Food price: 2 weeks after, FG yet to release free grain

Voice Air Media, VAM News Update

Two weeks after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release 42,000 metric tons of maize, millet and other commodities from the national strategic reserve to Nigerians for free, the items are yet to be distributed.

This is amidst the biting cost of living crisis in the country which is believed to be largely caused by the present administration’s policies of petrol subsidy removal and currency floating.

The president’s directive to release grains to the citizens was aimed at addressing hunger which had triggered protests in some states.

Following the directive given on February 8, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, last Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja, said grains would be distributed free to poor Nigerians.

Kyari said, “This 42,000MT is going to the needy free of charge. It will be directly to the needy at no cost.”

The minister said the grains would be released to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for onward distribution to Nigerians because the agency has the poverty index of the country.

“They know exactly where it is needed and they have a policy on how they transport and store it before it is distributed to the needy free.

“We have started working on that. We have already instructed NEMA to give us their work plan so that we can quickly go ahead and take possession of those stocks,” the minister said.

However, Daily Trust’s checks in many states showed that the grains were yet to be made available for distribution as of yesterday.

In Kano, grains had not been released to the state when our correspondent checked yesterday.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Food Security, Hajiya Aisha Muhammad Idris, said the state was ready to distribute food items as soon as they were released.

Our correspondent in Kwara State reports that the grains promised by the federal government had not been released to the state.

NEMA’s head of operations for Kwara and Niger states, Zainab Saidu, told Daily Trust yesterday that “NEMA is not in possession of any grains yet. If there were, they would have contacted us at the zonal office and delivered straight to us. But there is nothing like that yet. I have not heard from my headquarters on the issue and I believe they (federal government) have not released anything yet.”

Kwara SEMA chairman, Moshood Magaji, also said: “We have not received any message on the issue and my office is not handling anything like distribution. I do not know of any distribution from the federal government.”

Reports from Taraba also indicated that no grains had been released to the state as there were no grains at the NEMA office in the state when our reporter visited yesterday.

The situation was the same in Gombe and Ogun states, as NEMA officials there said they were yet to receive grains from the federal government.

Reports from Niger, Oyo, Cross River, Benue, Bauchi, Yobe, Kogi, and Nasarawa states also indicated that the federal government had not released food items to them yet.