On Sunday, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said 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 steps to ease the pain of the subsidy reduction.
Millions of Nigerians are now living in poverty as a result of the subsidy withdrawal program, which caused dramatic and repeated rises in petrol pump prices. This has also worsened the socioeconomic position in the nation.
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 fertilizers 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 contacted on Sunday and asked whether the lifting of the trucks of rice to states had yet to start, the spokesperson for NEMA, 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.
“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 explained that the council had given NEMA the responsibility to move the commodities, adding that agency would also distribute relief items to some 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.
“The Kogi State governor even made a statement that NEMA would need to be empowered for the management of flood. So those were the outcomes of the National Economic Council meeting, which was held on Thursday.
“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 the NEC had on Thursday outlined how the rice would be shared and other modalities associated with the programme.
“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.
