On Sunday, the National Emergency Management Agency announced that it had started making plans to distribute 180 trucks of rice to different states, as advised by the National Economic Council.
The Federal Government announced on Thursday 180 trucks of rice and a N5 billion palliative for every state in the federation as part of measures to ease the pain of the subsidy reduction.
Millions of Nigerians are now living in poverty as a result of the subsidy withdrawal programme, which caused sharp and repeated increases in petrol pump prices. This has also worsened the socioeconomic position in the nation.
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However, the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, revealed the release of the palliative at the conclusion of the 135th National Economic Council meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima in Abuja. He said the N5bn was to enable the state governments to purchase 100,000 bags of rice, 40,000 bags of maize, and fertilisers to lessen the impact of food shortages across the nation.
He had also mentioned that the federal government had given five trucks of rice to each of the federal states the previous week in response to the urgent need to reduce the nation’s increasing food prices.
When questioned on Sunday about whether the lifting of the trucks carrying rice to the states had begun, the NEMA spokeswoman, Ezekiel Manzo replied, “I’m not saying that lifting has not started.
“What I’m saying is that the directive was given on Thursday and arrangements are being made appropriately to carry out the directive.
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“And you know that these arrangements would also mean that NEMA will be communicated formerly. But for us in NEMA we are prepared to carryout the directive. That’s what I mean.”
Manzo clarified that the council had charged NEMA with moving the goods and added that organisation would also provide aid to select states.
He said, “What was said after the National Economic Council is that NEMA is going to move the items to the states, and NEMA is also expected to distribute relief materials to communities in the states bordering Nigeria and Niger Republic.
“But you must also know that in every meeting, minutes are prepared and directives are communicated. So that is the stage that we are right now.”
Recall that the NEC had defined the program’s other modalities and the distribution of the rice on Thursday.
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“NEC met today and expressed serious concerns as regards increasing cost of food items, increasing cost of transportation amongst others as a result of subsidy removal. In order to cushion the effect of subsidy removal, the federal government released five trucks of rice to each state last week.
“Furthermore, in order to cushion the effect of food shortages across the country, the Federal Government has approved the sum of N5bn to be given to each state for the procurement of 100,000 bags of rice, 40,000 bags of maize, and fertilizers.
“This funding has to be shared with a formula as follows: 52 percent of this money is given to states as grants, while 48 per cent of the N5bn is to be paid back on an installment basis within a period of 20 months to the CBN by the states and the local government areas in Nigeria,” Shettima had stated.
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