Hardship: FG Mulls Food Importation; Releases Maize, Rice From Reserves

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has disclosed that the federal government would have no option to import food items into the country if the current situation of the rising cost of commodities persists.

Already, the administration has ordered the immediate release of 102,000 metric tonnes of grains — 42,000 metric tonnes of maize and 60,000 metric tonnes of rice, according to the Minister of Information and National Orientation. Mohammed Idris.

The government made the decision following complaints by not a few Nigerians that they could no longer afford the high cost of basic food items in the market.

The current development has triggered protests in some parts of the country, including Niger, Kano and Kaduna, with the possibility of spreading across the country, if there is no immediate intervention by the government to arrest the problem, according to experts who said Nigerians are very angry over the prevailing situations.

Idris spoke in Abuja, the nation’s capital after the end of the three days meeting of the Presidential Food Initiative at the Presidential Villa.

Those that  attended the meeting include, Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, NSA; Yemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN; Tahir Mamman, Minister of education; Wale Edun; Minister of Finance and Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture, as well as Mustapha Shehuri, Minister of State for Agriculture.

According to Idris, the government is mulling to embark on importation of basic food items to augment the shortfall in possible

He stated that President Tinubu has directed the release of 42,000 metric tonnes of maize and 60,000 metric tonnes of rice.

Meanwhile, experts insist that the effects of the release of food from the nation’s strategic reserve will be hard to see because what the government has just released is a drop in the ocean of what Nigerians need at the moment.

Last August the president gave a similar order for the release of 200,000 Metric Tonnes of grains from strategic reserves to households across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to moderate the higher food prices in the country.

The action has not pushed down the prices of food which have since hit the roof, according to market analysts.