While the 360 members of the House of Representatives will each receive one truck to distribute fertilizer in their respective districts, the 109 senators will each receive two trucks to deliver to farmers in their respective districts.
The Federal Government is being urged to move more quickly on the fertiliser distribution plan by the Senate, which revealed the idea on Tuesday during a plenary session on the food crisis.
The demand came after a resolution made in the Tuesday plenary by Senator Sunday Karimi of Kogi West and co-sponsored by Senator Ali Ndume of Borno South.
In the last few months, the price of goods and household consumables has increased dramatically in Nigeria, which has resulted in a high rate of inflation, diminished purchasing power, and a general worsening of living conditions for the vast majority of Nigerians, according to the motion titled “Urgent Need to Address Food Insecurity and Market Exploitation of Consumables In Nigeria.”
The National Bureau of Statistics in Nigeria recently revealed data that, according to Karimi, demonstrated that “food inflation in the country skyrocketed to 40.66 per cent on a year-on-year basis, a significant increase from the 24.82 per cent recorded in May 2023.”
“With the removal of petroleum subsidy, the market price of food items such as beans, maize, rice paddy, yam, tomatoes, and onions increased by about 40 percent at first, but now it has increased to over 100 to 300 percent without any discernible reason for the increase in prices.”
He went on, “Although there may be factors that have contributed to the rise in the cost of food, household goods, and consumables, such as poor roads, insecurity in areas that produce food, the removal of fuel subsidies, and depreciation of the value of the naira, the percentage increase in the cost of transportation and some of the factors listed above is significantly less than the percentage increase in the current prices of goods throughout the country.”
Karimi bemoaned the fact that the Federal Government’s efforts to stop the steadily rising cost of food inflation had not been successful.
“More pragmatism is required to combat food insecurity, herder-farmer conflicts, kidnapping for ransom, and terrorism. Additionally, a workable National Commodity Board must be established in order to control grain prices and ensure that fictitious contributions to food and commodity inflation in Nigeria are eliminated,” he stated.
During his speech, Senator Ndume expressed regret that Nigeria was included among the nations facing food insecurity for the first time.
“At the moment, four countries—including Sudan and a few others—are dealing with extremely serious insecurity,” he declared. The International Rescue Committee has included Nigeria on its list of countries where food insecurity action against hunger is being taken this year. According to the World Food Programme, between August and September, over 32 million people are predicted to experience a serious food crisis.
We have started to notice it clearly up here in the North; I’m not sure about some of my colleagues. This degree of hunger is something we have never experienced before. Nigeria is being included among the nations experiencing food insecurity for the first time.
Former Senate President Ahmad Lawan stated in his remarks that while he couldn’t guarantee it, Nigerians had shown a great deal of patience.
“Our constituents are facing real anger,” he declared. I visited states that are in the north, and I witnessed personally how people suffer, fight, and struggle just to eat once a day under normal conditions. This is especially true for individuals who are not employed in the public sector or in any other type of business.
“The silos are empty right now; we don’t have anything in them. In the rainy season, we might have harvests in June, September, or October.”
Lawan continued, “It is reported today that the federal government is thinking about lowering or eliminating tariffs on imported food.
The catch is right here. The executive must be contacted right away by this Senate. What problems exist? What taxes are they referring to? because we want to appear as though we are acting morally. There is hardly any food reserve left in any part of the nation, and no one has come to inform us that food will be distributed from our silos. There is nothing in the silos.
This suggests that food imports are necessary. Moreover, using foreign currency is required for imports. This is why we need to talk to the executive. It is essential to support the administration.
“We would not like the kind of thing that we would see on our streets if we don’t take immediate action and our citizens in this situation of increased foreign prices, increased electricity prices, increased everything, and we haven’t gotten the right measures to provide food for our citizens.”
“It is time that we take every possible action together with government to ensure that food flow in our country,” issued a warning by the former Senate President.
We cannot take people for granted for very long, hence the government must bear full responsibility. People’s patience is almost at its limit now.
“The government wants to give each senator 1,200 bags of fertilizer (two trucks) to distribute to constituents; this should be done quickly to avoid making the intervention pointless,” he stated.
The Senate was informed by Senator Saliu Mustapha (APC Kwara Central), the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food Security, during his contribution that the “federal government is already sending 60 trucks of fertilizers to each state of the federation, two trucks to each of the 109 Senatorial Districts and one truck to each of the 360 federal constituencies.”
In his speech, Senate President Godswill Akpabio stated that the food crisis the country is currently experiencing was predicted by acts of banditry, kidnapping, and insurrection, along with the consequent farmers’ abandonment of their fields.
The Senate President reiterated Senator Mustapha’s statement that the fertilizer distribution needs to be closely watched to make sure the right amount reaches the right places.
“I have been informed by the Deputy Senate President and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture that sixty trucks of fertilizer are going to be distributed to stage governors and that the fertilizers should be given to people regardless of their political party,” he stated.
After that, the Senate asked the federal government to immediately address the nation’s food crisis.
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