By George Mgbeleke (Abuja)

Disturbed by Senate Tuesday, called on the federal government to urgently address the problem of hunger in the land caused by food insecurity which has created an emergency situation .

Senate’s call for emergency action against food insecurity came at the time the federal government deployed 60 trucks of fertilizers to each of the 36 States of the federation , two to each of the 109 senators and one to each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives for distribution to their constituents .

Senators Sunday Karimi ( APC Kogi West) and Ali Ndume ( APC Borno South) , in a co – sponsored motion during plenary , drew the attention of the Senate to food insecurity and market exploitation of consumables in Nigeria which according to them , required very urgent action by the federal government .

Senator Karimi in his lead presentation on the motion said noted that in the last few months, the price of goods and household consumables have been on an abysmal rise in the country, leading to a high rate of inflation, weakened buying power, and general worsening of living conditions of vast majority of Nigerians.

He quoted the latest data of National Bureau of Statistics which shows that food inflation in the country skyrocketed to 40.66 percent on a year-on-year basis, a significant increase from the 24.82 percent recorded in May 2023 to buttress his point .

He lamented further that the current market price of food items such as beans, maize, rice paddy, yam, tomatoes, and onions which initially rose by about 40% after the removal of petroleum Subsidy has now increased to over 100% to 300% without any attributable reason for the increase in prices.

According to him, although insecurity in food-producing regions, bad roads, increase in the cost of transportation attributable to the removal of fuel subsidy and depreciation of the value of Naira, are possible factors that have contributed to the increase in price of Food items, Household Commodities, and Consumables; but the percentage of increase in cost of transportation and some under factors listed above, is significantly less than the percentage increase in the current prices of goods all over the country.

He specifically stated that the greater percentage of the increase in prices of food items and consumables in the Country is largely due to the zest of the merchants, traders, and retailers to make supernormal profits whilst they excuse the hike in price on factors like the (depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar, increase in price of Petroleum Products due to Fuel price increase and insecurity in farming Regions), thereby heaping all the blame on the Federal Government

” There is a general attitude of “Get Rich Quickly” or “Get Rich By All Means” 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 Gouging to maximize profits”, he said .

In his contribution to the notion , Senator Ahmad Lawan ( APC Yobe North ) , said the tolerance and endurance of Nigerians on the food crisis should not be taken for granted by government at all levels .

” The Senate must engage the Executive immediately on this worrisome issue of food crisis because we cannot take people for granted for too long. People have come almost to the end of their patience.

“it is time that we take every possible action together with government to ensure that food flow in our country as silos are empty .

” The 1,200 bags of fertilizers ( 2 trucks ) , government wants to give each of the Senators for distribution to constituents , should be done fast as further delay , we render the intervention , useless “, he said.

In his own contribution , the Chairman , Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food Security , Senator Saliu Mustapha ( APC Kwara Central ) , informed the Senate that the Federal Government is already sending 60 trucks of fertilizers to each State of the federation , two trucks to each of the 109 Senatorial Districts and one truck to each of the 360 federal constituencies .

The President of the Senate , Godswill Akpabio in his remarks , said the food crisis facing the nation today , was a calamity foretold through insurgency, banditry and kidnapping , with attendant abandonment of farming by farmers .

” The present government inherited the problem and is tackling it headlong with appropriate actions , the latest of which is the plan to waive tariffs on all imported food items ‘, he said .