By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
In 2017, Nigeria made a failed attempt at exporting yam to the United States of America. It was part of the national response to the recession crisis of 2016. Audu Ogbeh, the then minister of agriculture, publicly announced that the USA rejected Nigeria’s yam exports due to the poor quality of the tubers.
A few days after the international embarrassment, Gaza Jonathan, a member of the then House of Representatives, called the minister out for illegality. According to him, exporting yam from Nigeria was against the law, and he was right.
The Export Prohibition Act of 1989, introduced under the Ibrahim Babangida regime, bans the export of yam. But the list of contraband exports was longer than that. Aside from yam, the act prohibited the export of beans, cassava tubers, maize, rice, yam tubers and their derivatives. The act also prohibited the export of imported food.
What is more interesting, however, is the punishment stipulated by the legislation for exporting these food items. According to the act, the punishment for exporting these items could be as light as a fine or as severe as a life imprisonment sentence.
Below is what the legislation reads as punishments for exporting any of the prohibited items:
“Any person who takes causes to be taken induces any other person to take or attempts to take out of Nigeria any of the goods specified in the Schedule to this Act shall be guilty of an offense and liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.”
“In addition to the penalty specified in subsection (1) of this section
the goods, as well as any vehicle, vessel, aircraft, or other things whatsoever used in connection with the exportation; and
all the assets, movable or immovable, including motor vehicles, of any person convicted of the offense, shall be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Any customs officer or other person who aids counsels procures or conspires with any person to commit an offense under this section, shall be guilty of an offense and liable on conviction to the same punishment as prescribed for the offense under subsection (1) of this section. (4) Any offense committed under this Act shall be triable by the Federal High Court.”