On Wednesday, 24th September, 2014, an article written by one Sunday Oyeniyi was published in The Punch. The writer was reacting to an article that appeared in this column recently, where I discussed the threat climate change posed to the cocoa industry. However, the article by Oyeniyi did not just discuss climate change and cocoa; it clearly sought to discredit every argument that the government of Nigeria should increase its incentive to the cocoa processing sub-sector of the industry – including my own position. But that was after he had first of all assured his readers that global warming would never affect cocoa farming in Nigeria. Therefore, it was obvious that the article was set to be the voice of the “farmers’ side” of what could be rightly described as the cocoa industry in-fighting in Nigeria: i.e. cocoa exporters versus cocoa processors.

And, believe me, this is not only as scary as it is ominous; it is a true symptom of the systemic cancer in our dear country. Nigeria suffers while petty battles are fought simply for selfish interests. In the opening of the rejoinder article, Oyeniyi uncannily captured the spirit of the times in a Yoruba adage he quoted: “Ko si bi ti aati ko Adiye ale,” meaning, everybody is fighting for his or her interest.

Firstly, I feel constrained to react to the article because it is obvious that Oyeniyi did not read my first article on the matter ‘How government killed Nigeria’s cocoa industry’ published just before ‘Climate change and cocoa’; so did not give his readers the whole picture of my case before telling them that I was advising the government wrongly by advocating for increased incentive to cocoa processors.

He wrote in his last paragraph: “My grouse with the writer (i.e. Greg Odogwu) therefore is that we must stop deceiving government and there is no way cocoa industries will employ more staffers than cocoa farms anywhere in the world along the cocoa value chain. The fact behind the scene or intrigues by the processors is that they will not tell the government the simple truth because many of them had made their profit upfront from inception from the capital invested thereby leaving classified huge bad debts into their various bank accounts.” I have a feeling that the farmers are protecting their own percentage of government grants, which would be tipped if government increases grants to processors. According to Oyeniyi, the farmer/exporter to processor government grant ratio is currently 70:30.

I must clarify that I am neither a cocoa processor nor a spokesman/consultant for them. I am an environmental journalist and researcher, whose job is to comment on issues that concern the wellbeing of Nigerians as they relate to the environment. My comments are based not only on inspiration, but on painstaking research, both primary and secondary.

Oyeniyi argued that naturally cocoa farms employ more hands than the processing factories; but he refuses to look at the big picture, which I discussed in the earlier article I mentioned above. I showed how local processors supplied an industry which could have exploded into a regional market, and in turn catalysed a cocoa processing boom in the country. I stated that our cocoa industry had the potential to employ millions of Nigerians because I did my research and discovered that during the late 1990’s a lot of youths were self-employed in the choco-food beverage production; and were doing very well for themselves and creating jobs for fellow youths, until the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, in cahoots with established beverage cartels, clamped down on them. These government agencies only had tenuous excuses for shutting down the blossoming industry, which depended on the products supplied by cocoa processors. If the revolution was left to mature, the processors would not be searching for incentives and markets, as they are doing today.

That choco revolution would have made Nigeria a local cocoa-based-beverage consuming nation, just like the United States is a coffee consuming nation, with more than 500 million cups of coffee consumed daily. Choco drink would have become our official “tea break drink.” It would have become our dessert drink, our snack drink. And guess who would have been the bridge between the Nigerian farmers and the choco-making industry? The cocoa processor! But somehow, some people killed that burgeoning economic promise before it saw the light of day.

But, today, that lacuna is being filled by all sorts of beverage drinks and chocolate snacks that find their way into the country on a constant basis. The truth is that Nigeria is searching for its identity as long as beverage brand is concerned. America is known for coffee. Mexico is known for tequila. France is known for Cognac; Russia, vodka. We have been shifting between drinks; today every corner of the street is a warehouse for imported wine, and spirits. We struggle to outdo each other on who offers the best imported drink to his guest.

Recently, I noticed a surge in coffee drinking on our shores via a particular branded coffee-based beverage sold directly and through multi-level marketing structure. I read somewhere that Nigeria is now the fastest growing consumer of this particular product, and is giving its owners so much quick returns that the products hardly touch the ground before vanishing into Nigerian homes. There can be only one reason for this beverage’s pseudo revolution: our dear country is desperately searching for a drink! And this is where our own cocoa would have come in.

Secondly, Oyeniyi wrote with surprising gusto that climate change is not a threat to cocoa. He stated that some “Catholic priests collect thousands of cocoa seedlings for planting in the Saminaka, Dabo-Lere and Karfacha areas of Kaduna State. As we speak, they are showing healthy growth even with the hottest temperature in that zone of the country. The point being made is that both cocoa and palm oil plantations can withstand any climate threat anytime, anywhere because Kaduna State is considered to be one of the desert areas because of their higher degree of temperature. I believe that this case has put to rest Odogwu’s belief on the purported research on global climate trend as it affects cocoa.”

Oyeniyi’s conclusion is very far from reality. Meanwhile, I wish to remind the writer that the areas he mentioned are not “the spots with the hottest temperature in that zone of the country;” relatively, they are quite mild. In fact, the areas he mentioned have the same climate as the southern part of the country (I have personally visited Saminaka). Also, a case of a few thousand cocoa seedlings which progress is still being monitored is not enough to conclude that climate change cannot affect cocoa.

But most troubling is the fact that an educated Nigerian farmer can decide to join climate change deniers. This is because we as Africans are worst hit by the effects of global warming and should be at the forefront campaigning for support and entrenchment of adaptation strategies especially in the agricultural sector. It is understandable when some Western interests deny climate change for the obvious reason that they want to evade responsibility; but mindboggling when our own person joins the denial class. Unless, Oyeniyi is telling us that he is a scientist with better findings than those who undertook years of climate research and came up with globally accepted reports like that of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with its latest installment based on more than 12,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies. If not, then Oyeniyi has inspired a new concept: Climate suicide!

Punch, October 2, 2014