Address looming food insecurity now – Senate to Nigerian Govt

Address looming food insecurity now – Senate to Nigerian Govt

The Senate has urged the Federal Government to, as a matter
of urgency, initiate measures to tackle the impending food insecurity in the
country.

 

It also urged the government to outline measures put in
place to combat the situation and address Nigerians on it.

 

The Senate’s resolution followed the adoption of a motion on
the urgent need to address food insecurity and market exploitation of
consumables in Nigeria at plenary.

 

The motion was sponsored by Senator Sunday Karimi (APC-
Kogi) and Senator Ali Ndume (APC-Borno).

 

Leading the debate, Karimi said in the last few months, the
price of goods and household consumables in Nigeria had been on an all-time
high.

 

According to him, this was leading to a high rate of
inflation, weakening purchasing power and affecting the living conditions of
the vast majority of Nigerians.

 

He said the latest data by the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) showed that food inflation in the country skyrocketed to 40.66 per cent
on a year-on-year basis, representing a significant increase from the 24.82 per
cent recorded in May 2023.

 

Karimi said the current market price of food items such as
beans, maize, rice paddy, yam, tomatoes, and onions which initially rose by
about 40 per cent after the removal of petroleum subsidy had increased to
between 100 per cent and 300 per cent with no attributable reason for the
increase in prices.

 

He said insecurity in food-producing regions, bad roads,
increase in cost of transportation, depreciation of the value of Naira had been
identified as possible factors contributing to increase in price of food items
and other consumables.

 

He, however ,said that a greater percentage of the increase
in prices of food items and consumables were not only responsible for the
factors, rather the greed of merchants, traders, and retailers to make
supernormal profits.

 

“Note that there is a general attitude of get rich quickly
or get rich by all means.

 

“This is leading many Nigerians to jettison being their
brother’s keeper” and exploiting one another to make abnormal profits.

 

“This attitude has been justified on the basis that many
members of the political class, technocrats, and corporate elites have helped
themselves with public funds without any repercussions in law.

 

”Nigerian traders have thus resorted to price overcharging
to maximize profits,” he said.

Source: Address looming food insecurity now – Senate to Nigerian Govt

 - NigerianEye

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