Nigerians Upset Over Information Minister’s Answer To Richard Quest’s Jollof Rice Question

It was supposed to be a simple answer to a simple question. Visiting CNN’s Richard Quest asked Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed a simple question; “Which country makes the best Jollof rice? Apparently most Nigerians expected the Information Minister to answer “Nigeria of course.”

That awkward moment when Nigeria’s minister of information, Lai Mohammed goes on international TV to say another country makes better jollof rice than Nigeria. What do you think? #GlaziaNow #RichardQuestInNigeria #RichardQuest #CNN #JollofWars #JollofRice

A post shared by GLAZIA (@glaziang) on Apr 28, 2017 at 1:53pm PDT

Lo and behold, he said “I want to say probably, Senegal”.

This dealt a big blow to Nigerians as there has been this ongoing Jollof Rice war between Nigerians and Ghanaians as to the country with the best tasting Jollof Rice. Senegal was never a contender even though the dish derives its name from the name of the Wolof people, predominantly based in Senegal.

Nigerians on social media have cried out showing their displeasure about the Minister’s response.  Here are some of the reactions.

All the efforts of Nigerians to promote & market Nigerian #JollofRice internationally rubbished by unthinking & unaware Lai Mohammed LIE pic.twitter.com/hsYMsTxsta

— Dot In A Circle – Onye Spare Parts (@The_Jonathanian) April 29, 2017

https://twitter.com/akaebube/status/858064622359859204

When Minister #LaiMohammed goofed @richardquest #JollofRice Everyone knows the right answer is #Nigeria @MBuhari @AsoRock pic.twitter.com/UX8Z8JOBO4

— John Onyeukwu (@johnonyeukwu) April 29, 2017

Message to Lai Mohammed from @jollofrepublic. We are Legion!

A post shared by Victor Asemota (@asemota) on Apr 29, 2017 at 5:44am PDT

Well Richard Quest came to his rescue on Twitter saying that the Minister misunderstood his question. Richard says Mohammed thought he asked which country first created Jollof rice.