeting
The Senate committee was set up for a meeting last Tuesday to have a discussion over cutting down Nigeria’s reliance on foreign imports, which most of the wealthy people of Nigeria see as a status symbol. Audu Ogbeh came before the committee to defend the ministry’s budget for 2019.
Minister’s Comment
The agriculture minister of Nigeria, Audu Ogbeh, said in these words: “Do you know, sir, there are Nigerians who order pizza from London. They buy it in London and bring it on British Airway flights in the morning to pick up at the airport.”
He also exclaimed that it was a very annoying situation and suggested the government to move faster in cutting down some of these things.
Alleged effect
He also said that some citizens import daily necessities like rice and tomato paste just to show their status, that they only eat imported things.
Ogbeh, being the agriculture minister, said that this act of relying on foreign imports, just to be seen as a status symbol, is costing the local farmers. They are losing money because the processors do not have enough funds to set up factories.
Public response
Audu Ogbeh, in his comment, did not name the Nigerians who allegedly make the orders and did not even make it clear whether they personally fly to London for the pizzas or get someone else to do it. The British Airways was also contacted for comment on Ogbeh’s claim.
This resulted on a plethora of comments against Ogbeh. Many people claimed that the comment made by Ogbeh was worthless: “he uses these sensational stories to distract the people from his own failings”. Also, they added that he was incompetent to tackle the real issues, is why he is making such claims.
Some people trolled Ogbeh by making sarcastic comments that said, “Pizza’s from the UK? You better order them from Italy…”
Some people also make comments like “...how does this affect your inability to fund technology in local Rice production. Local rice is expensive because most of the processes are still done manually.”
