Food Crisis: FG donates 20 trucks of rice to each state, Abuja – Minister

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, gave the hint while briefing State House corre­spondents after the FEC meeting, where he clarified that each of the trucks will convey about 1,200 25kg bags of rice.

He revealed that FEC took note of some of the complaints coming from Ni­gerians, especially those related to issues of transportation, food prices or food shortages in many homes around the country.

According to him, FEC is ramping up all that needs to be done to ensure that food is being put on the table of most Nigeri­ans.

Idris explained that what gov­ernment is doing at the moment is just a necessary first step to ensure that supplies are made available to Nigerians through the state governors.

He noted that the 20 trucks of rice has already reached the state governors and all the governors have taken delivery of the items.

He said, “The Council delib­erated on the state of affairs in Nigeria, especially the issue of food supply and shortage of food on the table of many Nigerians.

After exhaustive deliberation, the Minister of Agriculture had earlier been directed to ensure that food is being made available to Nigerians. The understanding is that about 20 trucks of rice have al­ready been supplied to each of the states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory. Each of the trucks, of course, is carrying about 1,200 25kg bags of rice.

This is part of the measures that government is taking in ad­dition to so many others to ensure that the hardship being experi­enced by Nigerians is drastically ameliorated.

So for recap each of the state governments has received 20 trucks of rice for onward distri­bution to the most vulnerable. This is a first step and the Federal Government will continue to sup­port all the state governors and local governments, all the sub-na­tionals, so that the hardship being experienced by most Nigerians in terms of shortage of food supply is breached.

It is expected that the state governors will go ahead and dis­tribute this food item to the most vulnerable. So that the hardship like I said being experienced will be brought down significantly.

Government will continue to work to ensure that food inter­vention is made available. This, of course, is an addition to the ef­fort that government is making in terms of fertiliser supply, which is already also being processed. Most of the governors will have support.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria had earlier made available over 2.1 million bags of assorted fertiliser to the Ministry of Agriculture for onward distri­bution to the states. So that is also in progress.

The Federal Government will do everything they can to en­sure that we have more food for our people, investments in the agricultural sector is ramped up and you also know that the Feder­al Ministry of Livestock Develop­ment that was announced by Mr. President, will takeoff very soon.

These are some of the mea­sures and some of the discussions that we had at the Federal Execu­tive Council meeting today”.

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Meanwhile, the Federal Government has also been wrapping up efforts to make the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion kits are readily avail­able to Nigerians.

The Information Minister said the Presidential Committee set up for that purpose has been directed to speed up its implementation, especially within the transport value chain to make movement easier and to reduce the depen­dence on fuel consumption.

“There was also a discussion on the CNG that the Federal Government has promised Ni­gerians. The Federal Executive Council has directed the Presi­dential Committee on CNG to expedite its activities to supply buses, to also make it possible for the conversion kits to be available to most Nigerians.

Already, they have started but the FEC asked them to redouble their effort. So that conversion kits that we need for the CNG to populate with will be made available.

The conversion centres that had earlier been approved will also be significantly upgraded so that Nigerians will have more conversion centres, more conver­sion kits. The compliance level of CNG, the Federal Government has directed that this should go up, so as to reduce our over reli­ance on PMS, this will in turn aid our energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy”.

On the national minimum wage for workers, there are in­dications that the imbroglio will be brought to an end this week as President Bola Tinubu is set to invite the labour leaders for a decision on Thursday.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation also confirmed this development when he said, “You are also aware that last week, the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Con­gress met the president. This, of course, was part of the consulta­tion that the president has agreed.

Recall that he had met the or­ganised private sector, he had also met sub-nationals after the tri­partite committee on minimum wage had submitted its report.

In order to ensure that there is a thorough analysis of the sit­uation so that government would come up with a minimum wage that works for all Nigerians, the Federal Government, the sub-na­tionals and the organised private sector.

That was also discussed today. Government has also di­rected the Ministry of Budgets (and National Planning) to also come up with additional support for the 2024 budget, so that any differential or any gaps that will exist in terms of what existed be­fore 2024 budget was approved, a supplementary budget and also what the requirement is for now.

So government is working round the clock to ensure that it comes up with a minimum wage, like I said that works for all Nigerians. At the end of the day, this, of course, will be submitted to the National Assembly so that you can have legislative backing.

Let me also say that the pres­ident is also open to meeting the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, and all the affil­iates. We expect that meeting to hold this coming Thursday.

Recall that this was already what the labour unions request­ed during their meeting with Mr. President, last week. So the president is in agreement, he knows that the labour wants to quickly find the lasting solution to the issue of minimum wage and government is also desirous to put the issue of minimum wage behind it.

So it is expected that the NLC, TUC and all the affiliates as requested by them last week, will meet the president on Thurs­day, after which the president will now transmit whatever will be the final agreement or what his views are on the tripartite com­mittee report to the National As­sembly for legislation”.