The Federal Government, on Wednesday, said it had commenced the distribution of assorted grains to the tune of 42,000 metric tons as part of its relief package to Nigerians.
Coming nearly two weeks after the Presidency revealed that the grains were being bagged for distribution, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, disclosed commencement of distribution when he briefed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
Recall President Bola Tinubu, on February 8, ordered the immediate release of 102,000 metric tons of various grain types from the Strategic Reserve and the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, revealed this to State House correspondents after the final leg of a three-day meeting of the Special Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention at the Villa.
Deliberations began in earnest after angry youths and women took to the streets of Minna, the Niger State capital and Kano to protest what they described as the rising cost of living in the country.
Similar protests also erupted in Ondo State.
Giving updates on Wednesday, Kyari, who said he could not provide details of his office’s activities with regard to distribution for security reasons, said he was working with the Office of the National Security Adviser and other security outfits to address the risk of transportation to prevent pillage en route.
“We are distributing to state capitals in the first instance as you all are aware of the risk involved in the vandalisation of foodstuff, so we are working with the office of the National Security Adviser and other national security agencies.
“Distribution has commenced. However, I will not want to comment on the security aspect of distribution.
“I can assure you that we have started distributing in the northwestern states, and we are distributing out of seven points,” he said.
Kyari also promised to implement a robust distribution mechanism for the 2.15 million bags of fertiliser, which the Central Bank of Nigeria handed over to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on the directives of the President.
The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, handed the N100m worth of fertilisers to Kyari earlier in the day (on Wednesday).
Cardoso explained, “We will also make sure that that fertiliser gets to the intended farmer the last mile. We’ve been complaining about portfolio farmers, a list that is not verifiable. But for the rice season, we are able to as much as possible clean up that data and work with the subnationals and the local governments to come up with a list.
“What we did was initially, we identified the land because the land must be there for you to become a farmer. So you don’t identify a farmer without land. You identify the land and then identify the farmers that are on that land. We were able to do this as much as possible.
“However, Mr President has also given us his assurance that we’ll come up with a more robust data gathering system after our harvest of wheat that is coming up within the next couple of weeks.”
President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday approved the opening of land and air borders with Niger Republic. The decision may not be unconnected to outcries over soaring hike in food prices, with the demands to, as a matter of urgency, open up borders with Nigeria’s neighbours, a decision stakeholders have mentioned was necessary to relax the pressure of food scarcity and price hikes.
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