From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Worried by daily skyrocketing prices of food stuffs, making it extremely unaffordable by the masses in the country, a Northern group, Arewa Think Tank, has called on President Bola Tinubu to query the 36 state governors over the food items given to them recently to share to the masses by the federal government.
Some Nigerians have recently protested against hunger in the country, calling on President Tinubu to find lasting solutions to the situation.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Chief Convener, Arewa Think Tank, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu recalled that, “In the last six months, the 36 State governors received N3.4 Trillion. This is just their federal allocation, IGR not inclusive, what did they do with it?. Rice and other food items given to them to share to the masses, where are they?”.
This was even as the group noted that the food scarcity is artificial because economic saboteurs are the ones mopping them up to embarrass the administration of Tinubu.
To this end, the group called on President Tinubu to come down hard on the 36 governors as well as the economic saboteurs as part of measures to ensure food availability in the country.
“We believe that the ongoing food scarcity is artificial because Nigeria is economically far much better than where it was on May 29, 2023. We can see that economic saboteurs are at clandestine work to frustrate and embarrass the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We are calling on President Tinubu to deal decisively with the enemies of progress against his government, fight corrupt people to a standstill by bringing them to justice. There should be no sacred cow in the fight against corruption.
“We regret to note that the country as at May 29, 2023 had expenditure that was wasteful and unsustainable, and so it is not an easy task for President Tinubu turning back from that wasteful road without encountering hiccup.
“Nigerians should be happy that bold measures have been taken by President Tinubu and the gains will soon manifest because more palliatives and more succour are coming soon to augment the rising cost of living.
“There is now a reduction in consumption of petrol by about 20 million litres. Government is confronting pipeline vandalism and oil production is rising. We now do 1.65 million barrels per day.
“We can see that government officials are tasked with ensuring how best the fundamental objective of state policy can target and achieve the goal of optimal development because government has delivered a budget that now has capital expenditure that outweighs recurrent expenditure.
“There is also a marked increase in budgets for infrastructure, health and education which are the enablers of growth.
“There are many provisions in the budget to support agriculture. Agric funding has increased. More funding for small scale farmers so they can do better as individuals and also contribute better to national productivity.
“It is our sincere prayers and hope that Nigerians will overcome the challenges of the moment and enjoy economic growth that will carry everyone along.
“However, we want to restate that President Tinubu must as a matter of urgency bring corrupt public officials to book, otherwise many Nigerians will not take his government serious henceforth”.
“Again, we want to repeat our stand relocation of FAAN, CBN from Abuja to Lagos because there is nothing political in the movement of some CBN departments like banking supervision department.
“Nothing was changed, it has always been like that to ease banking supervision because most of banks are based in Lagos. It works well for supervision if CBN officials are there with them and close to them and close to those the banks interact with. It’s for administrative convenience. And we believe it is also cheaper for the CBN
“This is also important because the staff are where there is a need for banking surveillance. And we want to believe that CBN will not be reluctant to wield the big stick on banks that fail to comply with the rules.
“Like we have been saying, we still want to appeal to Nigerians to give President Tinubu more time; at least one year to one and half years before they start criticising him. We believe that before that time he will surprise Nigerians positively,” the statement said.