by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Federal Government of Nigeria has sold milled rice to staff of various media organisations in Kaduna at subsidized rate of N40,000.00 per 50kg bag penultimate last month.
The exercise, according to the Federal Government, was to ameliorate the prevailing food crisis and as well cushion the effects of high cost of food commodities in the country.
The media outlets were allocated 149 bags, and every buyer was screened by officials of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the federal ministry of agriculture for the purpose of transparency and accountability.
Aside each member of the Fourth Estate of the Realm that bought the rice per bag, civil servants from different ministries and associations also got their own allocations at their respective offices.
All the buyers accessed the grains from the Point of Sale (POS) with their Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and NIN.
Speaking on behalf of media organisations in Kaduna, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council, Hajiya Asma’u Yawo Halilu, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for subsidizing the rice at N40,000.00 per bag.
Halilu noted that, “Comparing this price to the soaring market price, one has no option than to thank the government for the supply of the rice.”
She, however, advised that government should endeavour to make the exercise a continuous one, “so that people, who did not get to buy in the initial exercise, will get the opportunity to buy.”
It would be recalled that the Hon. Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, had earlier revealed in Abuja during the flagg-off of the distribution exercise that the kind gesture was made possible at the expense and directives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, “who does not want Nigerian citizens to go to bed hungry and, in his wisdom, deemed it important to initiate the food intervention.”
The Minister recalled that in the recent past, precisely aftermath of COVID-19, and due to the Russian-Ukraine war, the climate change amidst other localized factors/challenges, food prices, farm yields, food chains, were distorted globally, and Nigeria is not an exception.
According to him, “This has led to increased concern and risk of food insecurity and general decline in the standard of living globally.”
AMDF reported that the Minister noted that “The present challenges are not peculiar to Nigeria alone, adding that the food intervention was timely, considering the times and challenges we are in as citizens of this great nation.”
He said that the Federal Government, being aware of the potential challenges associated with the sales of an important staple such as rice, at this critical period has deployed a multi-disciplinary machinery of Government, as put in place certain processes and conditions to ensure transparency, wider reach and success of the exercise.
“This includes one man and one 50kg of rice; others are the verification of intending beneficiaries using relevant identification mediums such as the National Identification Number (NIN) and phone numbers to forestall multiple accesses to the food commodity by fraudulent individuals to the detriment of other citizens.”
He, therefore, urged the citizens to cooperate with the relevant agencies of the government to work together to ensure that the dream of the present administration to uphold the fundamental right to food for all Nigerians is achieved.
The Minister further stated that, “It is expected that with the injection 30,000MT (1000 trucks of 30MT each) of this important staple into Nigeria’s food balance sheet, it will not only crash the price of rice but also other closer food substitutes and alternatives.”