The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has said that the federal government, through the federal inland revenue (FIRS) has remitted an extra N30 billion to each state governor of the federation to address the soaring cost of living in their respective states.
Akpabio, who spoke during one of the plenary sessions in the Red Chamber, said the funds for the state governors are different from their monthly allocation.
He also made it clear that the funds should be applied specifically to tackle the crisis of insufficient food supplies, cautioning against repurposing them for unrelated endeavours.
What the Senate President is Saying
According to him, the funds were remitted from FIRS to the state governors.
He said,
- “We can see a lot of protests here and there, most of those sponsored protests are not aware of the kind of efforts being made by this senate to tackle the situation together with a joint management team of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
- “I must say that unverified report has it that each of the state governments in the last few months has received an additional N30billion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service, outside their normal allocation from the federation account to assist them in ameliorating the food situation.
- “We believed that every state government should utilise the funds so received towards ensuring that food is available.”
What you should know
Food inflation has become an increasingly worrisome issue in the country as many Nigerians battle with the rising price of food items in the marketplace.
- According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s food inflation stands at a staggering 35.41%
- Meanwhile, while the government has declared a state of emergency on food security in the country, the prices of food items continue on an upward trajectory.
- Nairemetrics also reported that the president directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to immediately release about 42,000 metric tons of maize, millet, and other commodities from the national strategic reserves.
- According to the president, this effort is aimed at crashing the prices of food items in the country.
While this is a positive move by the Federal government particularly, the release of foods from the nation food reserve as this will thwart the efforts of some unscrupulous people that might have been hoarding foods to cause artificial scarcity and it will be wise for each of these state governnors to invest at least half of the allocated funds on a long term solution to the food scarcity by sowing some seeds with it.
LOL! So our problem is “unscrupulous hoarders” and not herdsmen slaughtering and chasing farmers and farming communities off their farms and communities. Not poor roads and logistics, or lack of storage facilities, not poor seeds and antiquated farming methods, not the lack of mini-dams and irrigation for all-year farming, not the lack of suitable inputs, credit or other support, etc., etc.
The saying that people “deserve” their leaders is repeatedly validated in Nigeria! SMH