By Yusuf Shehu Usman
All these food palliative thing is a huge scam and it won’t solve the pandemic of hunger raving the people.
The Federal govt said that they allocated N5 billion to every State, released N2 billion to each State and withheld N3 billion which they have not paid
The N2 billion released have been squandered by most of the States and the poor it was intended for, got next to nothing from the distribution.
No Household has gotten more than what it will take them only a maximum of one week to feed
Then while waiting for the balance of N3 billion for each State, the Federal government broke our strategic grains reserves and now said they would again distribute the grains to the poor to drive down the soaring cost of food and cushion the effects of acute hunger across the land.
How? The Households will only get a few measures of rice, maize and beans to feed on for a few days and return to what the Lawyers will call status quo ante vellum. In simple language it means the situation that they were in before the flash palliatives.
How will that crash the high cost of food or cushion the pangs and biting effects of hunger?
And when the government exhausts the strategic grains reserves, where else will it turn to, to address the problem of hunger and the poverty associated with it?
The bane of all our problems including hunger is the pandemic insecurity that has stopped our farmers from going to their farms to cultivate food to feed themselves and sell the excess to cater for their urgent needs.
The government must be reminded ( and they know) that it can’t address the issue of food security in isolation of the personal security of the farmers who produce the food.
The selective distribution of food palliative and doling handout of little amounts of cash not enough to buy soup ingredients, is a farce and a scam, which is not practically sustainable.
It enriches those in government who corner the palliatives to themselves and further impoverish the poor
It has only created another window for corruption!
Yusuf Shehu Usman, mni
Abuja